From: John 14:1-6

Jesus Reveals the Father

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [1] “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God,
believe also in Me. [2] 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? [3] 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. [4] And you know the way where I am going.” [5] Thomas
said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the
way?” [6] Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one
comes to the Father, but by Me.”

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Commentary:

1-3. Apparently this prediction of Peter’s denial has saddened the disciples. Je-
sus cheers them up by telling them that He is going away to prepare a place for
them in Heaven, for Heaven they will eventually attain, despite their shortcomings
and dragging their feet. The return which Jesus refers to includes His Second Co-
ming (Parousia) at the end of the world (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:5; 11:26; 1 Thessalo-
nians 4:16-17; 1 John 2:28) and His meeting with each soul after death: Christ
has prepared a Heavenly dwelling-place through His work of redemption. There-
fore, His words can be regarded as being addressed not only to the Twelve but
also to everyone who believes in Him over the course of the centuries. The Lord
will bring with Him into glory all those who have believed in Him and have stayed
faithful to Him.

4-7. The Apostles did not really understand what Jesus was telling them: hence
Thomas’ question. The Lord explains that He is the way to the Father. “It was
necessary for Him to say ‘I am the Way’ to show them that they really knew
what they thought they were ignorant of, because they knew Him” (St. Augus-
tine, “In. Ioann. Evang.”, 66, 2).

Jesus is the way to the Father—through what He teaches, for by keeping to His
teaching we will reach Heaven; through faith, which He inspires, because He
came to this world so “that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John
3:15); through His example, since no one can go to the Father without imitating
the Son; through His merits, which make it possible for us to enter our Heavenly
home; and above all He is the way because He reveals the Father, with whom
He is one because of His divine nature.

“Just as children by listening to their mothers, and prattling with them, learn to
speak their language, so we, by keeping close to the Savior in meditation, and
observing His words, His actions, and His affections, shall learn, with the help
of His grace, to speak, to act, and to will like Him.

“We must pause here...; we can reach God the Father by no other route ... ;
the Divinity could not be well contemplated by us in this world below if it were
not united to the sacred humanity of the Savior, whose life and death are the
most appropriate, sweet, delicious and profitable subjects which we can choose
for our ordinary meditations” (St. Francis de Sales, “Introduction to the Devout
Life”, Part II, Chapter 1, 2).

“I am the way”: He is the only path linking Heaven and Earth. “He is speaking to
all men, but in a special way He is thinking of people who, like you and me, are
determined to take our Christian vocation seriously: He wants God to be forever
in our thoughts, on our lips and in everything we do, including our most ordinary
and routine actions.

“Jesus is the way. Behind Him on this Earth of ours He has left the clear out-
lines of His footprints. They are indelible signs which neither the erosion of time
nor the treachery of the Evil One have been able to erase” (St. J. Escriva,
“Friends of God”, 127).

Jesus’ words do much more than provide an answer to Thomas’ question; He
tells us: “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life”. Being the Truth and the
Life is something proper to the Son of God become man, who St. John says in
the prologue of his Gospel is “full of grace and truth” (1:14). He is the Truth be-
cause by coming to this world He shows that God is faithful to His promises,
and because He teaches the truth about who God is and tells us that true wor-
ship must be “in spirit and truth” (John 4:23). He is Life because from all eterni-
ty He has divine life with His Father (cf. John 1:4), and because He makes us,
through grace, sharers in that divine life. This is why the Gospel says: “This is
eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Thou has sent” (John 17:3).

By His reply Jesus is, “as it were, saying, By which route do you want to go? I
am the Way. To where do you want to go? I am the Truth. Where do you want to
remain? I am the Life. Every man can attain an understanding of the Truth and the
Life; but not all find the Way. The wise of this world realize that God is eternal life
and knowable truth; but the Word of God, who is Truth and Life joined to the Fa-
ther, has become the Way by taking a human nature. Make your way contempla-
ting His humility and you will reach God” (St. Augustine, “De Verbis Domini Ser-
mones”, 54).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Mass Readings

First reading	Acts 13:26-33 ©

Paul stood up in the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia, held up a hand for silence and began to speak:

‘My brothers, sons of Abraham’s race, and all you who fear God, this message of salvation is meant for you. What the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did, though they did not realise it, was in fact to fulfil the prophecies read on every sabbath. Though they found nothing to justify his death, they condemned him and asked Pilate to have him executed. When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree and buried him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem: and it is these same companions of his who are now his witnesses before our people.

‘We have come here to tell you the Good News. It was to our ancestors that God made the promise but it is to us, their children, that he has fulfilled it, by raising Jesus from the dead. As scripture says in the second psalm: You are my son: today I have become your father.’

Psalm	Psalm 2:6-11 ©

You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.

Alleluia!

‘It is I who have set up my king

on Zion, my holy mountain.’

I will announce the decree of the Lord:

The Lord said to me: ‘You are my Son.

It is I who have begotten you this day.

You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.

Alleluia!

‘Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations,

put the ends of the earth in your possession.

With a rod of iron you will break them,

shatter them like a potter’s jar.’

You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.

Alleluia!

Now, O kings, understand,

take warning, rulers of the earth;

serve the Lord with awe

and trembling, pay him your homage.

You are my Son. It is I who have begotten you this day.

Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation	Col3:1

Alleluia, alleluia!

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ,

you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is,

sitting at God’s right hand.

Alleluia!

Or	Jn14:6

Alleluia, alleluia!

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, says the Lord;

No one can come to the Father except through me.

Alleluia!

Gospel	John 14:1-6 ©

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God still, and trust in me.

There are many rooms in my Father’s house;

if there were not, I should have told you.

I am going now to prepare a place for you,

and after I have gone and prepared you a place,

I shall return to take you with me;

so that where I am

you may be too.

You know the way to the place where I am going.’

Thomas said, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus said:

‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.’