3 May 2026 – 5th Sunday of Easter, Year A
Acts 6:1–7; 1 Peter 2:4–9; John 14:1–12
H O M I L Y
Following last Sunday’s Gospel, in which Jesus presented himself as the gate of the sheepfold through which anyone who wishes to be saved must enter, we begin today the reading of the beautiful chapter 14 of John’s Gospel, which we shall continue over the next two Sundays, in which Jesus also presents himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life. In the passage we are reading today (and which we have already heard at weekday Mass over the last two days), two themes stand out in particular: that of the dwelling and that of the way.
Jesus wants to reassure the hearts of his disciples, troubled by his imminent departure: “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he tells them. And what can prevent them from being troubled is faith. Indeed, from now on it is through faith that Jesus will be present to them. Since they believe in the Father, they must also believe in Jesus, for, as he has already told them, “The Father and I are one”. Here then emerges the theme of “dwelling”, which will recur throughout this discourse at the Last Supper.
To dwell somewhere is quite different from staying there temporarily. I might stay with friends for a few days; and even if I am made very welcome, it is not the place where I dwell. I am just passing through; it is not my home. A little later, Jesus will tell his disciples that if they keep his Word, he and his Father will come and make their home with them. And here he speaks to them of their own home with God. There are, he says, many homes with his Father, and he has gone to prepare a place for them.
For the Jews, the house of God was the Temple. Jesus affirms that this is no longer the case. That is no longer where the Father dwells. Jesus himself is now the house of God. And whoever is united to Jesus through faith also becomes a place where the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit make their home.
The theme of the dwelling naturally brings to mind that of the path leading to it. In the Old Testament, the journey of the Exodus led to the Promised Land; the return from exile led back to Jerusalem; the pilgrims’ journey led to the Temple every year. Jesus is now himself the Way, the Path, for he has walked this path from the Father to us and back to his Father. And the Acts of the Apostles show us how he set the early Church, made up of his disciples, on the same path. At the end of the first reading (taken from the Book of Acts), it is said that the Word of God, preached by the Apostles, ‘grew’ wherever it was received, wherever God could make his dwelling.
This dwelling place of God is each one of us, but it is also the whole Church, the community of believers. The second reading, taken from the First Letter of Peter, returns to the theme of God’s dwelling place, applying this image not only to each person, but to the Church as such, which is also the Temple of God. And the cornerstone of this new dwelling place of God amongst men is Jesus. What an honor it is for us all to be, each in our own way, a small stone in this immense edifice where Jesus himself is the cornerstone.
Armand Veilleux