WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:06.639 There are moments in life when we do not need more information. 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:10.160 We need someone we can trust. 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.400 A child lost in a crowd does not need a map. 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:16.000 He needs a hand. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:22.160 A patient waiting for test results does not need a lecture on biology. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:28.239 She or he needs a doctor who will look them in the eye and tell them the truth. 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:33.119 A family standing at the grave does not need more slogans. 00:00:33.359 --> 00:00:38.799 They need hope that they will be stronger than death. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:43.840 And at the Last Supper, that is exactly where the disciples are. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.640 They are not confused because they lack information. 00:00:49.439 --> 00:00:54.240 They are afraid because everything they trusted is about to be shaken. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.880 Jesus has just told them that he is leaving. 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:02.640 Judas has already gone into the night. 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:05.200 Peter is about to deny him. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:12.959 The cross is no longer this distant possibility, but it is just about a couple hours away. 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.599 And Jesus says to them, Do not let your hearts be troubled. 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:26.959 That line is almost impossible to understand unless we remember who is saying it. 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:33.680 The one going to the cross is the one comforting the ones who will run from it. 00:01:34.159 --> 00:01:36.079 That's Christianity. 00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:48.239 Not man reaching up to God, but God entering the room, sitting at the table, looking into the eyes of frightened people and saying, Trust me. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:54.239 And then Thomas says, What all of us say when life becomes uncertain? 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:57.200 Master, we do not know where you are going. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:01:59.200 How can we know the way? 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:02.319 This is not just Thomas. 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:04.719 This is every human heart. 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:07.120 How do I know the way? 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.800 How do I know that I'm making the right decisions? 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:14.080 How do I know that my life is going somewhere? 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:21.520 How do I know that I'm not wasting my time, my love, my suffering, my vocation, my marriage, my family? 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.479 But Jesus does not give Thomas a map. 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:28.800 He gives him himself. 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:32.960 I am the way, the truth and the life. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:43.280 Not I will show you the way, not I will explain this truth to you, not I will point you towards life. 00:02:43.520 --> 00:02:45.599 No, he says, I am. 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:48.240 I am the way. 00:02:49.759 --> 00:02:52.639 That is the claim that changes everything. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:03:03.360 Because Christianity is not first a system of ideas, it's not a moral code, it's not a cultural inheritance, some nice philosophical ideas. 00:03:03.520 --> 00:03:06.479 It's not even the first set of beautiful traditions. 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:08.800 Christianity is a person. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.800 The way is a person, the truth is a person, the life is a person. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:21.199 And that means the deepest question of your life is not, what do I believe? 00:03:21.759 --> 00:03:25.360 The deepest question is, whom do I trust? 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:28.719 Because everyone trusts someone. 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:31.360 We trust voices we follow. 00:03:31.439 --> 00:03:34.240 We trust opinions we repeat. 00:03:34.479 --> 00:03:36.479 We trust the fears we obey. 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:39.759 We trust the wounds we let define us. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.360 We trust a culture when it tells us what matters. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:47.039 We trust success when it promises us an identity. 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.560 We trust comfort when it promises us peace. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:57.039 And then Jesus stands in the middle of all of that and says, Trust me. 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:03.439 Not because the road will be easy, because I am the road. 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:08.960 That is why he says, In my father's house there are many dwelling places. 00:04:09.759 --> 00:04:11.840 Notice what he does not say. 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:16.240 He does not say, in my father's house there will be many ideas. 00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:20.399 He does not say in my father's house there will be many theories. 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:26.399 He says there is a house, a home, a place, a father. 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:30.399 That is what the human soul is starving for. 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:35.519 There is spiritual hunger, not just for success, but a home. 00:04:35.759 --> 00:04:38.160 Not just for achievement, but a home. 00:04:38.399 --> 00:04:41.920 Not just for distractions, but a home. 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:46.079 Not just for applause, a real home. 00:04:47.040 --> 00:04:52.160 Every person in this church is trying to have that home. 00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:55.360 Some people try to get home through control. 00:04:55.600 --> 00:05:00.720 If only I control everything, I will finally be safe in this situation. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:04.399 Some people try to get home through pleasure. 00:05:04.639 --> 00:05:08.319 If I can only feel enough, I will be alive. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:14.000 Some people try to be home through achievement and things and material wealth. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:18.800 If only I can have this, then I will finally matter. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:23.439 Some people try to get home through being through being needed. 00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:28.480 If everyone depends on me, then I will finally know who I am. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.240 But none of those things is home. 00:05:32.720 --> 00:05:34.319 They are all hotels. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:37.040 You can't stay for a while. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:40.399 You can stay for a while, but you can't live there forever. 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:44.560 And Jesus says, I am going to prepare a place for you. 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:47.439 That means your life is not random. 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:50.079 Your suffering is not meaningless. 00:05:50.399 --> 00:05:52.800 Your future is not empty. 00:05:53.439 --> 00:05:57.199 There is a place prepared for you and in your heart. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:00.480 But here's the hard part. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:07.759 If Jesus is preparing a place for us there, he's also preparing for a place here. 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:12.079 That is where many of us resist him. 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:16.879 We want the comfort of heaven without the conversion of discipleship. 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:21.199 We want Jesus as consolation, but not Jesus as the way. 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:24.800 We want peace, but we do not want to surrender. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:30.399 We want the Father's house, but we still want to decorate it as our own little kingdom. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.639 That's why this gospel is so powerful. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:40.720 Jesus is not simply saying, one day you will have a place in heaven. 00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:42.560 If only you're good. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:46.000 No, he's saying, let me reorder your life. 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:53.680 Let me reorder your life now so you can become the kind of person who can live in the Father's house forever. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:56.079 That's what holiness is. 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.639 Holiness is not some strange way. 00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.319 Holiness is becoming a home with God. 00:07:05.360 --> 00:07:10.160 And then the first reading shows us what that looks like in real time. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:15.439 In the Acts of the Apostles, we hear that the church is in trouble. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.199 It has its problems. 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:20.959 There's tension, there are complaints, there is neglect. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:23.680 Some widows have been overlooked. 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:27.279 In other words, the church is already the church. 00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:32.639 Human, messy, complicated, holy, but not perfect. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:35.120 And what do the apostles do? 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:38.240 They do not pretend there's no problem. 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:41.680 They do not panic, they do not abandon the mission. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:47.279 They pray, they discern, and then they call forth new servants. 00:07:48.560 --> 00:07:51.600 That's the genius of the church. 00:07:51.839 --> 00:07:55.600 The church does not become holy because there are no problems. 00:07:55.839 --> 00:08:02.319 The church becomes holy when problems become an invitation to go deeper, into deeper service. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:06.560 That is a word for every parish. 00:08:06.959 --> 00:08:09.360 That is the word for every family. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.319 That is the word for every marriage. 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:14.560 A word for all of us. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:16.480 Deeper service. 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:20.399 Stop asking for a life with no problems. 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:24.560 Ask for the grace to become holy through the problems. 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:32.240 Because sometimes the thing you're complaining about is the very place God is asking you to serve. 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:39.360 The widows were being neglected, and from the wound, from that wound came the deaconate. 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:44.320 From that crisis came Stephen, the first might the first martyr. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.840 From that problem came a group of saints. 00:08:48.879 --> 00:08:50.240 That's how God works. 00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:55.039 He builds roads through places we thought were dead ends. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:09:05.120 Allow yourself to be built into living stones, to become a spiritual house, to become people through whom others can find the way. 00:09:06.559 --> 00:09:10.240 So today do not ask God only to show you the way. 00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:14.799 Ask him to make you be part of the way for someone else. 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:28.159 Ask him to make your home, your marriage, your friendship, your parish, your words, your wounds, your service into a place where someone else can say, maybe God is real. 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:31.679 Maybe mercy is possible. 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:34.879 Maybe I am not lost. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.240 Maybe there is a place for me too. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:39.759 Because there is. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:56.720 And there is a road, a path, not an idea, not a theory, not a program, a person, Jesus Christ. 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:03.279 So, my brothers and sisters, he is the way, the truth, and the life. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:06.720 Do not let your hearts be troubled. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:07.919 Trust him. 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:09.600 Follow him. 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:11.919 Let him build you. 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:18.960 And then go out into the world and help someone else find that same road back to the home. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:19.919 Amen.