{"id":1439,"date":"2020-05-07T13:07:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T11:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=1439"},"modified":"2026-10-15T14:31:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T12:31:21","slug":"fifth-sunday-of-easter-a-john-141-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/predication.net\/?p=1439","title":{"rendered":"Fifth Sunday of Easter A John 14,1-12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Introduction<\/h2>\n
Many of you use public transport to get to work. When the bus stop is crowded and you see a friend sitting on the bus, you will warn him to take your place. Or, when children go to the school canteen for lunch and see a friend at a table, they shout for him to take their place. It is useful when we are sure our friend is holding a seat next to us, and we have a place to sit. Why am I talking about this? To better understand today’s gospel, Jesus tells us: “When I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to me, so that you too may be where I am.”<\/h2>\n
Sermon.<\/h2>\n
The word of Jesus is significant because it clearly says that it will provide us, its friends, with a place in heaven. However, the apostles did not understand his words well because their faith was weak. They could not settle in their heads that Jesus would leave them and return to the Father. They could not imagine Heavenly Father or heaven. However, we should not be surprised, because the idea of God and happiness is challenging for us as well. Therefore, let us try to consider these facts together. We humans can undoubtedly prove God’s existence by creating things with our reason. Everything has its creator, its originator. Whether they are individual beings or objects necessary for life, we must identify someone who stands outside these things, because they have a beginning but also an end. The being that stands out must be without beginning and without end. That being is God. He created the first piece of matter from which the world came into being; He breathed the soul into man. He arranged the universe to have perfect harmony and order. To imagine God, we give him human qualities to the highest degree. That is why we say that he is infinite, immortal, above all loving, invisible, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, etc. With this God, eternal, unlimited, and omnipotent, we will live forever. Therefore, let us not teach children that God resembles an old grandfather with a long white beard and long white hair who lives somewhere “up.” This is a poor idea of \u200b\u200bGod! People associate the older man with incompetence, illness, deafness or blindness, and dementia. It is not far from any of us, because we live in it, we move, and we are\u2026 Since we were taught religion, we have known that God is in heaven. What is heaven? Catholic dogmatism defines it as the state of rational creatures (angels and humans) who have attained eternal bliss. For, therefore, it is not a place but a state in which the celestial person sees God immediately by the light of glory, and thus has a share in God’s bliss. It follows from this definition that heaven is a state of immediate vision of God. It is everywhere that the glorified soul sees God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church adds, “Or is the ultimate goal and realization of man’s deepest desires a state of supreme and final happiness?” Living in heaven means “being with Christ.” The elect live “in it,” but they keep or even find their own identity there, their name: Life – is to be with Christ; for where Christ is, there is life, and there is a kingdom. Jesus Christ “opened” heaven to us by His death and resurrection. The blessed fully possess the fruit of redemption brought by Christ; he joins his heavenly glorification by believing in him and enduring faithfulness to his will. For he is the blissful companion of all who have been entirely embraced by him. Heaven can also be understood by those who are images of the heavenly world and in whom God dwells. That is because it is also in use when we live in union with God in sanctifying grace. How are we feeling at the moment? Let us not shake our heads with the apostles and say, “Lord, is it difficult for me? Although understanding God of heaven is difficult for us, we are very grateful to Jesus for preparing a place for us with our heavenly Father. The passage St. Paul commented on says: Neither the eye saw nor the ear heard, nor did it enter the human heart, which God has prepared for those who love him.” The old priest remembered his long service and also told this story: I was standing over the bed in which the little girl had just died. Her younger brother held on tightly to my hand. The parents went to the crib, took the tank top, and carried it to a small white coffin. The boy pulled his hand from mine and ran after his sister. Big tears streamed down his cheeks. He stopped at the coffin, and I grabbed his hand again. I asked him, “Where do you want to go when you die?” “To heaven,” the boy replied. That’s when I started talking to him about heaven. When I finished, the boy thought for a moment and finally said, “If I obey the Lord God on earth, I will get to heaven!” The boy did not even realize the profound truth he had said. Let us also look forward to the beautiful heaven where our Father awaits us, as his Son promised. May our life on earth become for us a joyful encounter with the invisible God, whom we will see face-to-face in eternity.<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"