Gospel: May 16, 2025
May 16, 2025 (Friday)
4th Week of Easter
Psalter: Week 4 / (White)
Ps 2:6-7, 8-9, 10-11ab
You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.
1st Reading: Acts 13:26-33
Gospel: John 14:1-6
“Do not be troubled! Trust in God and trust in me! In my Father’s house there are many rooms; otherwise, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to me, so that where I am, you also may be. Yet you know the way where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.
Reflection:
“I am the way, the truth and the life.”
“Do not be troubled! … you know the way where I am going.” Jesus offers words of comfort to the Apostles as he prepares them for his departure, but they struggle to understand at first, and fear rises in their hearts. “Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?” He has to reassure them once more and so he says, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” The Franciscan mystic Francisco de Osuna wrote a reflection on Christ as the way to heaven. However, he said that it had snowed on the footsteps of Christ, making it difficult to see the way. The snow is a symbol of our wayward hearts and false idols that lead us to struggle to find our way. But Jesus does not leave us in our selfishness and confusion. He comes again and again to help us clear away the snow, and to walk before us on the heavenly way. Just as he reassured the Apostles in their fear and confusion, so does he come to us to lead the way. So, “do not be troubled”—follow Jesus!
