The gospel for Friday of the fourth week of Lent is taken from St. 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 it 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. This gospel is so often read at funerals talking about a place that God has created for us after this life. And one of the reasons I think it’s so popular is because it images for us something that is fascinating and that is in this world, God has asked us to be instruments of his work so that we can draw one another into this place of life. And it seems that Jesus is implying that we have a place like that in heaven. When we die, we still continue to be engaged in the work of those that we love, opening them over and over again to the truth and the wisdom that we’ve learned and seen. It’s a beautiful image of what heaven might be like.

Not an eternal vacation, but a place where we continue to work and to heal and to save. Closing prayer Father, you have the wisdom that we long for, yet when you tell us things, you don’t explain them in a way that we can grasp it fully. We know that there is this plan of life for us here where we grow and we evolve and we change. Bless us in that direction that leads us to the fullness of life that you have prepared for all of us. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.