Fifth Sunday of Easter Read more
Homily
The Gospel that has been announced takes us back to the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples. Jesus was at the point of leaving them in a little while we too will celebrate his Ascension to heaven and he wanted the disciples to understand to the fullest the demands of the Gospel. By his example, Jesus showed them that words are not enough and that concrete acts are required. He saw that they were sad while he told them: “I am with you only a little longer” (Jn 13:33). And how could they not be sad? The one for whom they had left everything - house, land, affection, work - was going away. Jesus tried to calm them: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” He had already said it at other times: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me” (Jn 12:44). With these words Jesus confirmed the fact that there is an identity between choosing God and choosing Him. Literally translating the passage we would say: “When one joins himself to me, it is not to me, but to him who sent me.” The disciples had intuited this meaning even if they had not understood it well. Jesus explained it again, especially in this time of farewell, because it was a question of understanding the most unique relationship between Jesus and the Father as the criterion for faith then, and now. That first, small and fragile community, for whom Jesus had laboured and suffered, should not be sad. And he explained to them why.
He himself does not want to separate himself from them, and he makes them understand this immediately: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” Jesus is speaking about “the house of the Father.” This time he is not referring to the temple (Jn 2:16), but to the Kingdom of God, to Paradise, to the place where we shall see God “face to face.” Moreover, Jesus says that they already know the way to get there. Hearing these words, Thomas blurts out: “We do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus replies: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” At this point Philip chimes in: “Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus continues with a sad rebuke: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” Here we touch upon the heart of the Gospel and of Christian faith. And perhaps of every religious quest. Yes, where do we seek God? Where do we find him? In his first Letter, the apostle John says: “No one has ever seen God” (4:12); it is Jesus who has revealed him. That is, if we want to “see” God’s face, it suffices to see that of Jesus; if we wish to know God’s mind, it is enough to know the mind of Jesus, the Gospel. If we want to understand God’s will, it suffices to look at Jesus’ will. In short, Christians have no other image of God than that of Jesus. Our God has Jesus’ traits, the face of Jesus, Jesus’ love, Jesus’ mercy. Paradise is Jesus; gazing upon Jesus we see God “face to face.”
And we see the face of a God who is so powerful that He can heal the sick, but we also see the face of a child who, newly born, must flee in order to avoid death. We see a God who raises from the dead but who is moved and cries for a dead friend. It is the face of a God full of mercy who walks our streets not to condemn and punish, but rather to heal and cure, to comfort and raise, to support and help whoever is in need. Who does not need a God like that? And at the end of the pericope, Jesus even seems to exaggerate: “I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.” No, it is not Jesus’ usual exaggeration! Rather, it is the ambition which he has for his disciples of every period, for us too: to continue to love as he has loved and to work as he has worked. The world needs a Church like that; our cities need disciples like that. This is what Jesus entrusts to us today.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
