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.
