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 when 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 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, but by me.”

Commentary

After celebrating yesterday the feast dedicated to all those who now enjoy God’s presence in Heaven, the Church invites us today to pray in a special way for the deceased.

The selected Gospel includes a small part of Jesus’ dialogue with his apostles during the Last Supper. After a question from Thomas, he reveals to them that the Father can be reached only through Him.

We can imagine the apostles’ concern and uncertainty regarding the events they are going through. First the previous days’ preparation for the supper with specific instructions about the place of the celebration; then the washing of their feet and the universal commandment to love and serve one another as Jesus had done during his three years with them. The Master reveals himself in an especially solemn and moving way. Surely they sensed that something great was about to happen, perhaps that “something” they had not yet fully understood since they joyfully began to follow him.

It is only natural that, when faced with death, anxiety and uncertainty prevail. And even fear. It is the final moment, the one for which we have always been preparing and that we know will come to all of us one day. In this context, Jesus asks us to trust him, to believe in him, since he will not abandon us at that moment and he will take us to his heavenly abode. That is why Jesus is the Way, because it is not we who know how to reach heaven. It is He who leads us.

Jesus is the Truth because in that solemn moment of death, all the truths in life dissolve before the only Truth of the love of a God who gives his life for his children and who only waits for us to welcome him. Finally, Jesus is also the Life, because he shares from all eternity in the divine life together with his Father. And through his resurrection, he leaves all men and women unshakable testimony to this life.