IN commemorating all the faithful departed, it is vital to believe that God’s mercy, moved by human weakness, is experienced by those who are faithful to the covenant, and that He does not deal with us as our sins deserve (Psalm 103:8, 10, 13–14, 15–16, 17–18). Jesus promises His followers that they will all be together again in communion with God (John 14:1–6).
Not angry forever
PSALM 103 is sometimes called the Old Testament’s “Te Deum” (the Church’s ancient song of praise and thanksgiving to God), in which numerous reasons are given on why one and all humankind should bless and praise the Lord. A final reason is God’s tender compassion (rahamim) and graciousness (hesed), as especially manifested in the covenant with Israel. In dealing with unfaithful Israel, God was slow to anger and abounding in kindness. And even when He was angry, like in the time of the Exile, it was not forever. Psalm 77:8 asked: “Has His steadfast love forever ceased? Are His promises at an end for all time?” Jeremiah knew the answer: “Return, faithless Israel, says the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord; I will not be angry forever” (Jeremiah 3:12). God does not deal with us as our sins deserve.
Like a father, God has compassion (womb-love, like a mother’s) for His children and those who fear Him, knowing that we are dust and weak, prone to sin. According to Sirach (18:9-13), the Lord is patient with human beings, upon whom He pours out His mercy, because He sees “that their death is grievous, and so He forgives them all the more.” We mortals are like grass that withers or flowers that fade: now here, then gone and forgotten. But God’s kindness is forever and will always be for those who fear Him. Mary herself sings to God’s glory because His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation (Luke 1:50), and those who are faithful to His covenant and keep His commandments.
I prepare a place for you
HIS followers are troubled by Jesus’s impending departure, His death. In His tender concern for them, Jesus calms their hearts by urging them to have faith in God and in himself. But faith always seeks understanding, and without it faith can have little impact. Without concealing His imminent departure, Jesus gives His disciples a mental framework within which to interpret His departure, a positive perspective that can dispel their foreboding sense of loss, with its sadness and confusion.
He is truly leaving, but He is going to God’s heavenly dwelling place. He describes His “Father’s house” as a large mansion with many guest rooms, more than enough to accommodate His disciples. Jesus will be going ahead to prepare a place for all of them, and He promises to return and take them to that place. Thus, they will all be together again. Jesus’s objective is clear: “So that where I am, you also may be.” Eternal communion with Him in His Father’s house is the end-time reality for us who are faithful to Jesus.
I am the way
JESUS assures His disciples that they know where He is going and the way He will be taking. But Thomas interjects that they do not know those things: Where he is going and the way there. Thomas still does not understand, and so he remains troubled; he is ignorant both of the “where” (the Father) and of the “way” (Jesus). By admitting His ignorance, Thomas shows that he is on the way to understanding what Jesus is teaching them. Jesus reveals the symbiotic relationship between Him and the Father, between the “way” and the “where.”
Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life.” And “no one comes to the Father except through” Jesus. He and His Father are so linked together that it is impossible to come to the Father without going through Jesus. Jesus is claiming union with God and the divine prerogatives of mutual indwelling and equality, so that to know one is to know the other; to be with one is to be with the other, and that is already now and not only later at His second coming. As the “way” (landas) to the Father and eternal life, Jesus is the way of the wise (Proverbs 4:11), and the manner of living in conformity with Him is necessary to be with God always.
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Alálaong bagá, God’s love and mercy for us is forever, so much so that even the death of Jesus is temporary, in the same way that our own departure from life is temporary. We, His followers, will be reunited with Jesus at His Father’s house. We must know and believe that, just as Jesus and His Father are so intimately in communion that they cannot be separated, we, too, are so connected with Jesus and, through Him, the Father that we cannot be separated, even by death. We are for God’s love, which is forever.
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