As we enter the closing stages of the Easter season, we begin to look forward to the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Our Gospel readings across these next few Sundays are taken from what is commonly considered as Jesus’ farewell speech to his disciples. In it, he invites them and us into an interior journey in the depths of our hearts. It is in these depths that Jesus makes his home, that the Holy Spirit will guide us and teach us all wisdom.

Our first reading takes us on an outer journey, allowing us to be present at the beginnings of the early Church as it grows and spreads, taking shape and, in a culturally revolutionary way, its inclusiveness. Belonging is based not on any societal privilege, not on belonging to any one race or gender, but on sharing in the one Baptism, the same Baptism which Peter references in the second reading, in which we are all “a chosen race, a royal priesthood… a people set apart to sing the praises of God.” In Christ we are one body. Jesus tells us in our Gospel passage, how as part of that one body, he expects us to act and what we receive in return.

As we begin today’s Gospel passage, Jesus has just been discussing his betrayal and denial, which has caused great distress to his disciples. Now, he seeks to reassure them, opening his heart to them and to the Father. In this passage, the first part familiar to so many because of its popularity at funeral masses, we hear how Jesus is going to make a place for us in the Father’s kingdom, and then to return and take us with him.; that we know the way home. Thomas, true to form, claims not to know the way and so Jesus points to himself as that way, the only way in which human beings can meet with God.

Jesus’ words and actions throughout the Gospel speak about love at every turn. “He demonstrates total, absolute and universal love in every encounter. He presents us with an authentic vision of human existence, a model of how human life ought to be lived. If one lives like this, one will encounter God.” (1)

1: The Cultural World of Jesus, Pilch, John, J.

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Today’s prayer texts remind us that being Catholic isn’t just about ‘being good’ or even ‘getting to heaven.’ What is fundamental to both these worthy aims is something greater. It is that in the Paschal Mystery of Christ’s dying, rising and glorification, we, his faithful, come to be included through Baptism:

Almighty, ever living God, constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us, that those you were pleased to make new in Holy Baptism ...(The Collect)

The same point is made more strongly in the Prayer over the Offerings:

O God, who by the wonderful exchange effected in this Sacrifice, have made us partakers of the one supreme Godhead …

Christ’s self-offering is what we offer in the Eucharistic celebration, no less. The end of Christian vocation is partaking of the Divine Nature (cf. 2 Peter 1:4), no less. It is what our Fathers called ‘Deification’ or in Greek ‘Theosis.’  The Mass is the source of that theosis, and that destiny is the source of all of our Christian living, our ethical and moral tradition.

Easter Prefaces 3 and 5 are appropriate to this theme.

For the General Intercessions:

That the Church, built of living stones,

may always be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.

God of all truth, whose face we behold in your Son,

keep your Church firm on that sure foundation

which is Christ, the chosen and precious corner stone,

who lives and reigns ...

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Hymns have been chosen from the Laudate hymnbook:

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Way Truth and Life: Jesus you are Lord (766)

Trust/Hope/Guidance (947-973) especially Nada te turbe (947)