As we move\ninto the fifth week of Easter, the Church invites us, over the next two weeks,\nto reflect on what is commonly known as Jesus’ farewell discourse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lord has\njust washed the disciples’ feet and now proceeds to speak to them about His\ngoing away. He tells them that where He is going, they cannot follow now but\nwill do so later (Jn 13:36). Indeed, Jesus is going away to prepare a dwelling\nplace for them in His Father’s house! He will then come back and take them to\nHimself, so that “where I am you may be also” (Jn 14:3). As you and I\nknow, this is the whole point of the Incarnation in the first place, that\nhumanity may come to be in intimate communion with God: that where God is, we\nmay also be, and this, forever. Now, on the occasion in which Jesus speaks\nthese words to the disciples, it is clear that He is talking about His imminent\npassion, death, and resurrection. Jesus is going away because He is going to\nthe Cross to die. Moreover, it is precisely through His death and resurrection\nthat He prepares a dwelling place for each of us. In other words, He goes away\nto undergo His Passion, without which we cannot enter into communion with God.\nHowever, once He has risen at Easter and appeared to the disciples, what is\nthere to wait for? Is He still preparing our rooms? What are we to do while we\nwait? On the one hand, maybe we should take a hint from Thomas and not ask\nimpertinent questions. But, on the other hand, we should be thankful to Thomas\nfor asking because Jesus’ reply reveals the answers. To Thomas’s argument that\nthey do not know the way, Jesus replies, “I am the way, the truth and the\nlife, no one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn. 14:6). If the\nFather is the end, the objective, the eternal dwelling place for which our\nhearts were made, the only way to Him is Jesus. Implicit in Jesus’ reply is the\nrecurrent gospel command: “Follow me!” Thus, to the query about what\nwe are to do as we await His return, the Lord answers: “I’m the way,\nfollow me, walk in my footsteps, imitate me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover,\nbecause Jesus is the truth, we are not deceived, and therefore, as we imitate and\nwalk with Him, we come to know the Father and to experience already what we are\nwalking towards. Like in any other endeavour in life, the result of following\nJesus is already experienced in its doing. For instance, during his long days\nof walking under sun and rain, does the pilgrim not experience in anticipation\nthe joy of the arrival? Or the student experience in anticipation of the\naccomplishment of his graduation, during his long nights of study? It is no\ndifferent for us as we walk in Jesus’ footsteps: as we do so, we are already\ngiven to experience a foretaste of the fullness of truth and life towards which\nwe are walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore,\nthere is nothing to wait for. By His death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus\nmade all the preparations for us to enter the communion with God for which we\nwere created. Admittedly, this is the future end toward which we presently\nwalk. Yet, in our walking, we already experience it because when we draw close\nto Jesus, who is “the way, the truth and the life”, we commune with\nthe Father and the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lastly, St.\nPeter tells us in the second reading that as we walk with Jesus and by the\ngrace of the Spirit strive to imitate Him, we ourselves are built into living\nstones, into spiritual houses (1 Pt 2:5). Thus, in this pilgrimage of life, we\nare not only given to experience the joy of that eternal dwelling place that we\nfind in Jesus, but as we become more configured to Him, we ourselves are also\nbuilt into spiritual dwelling places where other may come to meet the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Santiago Torres<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fot. Carlos\/Unsplash.com <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 5th Sunday of Easter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n