27 April 2024 - Saturday of the 4th week of Easter
Homily
Dear brothers and sisters,
In these days of Eastertide, the first reading of the Mass continues to tell us about the beginnings of apostolic preaching, first in Jerusalem and then to all the nations. The Gospel reading is taken from Saint John, especially, in these days, from the account of Jesus' discourses to his disciples before his passion. The tone is very familiar. Yesterday, Jesus told them that he was going to his Father and their Father, and that they too knew the way. Thomas replied, ‘We don't even know where you're going; how can we know the way? Today he speaks to them of his Father and says: ‘From now on you know him and have seen him’. And this time it was Philip who replied: ‘Show us the Father and that will be enough for us’. This was an opportunity for Jesus to explain to them that the Father and he are one, and therefore whoever knows the Son also knows the Father.
This long discourse in chapter 14 of Saint John, of which today's reading is only a small part, contains several themes. The first theme in the text we have just read is that of knowledge. Knowledge in the biblical sense, and especially in John's Gospel, implies a very deep personal relationship. I can know everything about a person. I can have read his biography, I can know all the details of his life. If I don't have an intimate personal relationship with that person, I can't say I know him. In the same way, I can have learnt the Gospels by heart, and I can even know everything that theologians say about Jesus. If I don't have a personal relationship of love with Him, I can't say I know Him. The same goes for his Father.
It's interesting to see how we can establish a link between this knowledge and our actions - between what we know or believe and what we do. We often hear it said that being is more important than doing, and that what counts is what you are, not what you do. In fact, from the Gospel's point of view, this distinction makes no sense. God alone 'is' in an absolute way. Only God can say ‘I am’. We humans, his creatures, are what we are through what we do. That's why the Gospel constantly calls us to ‘do the truth’, to ‘do justice’, to ‘do works of mercy’, to ‘do God's will’, and so on. The word ‘do’ recurs like a leitmotif in the little Gospel text we have just read. Jesus says ‘If you do not believe my words, at least believe because of my works, because of what I do’. Why? Because, he says, ‘I am going to the Father, and whatever you ask in my name, I will do’.
So let's not hesitate to ask Jesus to give us the grace and strength to do his will, to live in truth and to do every day what he expects of us. That's how we'll get to know him truly and live in a relationship of love with him - a love that leads us to always do what he expects of us.
Armand Veilleux