I’m going to the Father
1 ① “Do not be troubled; trust in God and trust in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many rooms. Otherwise I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. 3After 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. 4Yet you know the way where I am going.”
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?” 6Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me. 7If you know me, you will know the Father also; indeed you know him and you have seen him.”
8Philip asked him,“Lord, show us the Father and that is enough.” 9Jesus 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’? 10Do 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 myself. The Father who dwells in me is doing his own work. 11Believe 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.
12Truly, 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. 13Everything you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14And everything you ask in calling upon my Name, I will do.
15If you love me, you will keep my commandments; 16and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever, 17that 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.
18I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you. 19A little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live and you will also live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you.
21Whoever 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.” 22Judas – not the Iscariot – asked Jesus, “Lord, how can it be that you will show yourself clearly to us and not to the world?” 23Jesus 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. 24But 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.
25I told you all this while I was still with you. 26From 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. 27Peace 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. 28You heard me say: ‘I am going 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.
29I have told you this now before it takes place, so that when it does happen you may believe. 30It 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. 31But 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.
- Jn 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 risen and present, thourgh invisible, Christ. I was with you says Jesus (vv. 9 and 25); henceforth, 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 everybody, 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 communion with all. Now, knowing what is the goal, we should walk towards this definitive communion. I am the way, says Jesus. He became human precisely so that we might see the Father in him. He followed his way, son 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 eill discover the Lord and understand that his way is ours. Passing through the cross and death, we will achieve our own truth and arrive al life. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, and you in me (vv. 11 and 20). Christ makes us enter ll 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 in communicated. Hence we call spriritual 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 which 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 referes to the Holy Spririt whom he calls the Paraclete. This Greek word has several meanings. Here we use Helper. The Spirit helps the believers and inspires their prayer so that it may be heard (Rom 8:26). The helper (or Interpreter) will teach you (v. 26). The Spirit enables us to u nderstand and interpret 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 throughourt 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 Rom 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 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 this 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 form the Father as from the Son being, with tem, only one God.
