Friday, May 13, 2022

 Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6)

The disciples’ hearts are troubled because Jesus is leaving them.  They have trusted him not only as the Son of God but as their intimate friend.  They wonder how they can get along without him.

For all their love of him, however, the disciples miss the purpose of his coming.  Jesus must give himself as an offering to God for sin.  Only in this way can they and everyone else come to the fullness of life.  He, therefore, is the way because he proclaims the truth of the Father which is life in the full.  He is also the same life because he and the Father are one.  One can think of Jesus as a roadmap whose directions truly lead to God in whose company the fullness of life is experienced.

Jesus has returned to us in the sacraments.  He lives in the Church to which Baptism admits us and in which the Eucharist keeps us.  Remaining close to him in the Church we grow in virtue until we see God face to face.