Easter 5 May 10th

I was in grade 5 at Warracknabeal Primary School, when the principal walked into our classroom and calmly said. “Johnny,” (obviously not his real name) “There is a message for you at the office.”Johnny promptly left the classroom and the real reason for the principals visit tumbled out.He explained that over the weekend Johnny had been caught stealing a radio. Things didn’t get better. Johnny had an older brother and in secondary school they frequently used to spend their lunchtimes in a passionate game of fisticuffs until either a teacher came, or one of them fell to the ground bleeding.On the night before Johnny was due to go to prison he took his life into his own hands.  I want to come back to Johnny later.This mornings gospel is one we are used to hearing at funerals. “Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God. In my Fathers house there are many rooms.” But it is the disciples questions that I find most encouraging. It starts with good ol Thomas.Jesus has politely explained that …He is going away and they know the place where he is going.Thomas replies, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’

Then Phillip gets on board and has a go.Philip said to Jesus ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’In response to Thomas and Phillip, Jesus points back to himself. To Thomas ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.To Phillip, and here Jesus frustration is beginning to show.“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father?So the answer to the disciples questions, and therefore our questions, is to direct our attention back to the Master himself.

All that is right, and good, and proper, but in these irksome days some of us, myself included, might be finding it a bit harder to see Him. We are unable to partake of Him in the bread and wine of the altar in the usual way and the chances of us seeing him in the faces of others is greatly diminished in this time of social distancing and staying at home.So what do we hang onto?A few things that I find useful and perhaps you might too.Someone once gave me a little metal cross. Its about the size of the palm of my hand and I hold onto it when I say my morning and evening prayers. Sometimes the hard metal digs into my skin and reminds me of a few uncomfortable, but helpful truths.The other thing that I enjoy is holding onto the prayer book or bible. I know that you can do all of morning and evening prayer on a tablet, or phone these days, and I get the whole … ‘not having to look up the lessons thing’, but for me at least there is something quite reassuring about holding a book in my hands. Finally, I discover things that I have missed in the reading of the scriptures. I’m chugging along and thinking “Oh yeah.. I know how this bit goes” and all of sudden I see something that I have never seen before. Or at best, I rediscover something I had learnt years ago and forgotten.Something else to think about. Perhaps the trick is not just wanting to see, understand and reach out to Our Lord. Part of it must be allowing ourselves to be accessible to Him. To be open to the possibilities of what He has to teach us and show us. Maybe its as simple as just making ourselves available and accessible to Him. We willingly schedule time into our diaries to listen and learn from others… why not for Our Lord as well. What is it that he wants to bring to his meeting with you?So what of Johnny. Johnny came to mind the other day at morning prayer. So I found myself praying for him, which is something I should have been doing for the last umpteen years.  The cross dug into my hands as a little reminder of someone who  also died a grizzly, lonely death. By a marvellous coincidence the lesson for morning prayer was something that finally made sense of Johnnys life in a fresh, helpful  and hopeful way.  ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe[ in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.