Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Friday of the 4th Week of Easter, Cycle C - April 22, 2016

Friday of the 4th Week of Easter
April 22, 2016      8:30am

 

Readings:   Acts 13.26-33
                  John 14.1-6

Today’s gospel is a great passage for the Easter Season.

Jesus says: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”
The key words for me are “dwelling places.”
One of the things we want most is a home.
There is this yearning for home deep down within the human spirit.
So Jesus is assuring us that there is a home for us after we die and leave this earth.

The word “dwell” or “dwelling” is rich in meaning.
It means that we will literally reside and for all time be with God.
Our home will not be a place or a mansion in the sky, as heaven is sometimes depicted.
It will be “dwelling” in God and that means, “dwelling” in love.
The old Christian hymn Rock of Ages has a line that says: “Let me hide myself in thee.”
We will be not just with the risen Christ.
We will “dwell” in the risen Christ.
We will “dwell” in the love that is the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

So this is Jesus’ message of comfort and consolation to his disciples on the night before he died.
This is the promise and hope he extends to us – a closer and more intimate relationship than we have even here on earth.

In fact, Jesus comes to “dwell” in us now in the Eucharist so that someday we can “dwell” in him fully and forever in heaven.