Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him
In the Gospel this Sunday, we hear part of what’s called the Last Supper Discourse: the last few chapters in the Gospel of John before the Passion, when Jesus speaks to his closest disciples and shares with them the secret, the meaning of everything he has been doing and soon will do.
THIS is the great secret that Jesus has been building up to all along, the secret he shares with his closest disciples at the Last Supper, the purpose of his mission.
This secret is the culmination of the Liturgical Year. It is also the answer to every question, the first principle behind every truth.
The answer is simple, though infinitely profound. I’m sure you’ve heard it before.
The secret is, God is not some absent, impersonal force, having wound up the clock and then departed to let things play out.
No. God is the Father, and He is the Son; and He is the Love that they share, the Holy Spirit.
The secret is that the Father loves the Son perfectly, and that he has loved him from the beginning, and that he has always loved him: and that the Son knows this, that he receives everything he needs from the Father; and knowing this, the Son always does what the Father asks of him, because he loves him. And the Love that the Father and Son share is so perfect that it is called Holy, it is called Spirit.
The answer you’ve been searching for all our lives, whether you know it or not, is that the power that made all things, the power that brought you into this world, the power that has guided and shaped every moment of your life, is not an impersonal force, but is love.
And not just any love, but the love that has guided all history, the love that sent its very Word to become flesh and dwell among us, the same love that has brought you to this moment today.
What an amazing thing to know! That every single thing in your life has happened for one reason, one purpose! That there is a meaning behind everything! That nothing in your life was an accident, nothing was wasted! And now, like a castaway on an island, you are about to uncover a message in a bottle, not some words written to whomever might find it, but amazingly, astoundingly, written personally to you.
Jesus says: as the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. And he says too, as we hear in today’s Gospel, whoever loves me, my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.
These words are so astounding that they must be repeated: as the Father has loved the Son, so has God loved us. Whoever loves the Son, the Father will love him and will come and make their dwelling with him.
This secret is the mystery of the Holy Trinity. It is the absolutely most important central teaching of our faith. Asked to explain it, a lot of us might freeze up, maybe stumble around clumsily, saying something about one and three. Better just to leave the mystery in silence, perhaps.
But silence is not what we are left with: at the Last Supper, the most precious moment Jesus will share with his friends, he does not merely spend the time in silence: he speaks to them about the deepest secret he has, the truth he has wanted to share with them all along.
The Holy Trinity is not just academic: it is the existential answer we’ve been looking for our whole life, the secret that explains why we are here and what we must do.
And that is why Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: if you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.
The greatest secret of all is that Jesus came to give us the love he shares with the Father; and to do this, he must return to the Father — but not in order to leave us.
This can be hard to hear, especially if we’ve had that experience of someone telling us that they love us, only to leave. But not Jesus.
Jesus ascends to heaven so that his love can be even closer to us. He ascends in order to give us the Love he shares with the Father – that very Love that hovered over the waters before the creation of the world.
A message in a bottle only means something if you know you are a castaway, if you are looking for an answer. Distracted, preoccupied, resigned, or indifferent, you won’t notice that message. It would just be another bottle washed up on shore. It would mean nothing to you.
How important then to hear these words attentively: to bring to Mass, these next few Sundays — as we celebrate the Feasts of the Ascension, Pentecost, Holy Trinity, and Corpus Christi — your lifelong questions and doubts and fears, your every need to find an answer that truly satisfies, that proves that it has not all been for nothing. That proves, amazingly, it has all been because of love: to discover that the same love that made the stars and plants and every wonderful, beautiful thing on this earth has been guiding you all your days, and now wants to share with you the greatest secret of all.