"Don't let your hearts be troubled," Jesus continued. "Trust God--and trust me, too! (Have faith in God and have faith in me)" There is plenty of room to live (there are many places of rest) in my father's house. If that wasn't the case, I'd have told you, wouldn't I? I'm going to get a place ready for you! And if I do go and get a place ready for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, so that you can be there, where I am (so that where I am you might be also). And as to where I'm going--you know the way!"
"Actually, Master," said Thomas to him, "we don't know where you're going, so how can (do) we know the way?"
"I am the way," replied Jesus, "and the truth and the life! Nobody comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known (recognized) my father. From now on you do know him! You have seen him."
N.T. Wright, The Kingdom New Testament, 2011.
Faith is not alienation but a journey of truth (Pope Francis, Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday. The morning homilies from St. Martha's chapel. 2015)
The journey of faith is not alienation, but to prepare the heart to see the marvelous face of God.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me" (Jn 14:1). In a moment of farewell, these are wonderful words of Jesus from his heart to his disciples. He knows that his disciples are sad, for things are not going to be well. He speaks to them like a friend with the attitude of a pastor. The music of these words of Jesus is the attitude of the pastor, like the shepherd with his lambs. And he begins to talk about heaven, about our definitive homeland.
"Have faith also in me. I'm always faithful" (Jn 14:1b). With the figure of the engineer, of the architect he tells them what he is going to do: "I am going to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places" (Jn 14:2). And Jesus goes to prepare a place for us.
What is that place like? What does it mean "to prepare a place"? To rent a room up there? "Preparing a place" means preparing our possibility of enjoyment, the possibility--our possibility--of seeing, of feeling, of grasping the beauty of what awaits us, of that homeland toward which we are walking.
The whole Christian life is a work of Jesus, of the Holy Spirit to prepare a place for us, to prepare our eyes to be able to see... "But Father, I see just fine! I don't need glasses!" That's another kind of vision. Think about those who have cataracts and have to get an operation for cataracts; they see, but after the operation what do they say? "I never thought I could see like this, without glasses, so clearly!"
Our eyes, the eyes of our soul need, they have to be prepared to look at that marvelous face of Jesus. To prepare the hearing to be able to hear beautiful things, beautiful words. And in the first place to prepare the heart: to prepare the heart to love, to love more.
In the journey of life the Lord prepares our hearts with trials, with consolations, with tribulations, with good things.
The whole journey of life is a journey of preparation. Sometimes the Lord must make this in haste, as he did with the good thief, he had only a few minutes to prepare him, and he did it. But ordinarily we have a lifetime to allow our hearts, our hearing, our sight to be prepared to arrive at this homeland, right? Because this is our homeland. "But, Father, I went to a philosopher and he told me that all of these thought are alienation, that we are alienated, that life is this, the concrete, and nobody knows what is on the other side..." Some people think that way. But Jesus tells us that it's not true, and he tells us "Have faith also in me" (Jn 14:1b). What I am telling you is the truth. I'm not tricking you, I'm not fooling you.
Preparing ourselves for heaven means starting to hail it from a long way away. This is not alienation; this is the truth, this is allowing Jesus to prepare our hearts, our eyes for that great beauty. This is the way of beauty and the way of the return to the homeland. Let's pray that the Lord may give us this strong courage, the courage and also the humility to allow the Lord to prepare the place, the definitive place, in our hearts, in our eyes, and in our hearing.
April 26, 2013. Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6.
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