TEXT: The Holy Gospel According to St. John 14:1-12

When I was a small boy in Indiana, I recall the heart felt and moving story about the blessed death of my great grandmother.  My great grandmother Hamrick had made an apple pie that morning and had set it in the kitchen window of the farm house in South Carolina to cool.  Then, she went out to get the mail from the mail box that was located by the dusty road, and the Lord called her Home.  It was said by the witnesses that all she did was sit down on the ground, laying down onto her side, while raising her hand up to Heaven, saying -- "I’m going Home to be with Jesus."  Then, she quietly and calmly without anymore struggle, slipped into eternity to her reward.

Such are the stories of those blessed deaths we like to remember over and over within our souls.  They give us comfort and great consolations, when we hear of one who were ready to meet Jesus.  Jesus desires for us this kind of close relationship with him.  He calls each of us to this kind of confidence in His words.

He says,

1 "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe  in God, believe also in me.
2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
3 And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
4 And you know the way where I am going."

My great grandmother’s pages for the Gospel of St. John, 14, were stained with her tears, after she had read and prayed over these words of Jesus.

May we all know assuredly where we are going, as we foster that kind of  closeness to that Sacred Heart of Jesus as revealed to us through the eyes of St. John who lived with the Blessed Virgin Mary.  For, here, we see through the eyes of both St. John and Mary, our Mother, today.

And, like Maria, someday, we shall be taken into the Heaven of heavens to be like her, the "chaste virgin," ever to be with our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ forever and forever!  (2 Cor. 11:1-3)

What a glorious day that will be when we see Jesus face to Face!  There are no words to describe this wonderful event.  We only have the best that we can have, that is, the very words of Jesus, the Word of the Father, saying what we have just read --  "Let not your hearts be troubled; believe  in God, believe also in me. . .I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going."

To believe the Word of God is to have faith in God.  Trusting the words of God is the action that continues -- it has faith in God, because God can be trusted absolutely!

Jesus speaks.  God is speaking.  God can be trusted completely.

John and Maria record this event for us, beloved.  Therefore, it is fully trustworthy.
Thank-you, Lord for the words of Thomas in response to what Jesus has said.

5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.
7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him."

How can we know?

How can we know the way?

Jesus said for all to hear in every age and time -- "I AM THE WAY, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me."  This is the message of all the Evangelists, the Gospel writers!  Jesus said -- I AM the Way!

It is only in God, brothers and sisters.  It is only through Jesus.  Remember that Jesus is ever for you the way, the truth and the life.

Therefore, when one dies in God, in Jesus, our hearts are not to be troubled as those who have no hope, but, we are to be encouraged in the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The Holy Father can say -- "Be not afraid," because these are the words of Jesus from the Father!  We have new hope in Jesus.  Jesus has shown us the way, because he is the Way!   Truth and Life are embodied in Jesus.

Thank God for Philip, too,

8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied."
9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.

Show us the Father?

St. Augustine said, "The Father is the principle of the whole Deity."  (De Trinitate, 4, 20)
Rufinus said, "God is therefore truly the Father, inasmuch as He is Father of Truth; He does not create the Son from outside himself, but generates Him of His own substance.  That is to say, being wise, He generates Wisdom, being just, Justice, being eternal, the Eternal, being immortal, the Immortal, being invisible, the Invisible.  Because He is Light, He generates Brightness, and because He is Mind, the Word." {Rufinus: Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, 4, (5th century)}

Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied?

"He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father?’"

When Jesus spoke and acted, the Father and the Holy Spirit (yes, the Holy Trinity) acted and spoke.  Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

But, let us see the practicality of all of this grace.

12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father."

The promise is immense.

Saint Ambrose said, "God chose that man should seek salvation by faith rather than by works, lest anyone should glory in his deeds and thereby incur sin."  St. Ambrose: In Ps. 43 Enarr. 14 (4th century).

This is true.

Yet, Jesus said -- "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father."

St. Bernard clarifies this more by saying -- "You do right when you offer faith to God; you do right when you offer works.  But if you separate the two, then you do wrong.  For faith without works is dead; and lack of charity in action murders faith, just as Cain murdered Abel, so that God cannot respect your offering."  St. Bernard: Sermons: on the Canticle of Canticles, 24 (12th century)

A life that is alive in God will produce good fruit. (John 15)

God has acted in Christ Jesus, and continues to act through you and me in union with Christ as the Body of Christ, because Jesus has gone to the Father.  The Holy Spirit has come.  The Gospel of St. John, chapter 14 goes on to make this clear in this upper room discourse on the coming of the blessed Holy Spirit, Who would be poured out upon the disciples (Mary and the Apostles) on Pentecost! (Acts 1, 2).

There is good reason for this faith we have in Christ.

God keeps His Word!

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father."  Let us consider these words when we say the Rosary and think upon the Glorious Mysteries.

May God be with you.



Deus et Sanctissima.