Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:1-12)
Do not let your hearts be troubled
What is the opposite of a troubled heart? The opposite is a heart with a firm faith in God through Jesus. He says “have faith in God; have faith also in me.” Does that mean that Jesus is something other than God? No. It simply means that one thing cannot exist without the other. Jesus in His human nature is a perfect representation of God that our eyes can see. In his prayer to God the Father, Jesus unveils this mystery:
I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one. (John 17:22)
Unity of purpose, the unity of the Church comes from the unity of the Triune God. When we see and hear Jesus, we see and hear the Father. Such is the perfection of that unity that there is no way to tell the difference. The Church is destined to have that kind of unity in the same manner that is destined to inherit God’s glory.
For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:29)
A place prepared for us
We cannot imagine what Heaven is or how many dimensions exist in that place we call Heaven. All we know is that it is a place much different to the realm we presently and unhappily inhabit. How are societies devoid of death, evil, and suffering? We do not know! When Jesus comes back again at the end of the age or at the end of our mortal life in the flesh, He comes back to “take us to Himself” —destiny and person collapse into one another— He tells us we already know the way because He is the Way in a manner similar that he is the gate in the parable of the sheepfold (John 10:1-10)
Thomas struggles to comprehend this revelation. And Jesus simplifies it further: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Those who find the way (who is Jesus) will learn the truth (who is Jesus) and acquire life (who is Jesus, the giver of life). In those three inseparable elements we find and echo of the ineffable unity of the Holy Trinity.
When Phillip says: “show us the Father” he fails to comprehend what Jesus has revealed to them. A repetition is in order.
“Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”
The explanation goes back to the matter of dwelling. Jesus is “in the Father” and the Father is “in Jesus” as they are each other’s abode. That amplifies even further Christ’s original announcement: “I am going to prepare a place for you.” That is an invitation however veiled to let Him dwell in us so that we can dwell in Him.
Since we live in this realm where if I am in Buenos Aires I cannot possibly be in New York and vice-versa … how are we suppose to understand? Padre Pio, who frequently bilocated to places sometimes far away, said once: “I am a mystery even to myself!” And I gather that he was given the grace to experience what his mind could not possibly comprehend. But comprehend we will when the right time comes. For the time being we have these parables. We are slowly learning by comparison, by allegories.
Logos invites us to work
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.”
Christ is the Logos (John 1:1-2) Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος [En archē ēn ho Logos] a phrase that is impossible to fully translate because the usual translation “In the beginning was the Word” leaves the main substantive truncated. Logos is much more than merely a “word” and that is why that scripture necessitates reams of footnotes to give the reader an idea of what Logos means and is.
Yes, Christ is the Logos and He is responsible for creating and sustaining everything that is. He whose will (agrees, being one with the Father’s will) becomes the Master of all Creation. He can say “believe in my works” because His works are unique, powerful, impossible to imitate or falsify. The devil produces crude copies of the divine works because it is impossible to be “an original” and do something better than the work of God or in opposition to God.
Believing in God, having faith in God comes from the sincere admiration of His wonderful creation where we move and exist.
Right after that, Christs invites us to be in Him by doing the works He does. In fact, Christ returns to the Father thus leaving to us the field where we are commissioned to do His work. We are “humble workers in the Lord’s vineyard” to quote Pope Benedict XVI.
Therefore, our hearts should not be troubled because of the work that Jesus gave us to do. We are partners with the Force that moves the universe, we are His workers, His troops. He is coming back again in power and glory to take us to our reward when the harvest season ends.
