Fifth Sunday of Easter
“I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture”
Overview
Fifth Sunday of Easter
It is all very well Jesus telling us (as he does in John 14:1-10) not to be troubled or afraid but our lives are full of doubt and uncertainty and we all struggle knowing which way to go. So we can sympathise with Philip who longs for certainty, for something concrete, when he begs Jesus to just “show us the father”.
Jesus is exasperated: “have I been with you all this time and still you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the father.” Do you still not get it? No! we don’t. We look for something outside of ourselves when all the time God is revealing Godself within us and within each other.
God, faith, the meaning of life, all of this can only be found by living it. Jesus goes on: “if you do not believe [because of me] then believe me because of the works themselves”. Are our actions and choices, our communities and relationships, bearing fruit? Where can we see human flourishing? What is leading to justice, peace, healing and love? For wherever we see these things there we will find God.
Jesus asks us not to seek certainty but instead to trust, to trust that God chose us and through us will do “greater works than these”. When our hearts our troubled and our way is not clear, let us look to whatever is true, honourable, just and pure … and the God of peace will be with us.
GOSPEL
John 14:1-10
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. 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, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place 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. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
