Fifth Sunday of Easter
Spring is There Completely on the Branch
First Reading: (Acts 6: 1-7) Establishment of the Seven Deacons
Second Reading (1 Pet:2: 4-9): Christ is the Rock
Gospel: (Jn 14: 1-12): I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life
Chinese Classics:
- “Days after days search for spring and not seeing spring, Straw sandals broken reaching for the clouds on the mound. Returning home, by chance, went past the peach blossoms, Spring is completely there on the branches.” (1)
The faith of the Catholic Church is a holistic, unified faith. This means that we believe in a future life and also in the present life; we emphasize the spiritual life and also a physical life; we believe in what we can see as well in the invisible. We want to live the present life in its fullness, yet we definitely do not forget that after we have finished the present life we will enter into another eternal life.
In fact, in more accurate terms, the forthcoming life is the extension of our present life because we really have only 'one' life.
In the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel Jesus said to the disciples, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 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. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’
Jesus replied with these well- known words, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’ (Ref Jn 14:1-12)
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is the Truth, he speaks of the secrets of life, the wonders of the universe; he tells us about the origin of life and what a full life is, how parents should treat their children and how children should treat their parents, how we should treat our friends, even how to treat our enemies.
Jesus is the Truth. He described the secrets of life and how order was already determined when the Father created the world. For example, the world should be clean; people should love each other; happiness comes from sharing, not grasping, the ‘Golden Rule’ of human relationships should be love and forgiveness, not unceasing hostility and opposition. These are the truths that God set down for our life.
Jesus is the Truth because he spoke truth and lived in truth, for he himself is the Truth. When we say we believe in Jesus we should live according to his words. Jesus stressed this. He condemned those who only know to cry out, ‘Lord! Lord!’ but do not live according to God's word or according to God's will. Such people actually do not have faith because without deeds there really is no belief. Therefore ‘believing Jesus, you shall have eternal life’ is only half correct, for when we believe in Jesus, we also must live according to his words of truth. Only then can we obtain true life: abundent life now and eternal life in future.
Jesus is also the Way because only through the truth that he taught and through himself can we go to the Father and enter the eternal life of blessedness.
‘Unless you go through me, you cannot go to my Father.’ Jesus is the only Way to the Father. He is the advocate between Heaven and Earth, the only bridge between Heaven and Earth. By believing and accepting Jesus and living according to his words can we reach the Father. Jesus is the Way.
When Jesus said this, Philip suddenly brought up another question, ‘Lord, you always tell us about your Father. Show us the Father and it is enough for us.’
Philip did not realize what Jesus meant by being the bridge and the way. He only wanted to see God directly, to see the Father. Jesus said, ‘Philip, I have been with you for such a long time and you still do not know me? Who sees me sees the Father. Why do you still say, ‘show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? Whoever sees me sees the Father also.’
Jesus is the ‘sacrament’ of the Father, through Jesus, we recognize the Father and can go to the Father. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. This is ‘sacrament’.
There is a poem which shares a similar meaning as ‘Sacrament’. “Days after days searched for spring and not seeing spring, Straw sandals broken reaching for the clouds on the mound. Returning home, by chance, went past the peach blossoms, Spring is there completely on the branches.”(1) The poem is about a man who went searching for spring for a long time and could not find it. He went everywhere and his sandals were broken but still there was no trace of spring. Finally, he went home. When he was walking past the door, there under the peach blossom tree, he realized that spring had come. Spring was there right at his door.
Actually it is with Jesus that we have seen the Father already, yet we continue to look for Him. In fact, in our life we already have Christ: in Church assemblies there is Christ, in the Scriptures there is Christ, even in the least of our brothers and sisters there is Christ. Because Jesus said, ‘just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ (Mt 25:40)
In the same way, when we close our eyes and enter into the depths of our heart, God is there. When we look up to the sky God is there, when we look around carefully at all that happens in the world, we can also see God calling to us. ‘Spring is completely there on the branches.’ In fact God has never left us, God has been at our side all the time.
Let us open our eyes widely, open our hearts to feel the presence of Christ and feel God's presence. Through Christ we will reach the Lord, because Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the truth of life and the way to life. Let us accept him, believe in him and live according to his words.
(1)盡日尋春不見春,芒鞋踏破壟頭雲; 歸來偶過桃花下,春在枝頭已十分。
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