The events of life can leave us with nothing but worry and confusion to battle with. There are many things happening today that make it look as if rest of mind is not possible. There are many troubled times for man. We have health concerns, moral dilemmas, family tensions, not finding meaning in life, financial difficulties, failure and disappointment, and political upheavals to contend with. We are agitated and disturbed by all these. At a time of crisis like this, we feel that God has abandoned us. But despite all these, Jesus says we should not let our heart be troubled, as He told the disciples when the mention of His departure stirs up anxiety in them.
Jesus provides a solution to us as He provided a solution to the disciples. And the first solution is that we should believe in God. To believe in God is to put our total trust in Him. The deep communion with the Father that we share in Christ implies a total trust in God who is our Father too. We should hold on to that fact that everything concerning us is under God’s control. We should convince ourselves that God is bigger than any situation we may find ourselves. When we trust in Almighty God we will learn not to be troubled by any circumstances of life, since God is bigger than our problems. This unshakeable trust in God is to be our constant anchor through the stormy sea of life.
Another major solution provided by Christ is our assurance in the reality of heaven. Jesus asks us not to be troubled becuase of the reality of heaven, that He is going before us to the Father to provide a place for us. He assures us that there are many rooms in His Father’s house. No matter what we are passing through on earth, the assurance of heaven should serve as a source of motivation for us. Therefore, for those in Christ Jesus, death is not an extinction but birth into a brighter life.
We also told today that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The way Jesus is referring to here is not a geographical path or route one must follow. The way to the Father is to live as Jesus lived, to model our life and attitudes on Him because He is the fullest and most perfect expression of God. In today’s Gospel Jesus replied Philip that to know Him is to know the Father when Philip asked Him to show them the Father. By this Jesus claimed to know God in a way that no other religious leaders know God. This implies that Christians have more accurate view of God than any other religions. Anyway, there are many truths in other religions and the teachings given by their founders or expounded in their holy books like Toral, Gita or Quran, but we find in Jesus Christ the fullness of truth and life. Therefore, to live the fullness of life in God, we have to model our lives after that of Christ.
Summarily, dear friends in Christ, to enter the Father’s house (the Kingdom of God), we must walk in Christ’s footstep, model our lives on His own, we have to imitate Christ and lead a Christlike life. We must accept Jesus as the fullness of Truth not partial truth. We must measure our lives with Christ’s. So that before we take any important decision in life or embark on any important course of action, we should ask: “what would Jesus do in this situation that I find myself?” To enter the kingdom of heaven, Jesus is the Way we must follow, the Truth we must believe, and the Life we must live.
Remain blessed.
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