I’m going to the Father
1 “Do not be troubled; trust in God and trust in me.
2 In my Father’s house there are many rooms. Otherwise I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.
3 After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to me, so that where I am, you also may be.
4 Yet you know the way where I am going.”
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.
7 If you know me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know him and you have seen him.”
8 Philip asked him,“Lord, show us the Father and that is enough.”
9 Jesus said to him, “What! I have been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever sees me sees the Father; how can you say: ‘Show us the Father’?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
All that I say to you, I do not say of my self. The Father who dwells in me is doing his own work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.
12 Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in me will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I am going to the Father.
13 Everything you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 And everything you ask in calling upon my Name, I will do.
15 If you love me, you will keep my com mandments;
16 and I will ask the Fa ther and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever,
17 that Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he is with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you.
19 A little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live and you will also live.
20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.
21 Whoever keeps my commandments is the one who loves me. If he loves me, he will also be loved by my Father; I too shall love him and show myself clearly to him.”
22 Judas – not the Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him; and we will come to him and make a room in his home.
24 But if anyone does not love me, he will not keep my words, and these words that you hear are not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
25 I told you all this while I was still with you.
26 From now on the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have told you.
27 Peace be with you; I give you my peace. Not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid.
28 You heard me say: ‘I am go ing away, but I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
29 I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe.
30 It is very little what I may still tell you, for the prince of this world is at hand, although there is nothing in me that he can claim.
31 But see, the world must know that I love the Father and that I do what the Father has taught me to do. Come now, let us go.
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments John, Chapter 14
• 14.1 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE
After the washing of the feet, John continues with Jesus’ three farewell discourses to his apostles. Those who had lived intimately with him for several months, would soon need to discover another way of living with the ri sen and present, though invisible, Christ. “I was with you,” says Jesus (vv. 9 and 25); hence forth, “I will be in you.” The first of these discourses is found in chapter 14.
Jesus’ ascension to the Father was not just an individual achievement, but opened for all of us a way to our House, not situated high above us, but in God. There are many mansions (v. 2), that means that there is also a place for us: not just one mansion for ev erybody, but a place for each one, because Heaven is not like a performance which is the same for everyone in the audience. God’s radiance will draw from each one the resonance only he can bring forth. Each one will be in his own mansion, being in com munion with all.
Now, knowing what is the goal, we should walk towards this definitive com munion. “I am the way,” says Jesus. He became human precisely so that we might see the Father in him. He followed his way, so disconcerting for us, so that, meditating on his actions, we would progress towards the truth. Although in the beginning we may not understand him well, with time, we will discover the Lord and understand that his way is ours. Passing through the cross and death, we will achieve our own truth and arrive at life.
I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and you in me (vv. 11 and 20). Christ makes us enter into the divine family. Thus, we no longer speak of approaching God as if he were far from us. We no longer feel as if God were a single person in front of us. We enter “into” the mysterious life of the divine Persons who share every thing and who are the one and only God. Material things cannot penetrate each other; but in the world of the spirit such is possible. Christ is in the Father and the Father in him. They make their home within us (v. 23).
In the introduction to the Gospel, John explained that all of God’s actions in the world should be understood in the light of the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son. Now he adds that the presence of God in us is due to another person, the Holy Spirit. Neither the Father alone, whom no one has seen, nor the Son, who made himself known, can enter into communion with people. They can, however, do so by means of the Spirit, whom we should call: God who is communicated. Hence we call spiritual life everything that refers to our relationship with God.
The spiritual life includes three elements:
– keeping the words of Jesus: meditating on them, putting them into practice and letting them take root in our soul.
– then, instructed by the Spirit regarding what we should ask in Jesus’ name, let us ask, with all confidence, for those things that he himself desires.
– finally, let us do the same things he did. He did not multiply good works, but completed that which his Father asked him to do, even when his obedience would seem to us a vain sacrifice.
I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper (v. 16). Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit whom he calls the Paraclete. This Greek word has several meanings. Here we use Helper. The Spirit helps the believers and inspires their pray er so that it may be heard (Rom 8:26).
The Helper (or Interpreter) will teach you (v. 26). The Spirit enables us to understand and in terpret Jesus’ words throughout all time.
Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world? (v. 22). Judas thought that Jesus meant he would summon them for secret meetings, but Jesus really meant he would make himself known to them through interior teaching and by letting them experience peace.
For the Father is greater than I (v. 28). This does not contradict what John teaches throughout the whole Gospel about Jesus’ divinity. This is to be read together with 5:18; 10:30; 16:15, if we want to know something of the mystery of Christ, “true God,” as spoken of in Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; and 1 John 5:20.
As early as the fourth century Saint Hilary, the great bishop and defender of the faith, wrote: “The Father is greater because of being the one who gives. As he gives the Son all that he himself is, yet the Son is not inferior to the Father.”
Moreover, it is characteristic of the Son to deny himself so that he may give glory to the Father, until the Father gives him back “the Glory he had before” as said in 17:5 and 6:62. Because of this the apostles, who have seen him as a man among humans in the time of his humiliation, should now rejoice.
The Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name (v. 26). Compare with 15:26. The Holy Spirit proceeds as much from the Father as from the Son being, with them, only one God.