Fifth Sunday of Easter

Dominica V Paschae A
10 May 2020

The Gospel passage today takes us back to Jesus’ extended remarks to his apostles at the Last Supper where he had predicted Judas’ betrayal, had informed the group that he would be with them only a little while longer (Jn. 13:33), and had predicted that Peter would deny him.  The apostles are stirred up, maybe even confused and hurt.  And so, we can understand why Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Jesus prepares the Apostles for his departure.  He is preparing them in an immediate sense for his suffering and death, about to take place in the moments after the Last Supper.  But in a larger more remote context he is preparing them for after his resurrection and ascension when he will return to his rightful place in Heaven with the promise to return again in glory.  While Jesus indicates he will go away, his departure is not without a promised return.  We can get this message and thus the reason why Jesus can say, don’t let your hearts be troubled, from the Greek original of this passage for the type of departure Jesus indicates.  The language for Jesus’ “going away” employs the image of Jewish betrothal and wedding ceremonies.  A bride and groom in ancient Jewish practice, once betrothed were legally married and already husband and wife, yet they did not immediately live together.  That’s why if you think with me in a different context, when Joseph plans to leave Mary after discovering she’s pregnant, the angel can appear to him and say “Do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, into your home.”  Upon betrothal they are already legally married yet not living together.  Upon betrothal the groom would “go away” to prepare a dwelling place for his wife and new family.  He would often do so on familial land, “in his father’s house” in other words.  And once a suitable dwelling place was prepared he would return and a joyful wedding procession would take place to the new home where the bride and groom would begin only then their common life living together.

This is the language employed by Jesus in today’s selection.  Yes, he is going away.  But it is a going away that implies a return, as he himself says.  And his return is intended to gather his faithful to take them to the Father’s house.  The Father’s house, of course, is not a literal house but is Heaven and the life of eternal blessedness.

I hope this doesn’t shock you, but heaven is not here and it will not be here.  Heaven is not even in the Church.  Though indefectible in her spiritual and divine nature, the Church as the visible human community of those called, chosen, and formed to live deeper salvation is not yet heaven.  We in the Church are on a journey, as it were, toward that final joyful procession when Jesus returns as Judge and ushers the faithful into the wedding feast of heaven.  If you need a reminder that heaven is not here and not even in the Church at least in her visible human appearance, consider the first reading where we are plainly shown there were factions and there was complaining among disciples, all vying for their own interests.  [As an aside, as we prepare for limited re-opening and limited entrance to church, let’s have charity so we don’t replicate complaining and factions.]  The Church recognizes that the world and God’s creation is good.  Therefore, to care for it is good.  Therefore, it is good to seek to organize human society in greater conformity to Christ’s command and to his kingdom, such that there is greater justice and authentic flourishing here.  However, the Church’s competence and mission, is not primarily focused on the here and now.  As disciples we can never lose sight of the ultimate goal of Heaven and the proper competence and authority of the Church in spiritual matters of faith and morals.  While you the laity do have the call most directly to be apostles who take Gospel truths into the world, I get worried when the ordained and other leaders in the Church seem more action-driven and motivated by things outside the Church’s competence, matters of the human and political realm.  When the ordained give more attention to secular pursuits or the tactics of grass roots community action I fear the focus has shifted off of heaven and becomes focused on the here and now.  That may carry with it the false notion that we can build a perfect human community here.  That is not the work of the ordained.  Nor is it even realistic.  There will also be sin and imperfection here.  Heaven is our ultimate goal.  It is the place to which we strive.  There will be perfection and eternal blessedness.

Not only is Heaven not here.  It also is not a place, in the sense of some location or geography.  Look again at the Gospel.  When Jesus discusses his going away and the preparation of a dwelling for his faithful it becomes clear what this dwelling is: he will come to take you to himself so that you can be with him.  And where will that be or what will that be?  It becomes clear when Thomas says, “we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Jesus’ response is not about a physical place.  Rather, it is clear he is speaking about heaven as the life of the Trinity.  Sharing in the life of the Blessed Trinity, having the unveiled vision of God, is the experience of Heaven.  Jesus says that our procession to the eternal dwelling is to come to the Father.  He says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.”  It is clear that his listeners get that Jesus is not speaking of heavenly buildings but of the Trinity because Philip asks boldly, “show us the Father.”

Friends, while Heaven is not this life here, the Good News is that we can begin to experience the life of the Blessed Trinity even now.  When we pray and give ourselves to God in prayer, we are opening ourselves to real relationship with a real personal being who is God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God responds and places His life and love within us.  The sacramental life is still a deeper experience of Godly relationship. These are foretastes of heavenly life.  We become temples of the Holy Spirit of God.  We are given impulse by the very power of God and so we can understand those odd sounding words at the end of the Gospel: “whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.”  Those greater works are the works guaranteed by the Holy Spirit that have eternal consequences, building not only a society here but most especially building and saving souls for the eternal communion with God in Heaven.

With confidence that the Lord does not abandon us but sends his Holy Spirit may you whose vocation is the lay state seek to be living stones to build a world in greater conformity to Christ, recognizing that you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.”  May we each together seek to live deeper communion with God in prayer and sacramental life now so that we are prepared for the day when the Lord will come to take us to the full heavenly vision of life with the Blessed Trinity in Heaven.