GOSPEL REFLECTION, FRIDAY, 4TH WEEK OF EASTER, 1 MAY 2026

John 14:1-6.  At the Last Supper Jesus said farewell to his disciples.  John  retells that farewell over three chapters, so we know that we must pay attention.  With Judas’ departure to betray Jesus, the life that the disciples had with Jesus was about to become chaos and truly dangerous.  Jesus was now about to die, and the lives of the disciples are at risk.  Jesus had forewarned the disciples several times that he was to die, but the disciples did not believe him – or perhaps could not yet believe him.  Jesus had told them at the Last Supper that he was about to be betrayed (13:33).  His death had to happen for them to be confronted with his reality, with the revelation of who Jesus really was.  Despite Jesus’ predictions of his death, the disciples were ill-prepared for what was about to happen and soon they would be huddled together in hiding, trembling with fear.

This is the context which gives extraordinary pathos to the words of today’s gospel.  “do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many dwelling places ….” (14:1-2).  ‘Have trust in God and have trust in me,’ you will be well cared for, there is a place for all of you!  Thomas (later we know him as the doubter) said in anxiety, ‘we don’t know where you are going or how to get there!’  Jesus replied with one of the remarkable “IAM” sayings – the Greek words meaning “I AM I AM the way, the truth, and the life.  No one  comes to the Father except through me.  If you know me, you know also the Father.  From now on you do know him and  have seen him!”

 Jesus is the revelation of the Father; that is his mission among us – that we may know the Father.  Everything in his life points to the Father, yet he can only be ‘seen’ and ‘known’ through the eyes of trusting faith.  That is our life task – to know Jesus more intimately and so to know the Father, because he and the Father are one – even more importantly, that is the work of God in us by his grace.