05-16-2014, 06:08 PM
THE GOOD NEWS AS THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S PROMISE OF SHARING HIS LIFE THROUGH JESUS WHO IS THE WAY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 13:26-33; JN 14:1-6
http://www.universalis.com/20140516mass.htm
The gospel text of today has often been used for funeral mass and as a result quoted out of context to suit the occasion. Of course, it does indeed give the consolation needed for the living that their departed loved ones are in the hands of God and dwelling in the Father’s house. Such a consolation is made vivid by the imagery of Jesus going to heaven, preparing a place for us presumably a place where the Father lives. Furthermore, in order that we might not feel that heaven is overcrowded and so be denied entry, we are assured that “there are many rooms” in the Father’s house. Such an interpretation although pastorally useful however lacks the full meaning intended by Jesus as it not only gives a false understanding of the nature of heaven but it postpones the New Life offered to us in His resurrection till the last day.
Indeed, Jesus warned His disciples about identifying happiness and life with what is only physical and earthly. In the prospect that Jesus would be leaving them physically soon, the disciples naturally were sad and in distress. Such attachment to this earth and even His physical presence certainly would not help them to find real happiness in life. Jesus wanted to liberate them for a life that is beyond any attachment to what is transient. It was therefore important for Jesus to help the disciples to understand the real nature of death and life in perspective.
Hence, Jesus assured them that His going was for their sake. He said, “I am now going to prepare a place for place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me so that where I am you may be too.” In this statement, Jesus was certainly not transferring the present earthly mode of life to a futuristic mode of heaven. It would certainly not be a great consolation to them since it would be tantamount to telling them that He was going to die and be with God; and that they will also die with Him soon and join Him in heaven. This explains why Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” Consequently, it is necessary for us to clarify with Thomas exactly the place where Jesus was going and where He intends to take us with him.
Firstly, the place that Jesus is preparing for us apparently is the Father’s house. Of course, we know that the Father has no house, no dwelling place except the whole universe. As the psalmist tells us, the earth is His footstool. So when Jesus spoke about His Father’s house, He was actually referring to the indwelling presence of God in us. In fact, in the later part of the discourse, Jesus explicates this further by saying that for those who love Him and keep His word, He and His Father will come to make their home in us. To be in the Father’s house is to live in His love and to share in His life. This is what heaven really is all about. This is the fulfillment of the Promised Land that was anticipated in the Israelites’ possession of the Canaan. Jesus therefore was simply going back to where He truly belongs, to the Father. To be with the Father is what heaven is all about.
For this reason, the Father’s house has many rooms because the love of God knows no limits and God has a place for all of us in His heart. No one is exempted or excluded from God’s love. This Promised Land is now, as St Paul taught, given to all of us. Everyone, irrespective of whether he/she is Jew or Gentile, has a place in the Promised Land. That is why it is Good News!
If this place is the heart of God, then we must ask a further question already preempted by Thomas, “How can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” In saying this, it means that to go to the Father, which is to share in the life of God, there is no other way except that of Jesus. Why is Jesus the Way to the Father and not someone else?
In the first place, Jesus is the expression of the being of the Father. By claiming Himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life, He is saying that in Him, we see the Truth and the Life of God. He is the Word of God in person and the life-giver as a consequence of being raised by the Father. His very person, identity, His whole life manifests the love and presence of God His Father. This is further clarified and substantiated in the first reading when St Paul says that the promise of God to us is fulfilled when He raised Jesus from the dead. In the resurrection, God vindicated Jesus as His authentic messenger.
But more than that, St Paul, in citing Psalm one and applying to Jesus in a functional and ontological sense, “You are my son: today I have become your Father,” or as the responsorial psalm has it, “You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day”, meant that in raising Jesus from the dead, the Father has identified His being with Jesus. Thus it is only appropriate that Jesus is called the Son. As Son, He is begotten by the Father and therefore also the extension of the Father. By His total obedience to the divine plan of the Father, as Paul tells us in the first reading, Jesus is truly one with the Father. Thus, if Jesus is the Truth and the Life, it is because He is identical with the Father in His divinity and being. Through Jesus’ humanity then, we are assured of God’s love and care.
However, it is not sufficient to say that Jesus as the Truth and the Life is the expression of the Father, it is also important to recognize the corollary of such a claim, which is that He is the Way to the Father as well. Hence, in order to arrive at the Father’s house to share in His life and love, then we must know the way of Jesus. What is this way? It is none other than the way of the Paschal mystery, the way of passion, death and resurrection. So when Jesus asserts Himself to be the Way, He is saying that if we want to enter the Father’s house and experience His Love and Life, then we must like Him go through the passion and death as well. That this is the intended meaning is once again confirmed in today’s first reading when St Paul reviewed the history of salvation and especially the death and resurrection of Jesus to show how God’s plan and promise to us was being fulfilled. Furthermore that this gospel passage is situated at the Farewell Meal when His death was imminent suggests the close connection between the paschal mystery and Jesus as the Way to Life.
But knowing the place and way is still insufficient to bring us to the Father’s house. For by our own strength we cannot live the way even though we might know the way. Realizing our helplessness, Jesus in the same breath promises us that He would return to take us with Him so that we can be where He is, with the Father. In saying this, He is anticipating His Ascension and the Pentecost when He will come again in a new way in the Spirit thereby empowering us to walk that same way as He did by living out the spirit of the paschal mystery.
Hence unless we are utterly convinced that there is no other way to life and truth except the way of Jesus, the way of the paschal mystery, we would not take the call to die to self seriously. Without this deep desire to imitate Jesus in His death and be crucified with Him on the cross in our daily life, we can never find life.
But more than simply believing the paschal mystery of Jesus as the Way, we must also reflect on those occasions when we found life and truth; freedom and liberation as a consequence of our death to self. Only those moments of resurrection experiences and the experience of the presence of God in our moments of victory over our struggles can reinforce our faith in Jesus as the Way and at the same time have a foretaste of that heavenly life with God in Christ.
Truly, only when we are convinced of Jesus as the Way both in theory and in fact, can we share in the life of God more intensely, and thus configure ourselves more closely to Jesus our Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. As a result, just as Jesus is the Son of the Father and begotten by Him, we also can say with the same conviction that we are the adopted sons of the Father because we also share in His life, having been begotten in and through Him in baptism. In this way, we are truly seen as Shepherds of life because people can see us as the place where heaven is already present in some ways.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 13:26-33; JN 14:1-6
http://www.universalis.com/20140516mass.htm
The gospel text of today has often been used for funeral mass and as a result quoted out of context to suit the occasion. Of course, it does indeed give the consolation needed for the living that their departed loved ones are in the hands of God and dwelling in the Father’s house. Such a consolation is made vivid by the imagery of Jesus going to heaven, preparing a place for us presumably a place where the Father lives. Furthermore, in order that we might not feel that heaven is overcrowded and so be denied entry, we are assured that “there are many rooms” in the Father’s house. Such an interpretation although pastorally useful however lacks the full meaning intended by Jesus as it not only gives a false understanding of the nature of heaven but it postpones the New Life offered to us in His resurrection till the last day.
Indeed, Jesus warned His disciples about identifying happiness and life with what is only physical and earthly. In the prospect that Jesus would be leaving them physically soon, the disciples naturally were sad and in distress. Such attachment to this earth and even His physical presence certainly would not help them to find real happiness in life. Jesus wanted to liberate them for a life that is beyond any attachment to what is transient. It was therefore important for Jesus to help the disciples to understand the real nature of death and life in perspective.
Hence, Jesus assured them that His going was for their sake. He said, “I am now going to prepare a place for place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me so that where I am you may be too.” In this statement, Jesus was certainly not transferring the present earthly mode of life to a futuristic mode of heaven. It would certainly not be a great consolation to them since it would be tantamount to telling them that He was going to die and be with God; and that they will also die with Him soon and join Him in heaven. This explains why Thomas said, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.” Consequently, it is necessary for us to clarify with Thomas exactly the place where Jesus was going and where He intends to take us with him.
Firstly, the place that Jesus is preparing for us apparently is the Father’s house. Of course, we know that the Father has no house, no dwelling place except the whole universe. As the psalmist tells us, the earth is His footstool. So when Jesus spoke about His Father’s house, He was actually referring to the indwelling presence of God in us. In fact, in the later part of the discourse, Jesus explicates this further by saying that for those who love Him and keep His word, He and His Father will come to make their home in us. To be in the Father’s house is to live in His love and to share in His life. This is what heaven really is all about. This is the fulfillment of the Promised Land that was anticipated in the Israelites’ possession of the Canaan. Jesus therefore was simply going back to where He truly belongs, to the Father. To be with the Father is what heaven is all about.
For this reason, the Father’s house has many rooms because the love of God knows no limits and God has a place for all of us in His heart. No one is exempted or excluded from God’s love. This Promised Land is now, as St Paul taught, given to all of us. Everyone, irrespective of whether he/she is Jew or Gentile, has a place in the Promised Land. That is why it is Good News!
If this place is the heart of God, then we must ask a further question already preempted by Thomas, “How can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” In saying this, it means that to go to the Father, which is to share in the life of God, there is no other way except that of Jesus. Why is Jesus the Way to the Father and not someone else?
In the first place, Jesus is the expression of the being of the Father. By claiming Himself to be the Way, the Truth and the Life, He is saying that in Him, we see the Truth and the Life of God. He is the Word of God in person and the life-giver as a consequence of being raised by the Father. His very person, identity, His whole life manifests the love and presence of God His Father. This is further clarified and substantiated in the first reading when St Paul says that the promise of God to us is fulfilled when He raised Jesus from the dead. In the resurrection, God vindicated Jesus as His authentic messenger.
But more than that, St Paul, in citing Psalm one and applying to Jesus in a functional and ontological sense, “You are my son: today I have become your Father,” or as the responsorial psalm has it, “You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day”, meant that in raising Jesus from the dead, the Father has identified His being with Jesus. Thus it is only appropriate that Jesus is called the Son. As Son, He is begotten by the Father and therefore also the extension of the Father. By His total obedience to the divine plan of the Father, as Paul tells us in the first reading, Jesus is truly one with the Father. Thus, if Jesus is the Truth and the Life, it is because He is identical with the Father in His divinity and being. Through Jesus’ humanity then, we are assured of God’s love and care.
However, it is not sufficient to say that Jesus as the Truth and the Life is the expression of the Father, it is also important to recognize the corollary of such a claim, which is that He is the Way to the Father as well. Hence, in order to arrive at the Father’s house to share in His life and love, then we must know the way of Jesus. What is this way? It is none other than the way of the Paschal mystery, the way of passion, death and resurrection. So when Jesus asserts Himself to be the Way, He is saying that if we want to enter the Father’s house and experience His Love and Life, then we must like Him go through the passion and death as well. That this is the intended meaning is once again confirmed in today’s first reading when St Paul reviewed the history of salvation and especially the death and resurrection of Jesus to show how God’s plan and promise to us was being fulfilled. Furthermore that this gospel passage is situated at the Farewell Meal when His death was imminent suggests the close connection between the paschal mystery and Jesus as the Way to Life.
But knowing the place and way is still insufficient to bring us to the Father’s house. For by our own strength we cannot live the way even though we might know the way. Realizing our helplessness, Jesus in the same breath promises us that He would return to take us with Him so that we can be where He is, with the Father. In saying this, He is anticipating His Ascension and the Pentecost when He will come again in a new way in the Spirit thereby empowering us to walk that same way as He did by living out the spirit of the paschal mystery.
Hence unless we are utterly convinced that there is no other way to life and truth except the way of Jesus, the way of the paschal mystery, we would not take the call to die to self seriously. Without this deep desire to imitate Jesus in His death and be crucified with Him on the cross in our daily life, we can never find life.
But more than simply believing the paschal mystery of Jesus as the Way, we must also reflect on those occasions when we found life and truth; freedom and liberation as a consequence of our death to self. Only those moments of resurrection experiences and the experience of the presence of God in our moments of victory over our struggles can reinforce our faith in Jesus as the Way and at the same time have a foretaste of that heavenly life with God in Christ.
Truly, only when we are convinced of Jesus as the Way both in theory and in fact, can we share in the life of God more intensely, and thus configure ourselves more closely to Jesus our Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. As a result, just as Jesus is the Son of the Father and begotten by Him, we also can say with the same conviction that we are the adopted sons of the Father because we also share in His life, having been begotten in and through Him in baptism. In this way, we are truly seen as Shepherds of life because people can see us as the place where heaven is already present in some ways.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh