30th of April

Gospel text

(Jn 14,1-6): 

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The Application

One of the favorite funeral texts, full of hope with the certainty, if we accept Jesus as our way, the truth and the life. "'Don't be upset', He assures us. The turmoil of everyday life will give way to hope, for we have divine assurance. Jesus shows us not only the life after death, but also his accompaniment until he arrives. He will be there, always with us.

How can Jesus be our way? Through his death and resurrection he has shown us a way of life, a way that leads us to his father. His appearances after his resurrection confirm all that he taught us throughout his life. This is the truth that is found in Jesus, visible through the eyes of faith, and in this truth is life, a new birth by the Holy Spirit. This birth in Jesus Christ destroys all that was old in us, a man of sin, and brings forth a new man, a man worthy of grace, a beloved man who walks towards the holiness that God desires.

Action of the day: Live in hope.

«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 Friday 4th 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 on.

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 cherish, 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 fright and with unlimited trust, to Him who is the only Way, the inalienable Truth and the fullness of Life.