Year A Easter V John 14:1-14

Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”

Today’s Gospel reading, comes from what are called the “Farewell Discourses”, which for the disciples who heard them had to have been very upsetting. The reading opens with Jesus attempting to reassure His disciples. After washing their feet and eating with them, Jesus has foretold His betrayal by Judas and His betrayal by the loyal Peter. He has commanded His disciples to love each other as He has loved them, and now He predicts His own departure. The twelve have followed Jesus faithfully and depended on His love and leadership – and He now He tells them He’s leaving them. It must have been one of those situations where each person there felt the bottom fall out, that empty feeling in the pit of the stomach, a terrible sense of dread and uncertainty.

We know what this feels like. For us it may have happened when a tragedy occurred, when a loved one died, but we all have had that awful sinking feeling. That punch in the gut comes when something we have trusted in is ripped away, and suddenly all that is left is emptiness and the fear that comes with it.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

Jesus knows what His disciples are feeling, and His first words in today’s reading address that sense of panic. “Trust God,” He tells them, “and trust me.” But as He attempts to comfort and reassure the twelve, what He tells them only confuses them further. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”

Jesus is speaking to men who are filled with anxiety, who have suddenly found themselves standing on shaky ground. Thomas hears what Jesus says and in an attempt to calm his fears does what we would probably do. He takes Jesus’ words literally, envisioning a place on earth, and points out that the twelve have no idea where Jesus is going. Phillip is also confused and shaken, but he wants more than a geographical location, and he asks Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” And Jesus responds, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

It is an incredible statement, for in these words Jesus makes it clear that He and the Father are One. And He repeats it, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me”. This is a profound moment, the moment the disciples must become more than followers, for this is the moment when Jesus asks them to become people of faith, people of trust. This is the moment Jesus asks them to become holy.

What does it mean to be holy? One definition of the word is “set aside”. On the cabinet that holds the altar hangings there is small sign that identifies the contents as “sagrado”, they are set aside for a special use in the service of God. We are called to be holy, and one meaning of that call is that we be set aside for God's use. We do not choose to have been called to this, but rather, Jesus Himself has chosen us.

At first, being holy sounds appealing. We speak with respect of good and holy people, we look up to them. However, being “set aside” sounds a lot less attractive. Does this mean we will be different from other people, that we won’t comfortably fit into society? The answer is, yes! As Jesus’ followers, everything about us should be different from the societal norm – not our clothes or appearance, but everything inside us. We might make some people uncomfortable, but the real discomfort should be ours, a knowledge that we are set against the world, our feet set on the path of righteousness.

At first, being called to be holy might well cause us anxiety, because it is not reasonable to want to be set aside and to live a life that contradicts societal norms. It would be quite understandable for us to have that sinking feeling the disciples felt as Jesus told them what was coming. Like Thomas, we like concrete, bricks and mortar explanations, and if we can’t have those, then like Phillip we want to see the proof that everything Jesus has taught us and called us to do is valid. And Jesus answers His disciples and us with those two words – “Believe me! - or, to put it another way, “Trust me!”

But trusting Jesus isn’t easy. How are we to accomplish it? Sometimes the best way to learn to trust our Lord is to begin on the path of holiness, and as we go, to ask Jesus to help us, help us move forward, help us trust Him. He will hear our prayer and help us. And as we pray, we must initiate the hard work of changing into the people God created us to be.

To become holy people we need to first become ourselves. We are not called to be anyone else, or to be like anyone else. Trying to copy someone else’s holiness will not work for us. We have to begin by discovering who we are. The saying “What would Jesus do?” has helped many people make loving decisions, but more important even that that question is, “What should I do. What does Our Lord want from me?” Again, to answer this question, we need to ask Jesus for help and to be open to His response.

As we struggle toward holiness there are simple things we can remember. Holiness consists of doing God’s will with a smile. When something unpleasant is asked of us, finding the smile within will lighten the work and shed a new light on the task. And we need not do great works, because we aren’t called to impress the world or God, we are simply called to be holy, to be faithful. Thus, the smallest thing we do with love is enough. God isn’t looking at the size of the work, He is looking at the love we put into it.

Is there a way to know when our faith is growing stronger, when we are advancing on the road to holiness? In a way, there is!

As you know, my husband is legally blind. What that term means, “legally” blind, is that he has vision, but it cannot be corrected beyond 20/200, i.e., what we can see clearly 200 hundred feet away, he can barely make out when he is 20 feet away. JC was not born legally blind, but became so in adulthood. A world that was once visually accessible to him became fuzzy and unclear, and though he had to make many adjustments, like giving up driving, he learned to cope. He learned to navigate with a sort of inner vision that grew the more he relied on it. It is a part of him that grew as he could see less of the world around him.

JC’s blindness is the result of a retinal problem which cannot be corrected. However, he also has a corneal condition for which one very skilled optometrist was able to make an excellent scleral lens, a contact lens that fits over the pupil and partially over the white of the eye. In the past year or so, the world has come back into focus, not as it was before the problem existed, but nonetheless clearer. One day, I caught him grinning as I drove us out to get groceries. When I asked him what was so amusing, he said “Everything is so sharp and clear”. The ordeal he has experienced has given him a new inner vision, and a whole new appreciation for and vision of the world he can see.

Growing in faith is a lot like this. As we consciously turn our attention away from all things worldly, as we are called to do, our faith deepens, and then, as we become holier people, we look at the objective world and see it in a transformed way. With a deeper inner vision, we begin to see life’s depth and dimension. Later on, no matter what happens, that vision cannot be taken away. It is like crossing over a threshold, and we know we have stepped over it because everything is different. That difference, which we carry in our hearts, becomes part of who we are, and how we see.

This is our calling, to live in the world, but not to see the world with worldly vision. Have we been following Jesus all our lives without recognizing Him? We need to seek Him in each other. Have we spent our energy on doing His will, or on following our own? He has called us to love one another, to do the works that He has done, and to do greater works than His. This cannot be accomplished through an act of our will, but only through trusting Jesus and letting Him act through us.

As the tender flowers eagerly unfold them, to the sunlight calmly hold them, so let me quietly in thy rays imbue me; let thy light shine through me.

Our Lord is “safe as houses”, a sure and certain refuge, a place of strength and love. Our times are in His hands – but only if we place ourselves there, trusting in Him, allowing His will to guide us into becoming holy people. There are no worldly rewards for being holy, but when our time on earth is over and our work is done, He, Himself, has promised us, “I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

Let us pray:

Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us all that we possess; help us always to remember that if it is not You who builds the house, it cannot stand, and that we are but stones, set upon the cornerstone of your Son, and mortared together with Your great Love, and thus we are safe, for that which is built by Love endures, and those who rest upon your Son are saved, through his mercy’s sake. Amen