Gospel (Jn 14:1-6)
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, 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.”
Commentary
“Let not your heart be troubled.” When Jesus spoke these words to the apostles shortly before his arrest, he knew exactly what the coming hours and days would bring, and the uncertainty they would mean for his disciples. Jesus asked the apostles to have faith in Him, and through the inspired text He also asks us for this deep trust. Trust in our Lord is the true remedy for worry and anxiety.
Jesus continues: “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” With a clear reference to Heaven, He adds words that should encourage us: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Each of us has a place waiting for us. Isn’t this a reassuring thought, that our place is already there, if we just put our trust in Him and follow the way He shows us?
Jesus tells us: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” On the path of life, there are many detours and side streets. But we shouldn’t get confused or lose our way, because Jesus himself is the true path that leads to the Father, and to eternal life.
Since Jesus himself is the way, we will reach the destination as long as we stay on this path and keep going, which means truly identifying ourselves with our Lord’s teachings and way of life, the example He gave for his followers. Indeed, the first Christians were known as “followers of the Way” (cf. Acts 9:2; 19:23; 24:14 and 22).
As Saint Thomas Aquinas writes: “If you are seeking the way you should go, welcome Christ in you, because he is the way. It is better to walk on the path, even if limping, than to walk quickly off the path. For the person who limps along the path, even if making little progress, is coming closer to the goal” (Saint Thomas, Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John, ch. 14, lec. 2). Every time we try to imitate our Lord, we are taking his life as our path.
Moreover, Jesus goes to the Father in order to send us the Holy Spirit, who remains with us and guides us on the way, until the day when we reach where He has gone, and join Him in the Father’s house.