Jn. 14:1-12
‘The gospel is the Good News that in Christ there is union and communion with God.’ In today’s gospel, we see Jesus preparing his disciples for his passion and death. The gospel of John presents Jesus’ passion and death as a passing of Jesus from this world to his Abba. Therefore, Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house. What did Jesus mean by telling them he was going to prepare a place for him? Humanity lost its Trinitarian communion due to the influence of sin. Through his sacrifice on the cross, Jesus restored this Trinitarian communion. However, when Jesus says that he would prepare the place for them and then come and take them along with him, Thomas expresses their inability to understand what Jesus was intending. Thomas says that they did not know where he was going; then how do they know the way? As an answer to Thomas, Jesus says: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ Jesus is the perfect way to go to Abba. Jesus is the eternal truth who reveals His Abba, and he leads us to the fullness of life, which is the Trinitarian communion.
Having heard this, Philip says, ‘Show us, Father, that will be enough for us.’ As an answer to Philip’s plea, Jesus explained the inseparable unity between the Father and the Son. Whatever Jesus did, his teaching, the miracles that he performed was not merely the individual act of Jesus; rather, Jesus fulfilled his Father’s will, who dwells in him. Jesus tells them that whatever you ask in Jesus name to Abba Father, he will grant it to him to glorify his son because of this inseparable separation. Later, we see that disciples went to different parts of the world after the Pentecost experience and preached the gospel.
The acts of the apostles testify that the disciples performed greater signs than Jesus. In the gospel, we see the woman with haemorrhage touch the fringe of Jesus cloth, and she is miraculously healed. In the acts, we see Peter, who denied Jesus three times, work a greater miracle than this. They brought people with all forms of ailments and kept them on the path so that Peter’s shadow might fall when he passed by, and we see all those people were healed when Peter’s shadow fell on them. In the second reading, Paul says that we are a holy people, a chosen generation, and a royal priesthood. To experience and live in communion with the Holy Trinity is a special privilege given to us. During his earthly sojourn, Jesus has shown us how to live a life of communion with the Holy Trinity. Let us trust in the promise of Jesus and pray with great faith so that we may become his effective disciples building the kingdom of God.