The gospel for Friday of the fourth week of Easter is taken from John, 14th chapter, first through the sixth verse. 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 what 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 the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It’s interesting that Jesus is working with people who do believe in God, but they don’t understand who Jesus is.

They cannot grasp the fact that he is a human being filled with divinity. And this divinity within him is something that he longs for us to have. And so he won it for us through his death on the cross. So what he’s trying to say to his disciples, and in particular to Thomas, is you have to understand that if you look at me and I tell you that the Father is in me and that he and he alone is the source of all truth and life and light, and that no one can understand and know the Father unless they see him in me, in a human being. And it’s so interesting to me that it’s the same way today. If you want to ask someone if they believe in God, I will tell you that from my experience, if they have been loved by a human being, deeply loved in a self sacrificing love, they’re much more ready to accept that is who also God is.

Take a few moments to reflect upon these images and then I will close with a prayer. Closing prayer Father, awaken us. The privilege, the responsibility that we have to manifest you to others. When someone is loved deeply by another human being, they taste and feel the love of the Father. And the more we are able to love one another that way, the more the faith in this God who is love and who calls us to love, grows and deepens. We have a deep responsibility, but we have also a privileged place of bringing life and light and truth into one another.

And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.