Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Jesus has two different ways to present His departure during the last supper in the Gospel of Saint John. He speaks of the mansions or places of the Father and then speaks about how it is good for Him to leave so that the Holy Spirit can come. There is a separation from Christ that is not due to sin, it is due to His own initiative and in order to strengthen our hearts. There is at the same time a leaving of Christ and a coming of the Holy Spirit. If we allow Christ to leave He prepares a place for us in the bosom of the Father. This place in the Bosom of the Father we begin to inhabit already by the new presence of the Holy Spirit.

The mystery of the substantial gift in Love is asked of us as we release our hold on Jesus in faith. The human way of holding on to Jesus must be loosened: that grasp on the earthly consolation that comes from the warmth of His words and the tenderness of His heart. Faith is the only act that will truly set us free, and Christ wants us to give Him back to the Father, because in that return gift the Holy Spirit is born in our hearts. In that way we can understand and live the mystery of the Ascension as a preparation for Pentecost.

AUGUSTINE:

But why has he gone away to prepare it, if it is ourselves that he prepares? If he leaves us, how can he prepare us? The meaning is that in order that those mansions may be prepared, the just must live by faith … and if you see, there is no faith.… Let Christ go away then so that he is not seen. Let him remain concealed that faith may be exercised. Then a place is prepared if you live by faith. Let faith desire so that the place desired may itself be possessed. The longing of love is the preparation of the mansion.¹

AUGUSTINE:

When he says, therefore, “That where I am, there you may be also,” where else were they to be but in himself? In this way he is also in himself, and they, therefore, are just where he is, that is, in himself. Accordingly, he himself is that eternal life that is yet to be ours, when he has received us unto himself. As he is that life eternal, so is it in him, that where he is there shall we be also, that is to say, in himself. “For as the Father has life in himself”—and certainly that life that he has is in no way different from what he is himself as its possessor—“so has he given to the Son to have life in himself.”24 This is so because he is the very life that he has in himself. But will we then actually be what he is, [namely], the life when we begin our existence in that life, that is, in himself? Certainly not, for he, by his very existence as the life, has life. He is himself what he has. And just as the life is in him, so he is in himself. But we are not that life. We are partakers of his life. And we shall be there in such a way as to be wholly incapable of being in ourselves what he is. But even while we ourselves are not the life, we will be able to have him as our life. And he himself has life because of the very fact that he himself is the life.²

AUGUSTINE:

The Lord said they knew the place to which and the way whereby he was going. Thomas declares he does not know either the place or the way. But Thomas does not know he is speaking falsely. They knew, but they did not know that they knew. Jesus, however, will convince them of what they already know even though they themselves imagine that they are ignorant about it.³

Footnotes

Tractates on the Gospel of John 68.3. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 122). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 70.1. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 123). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 69.1. Elowsky, J. C. (Ed.). (2007). John 11–21 (p. 123). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Daily Readings

Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
by USCCB on November 23, 2024 at 9:30 am
Reading Rv 11:4-12 I, John, heard a voice from heaven speak to me: Here are my two witnesses: These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies. In this way, anyone wanting to harm them is sure to be slain. They have the power to close up the sky so that no rain can fall during the time of their prophesying. They also have power to turn water into blood and to afflict the earth with any plague as often as they wish. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the abyss will wage war against them and conquer them and kill them. Their corpses will lie in the main street of the great city, which has the symbolic names “Sodom” and “Egypt,” where indeed their Lord was crucified. Those from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will gaze on their corpses for three and a half days, and they will not allow their corpses to be buried. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and be glad and exchange gifts because these two prophets tormented the inhabitants of the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. When they stood on their feet, great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, “Come up here.” So they went up to heaven in a cloud as their enemies looked on. Responsorial Psalm Psalm 144:1, 2, 9-10 R. (1b) Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!Blessed be the LORD, my rock,who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!My mercy and my fortress,my stronghold, my deliverer,My shield, in whom I trust,who subdues my people under me.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock!O God, I will sing a new song to you;with a ten stringed lyre I will chant your praise,You who give victory to kings,and deliver David, your servant from the evil sword.R. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock! Alleluia See 2 Tm 1:10 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought life to light through the Gospel. R. Alleluia, alleluia. Gospel Lk 20:27-40 Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us, If someone’s brother dies leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married a woman but died childless. Then the second and the third married her, and likewise all the seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be? For all seven had been married to her.” Jesus said to them, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise. That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called ‘Lord’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.” Some of the scribes said in reply, “Teacher, you have answered well.” And they no longer dared to ask him anything. Readings for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, priest and martyrReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Columban, abbotReadings for the Optional Memorial of Saint Clement I, pope and martyr - - - Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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