Contemplating today's Gospel
Today's Gospel + homily (in 300 words)
»But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses before the people. We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, ‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you’».
«Ask of me and I will give you the nations for an inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall rule them with an iron rod; you shall shatter them like an earthen dish».
And now, o kings, give heed; take warning, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him; with trembling rejoice.
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
Fr. Josep Mª MANRESA Lamarca (Valldoreix, Barcelona, Spain)Today, on this 4th Friday of Easter, Jesus invites us to stay calm. Serenity and joy flow smoothly like a river of peace from His resurrected Heart towards ours, dazed and restless, so often shaken by an activity as hectic as it is futile.
Ours are times of agitation, restlessness and stress. Times where the father of lies has infected man's intelligence by making him call what is evil good and what is good evil, to put light for darkness and darkness for light, to plant in his soul a burning doubt and skepticism that kills the slightest trace of hope in a horizon of plenitude which the world with its flattery does not know, nor can it give.
The fruits of this devilish enterprise are evident. Once the “nonsense” and the loss of transcendence prevail among so many men and women, they find that not only have they forgotten their way, but they have also lost it, because previously they forgot the Way. Wars, all kinds of violence, unreasonable hostility and selfishness before life (birth-control, abortion, euthanasia...), broken families, aimless youth, and so on and so forth, constitute the great lie over which the sad scaffolding of the so-called society of “progress” leans.
In the middle of it all, Jesus, the Prince of Peace, repeats to all men of good will, with his infinite gentleness: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.” (Jn 14:1). To the right of the Father, He cherishes, as a hopeful dream of his mercy, the moment when He shall have us by His side “so that where I am you also may be” (Jn 14:3). We cannot argue as Thomas did. We already know where the way is. We do know, by sheer grace, the path leading to the Father, in whose house there are many rooms. A place in Heaven is prepared for us that will remain forever empty if we do not occupy it. Let us, therefore, get closer, without any fear and with unlimited trust, to Him who is the only Way, the undeniable Truth and the fullness of Life.
Thoughts on Today's Gospel
“If you love Him, follow Him. Do you ask by what way?: ‘I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life’. Remaining with the Father, the truth and life; putting on flesh, He became the way” (Saint Augustine)
“The “place” that Jesus goes to prepare is in ‘the house of the Father’; there the disciple will be able to be with the Master for all eternity and share in his joy. Yet there is only one path that leads there: Christ” (Saint John Paul II)
“Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is ‘the way, and the truth, and the life’ (Jn 14:6) Faith bears its fruit in love: it means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father (...)” (Catechism Of The Catholic Church, Nº 2614)
