Reflection for Sunday May 7, Fifth Sunday of Easter: John 14:1-12

Gospel: John 14:1-12

Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. 

Where I am going you know the way." Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." 

Philip said to him, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. 

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father."

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Reflection:

The story is told about a man who would always be troubled whenever he would see on TV news about massive wars and killings like what is happening in Ukraine. He would always ask himself, is the end of the world coming? Like this man we all have our own worries and fears, for example we worry about how we could sustain the future of our children. We worry about money, about the future and it seems that we are never running out of worries to think of in this world.

But have we thought of God in the midst of our worries? Have we thought of just telling Jesus, take care of my worries and fears whatever it may be?

We are very much bothered by our troubles in this world because we never trust Jesus that much and our faith in Jesus is lacking. What we do instead is to trust in ourselves and have faith in ourselves. This is the reason why we are bothered by our worldly troubles.

Why don’t we try to let go and let God? We let go of our worries and let God take control of everything? For example if you’re being bothered by a sickness, family problem or a personal problem. Start to slowly let go of those worries and pains, then raise everything up to God, learn to trust and have faith in the powerful name of Jesus. 

In our gospel for this Sunday Jesus gives us an antidote for our worries and fears HE tells us: Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me (John 14:1). 

Sometimes we seek to discover things that we think will make us happy only to realize that it won’t and we keep on looking for it until we feel empty and broken. To avoid this from happening we must rediscover the important role of Jesus in our life and we have to trust Jesus with our life. – Marino J. Dasmarinas