Take courage beloved daughter and son of God, sister and brother of Jesus!
I have used the section from John’s Gospel, Chapter 14: 1-6 many times in funeral services and with the dying. It comes from the words of Jesus asking his disciples, “Do not let your heads be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me”. He could see his death approaching. He could see that his followers are going to be scandalised and challenged, confused. Their hopes shattered! He reassures them that he has prepared a place for them and that they know the way to the place where he was going.
Thomas is so good for us. He says what many of us think. He says, “We do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?” There is so much that we do not understand. Sometimes the more we know, the more it is that we do not know!
A child asks questions, but a child always trusts.
Jesus is worth trusting! By what he said and did, by his death and resurrection, He is the sacrament, the best connection that we can have with God. Since Jesus is the son of God, since he touches the deepest yearnings of the human heart, we can trust him.
It is good to have an inquiring mind. There is no conflict between good reasoning and healthy faith. We do not have a blind faith. God gave us brains to use them. However we need to trust. “Unless you become like little children you will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.” He is THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE!
As we deal with questions of the meaning of life, as we deal with life and death, the problem of the presence of evil in this world and in so many other things we trust Jesus.
As we keep in mind that all the books in the world, all the theologies, all the scriptures are but a finger pointing beyond them, we stand in awe at the mysteries of God. That is why God became human in Jesus so that we can connect with God through one of us, Jesus truly human, truly God.
The love with which, the ABBA, the FATHER LOVES Jesus, God LOVES US.
Take courage beloved daughter and son of God, sister and brother of Jesus!
God Bless you today.
+Charles Gauci
Bishop of Darwin