God is in the details – John 14:1-13

Beginning a Lenten series (that will be rather short due to Break and a few other special weekends) on the Farewell Discourse from John's gospel for OC.  The central example of this homily is drawn from the process of requesting permission to become a lifelong vowed religious (petitioning for final or perpetual vows).

[Jesus said,] “Do not let your hearts be troubled: have faith in God, have faith also in me.

“In my father’s house, there are many dwelling places.  If there were not, would I have said to you that I am going to prepare a place for you?

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.

“And you know the way where I am going.”

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No-one comes to the Father except through me.

“If you have known me, you will know the Father.  And from now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus said to him, “I have been with you for this long, and you do not know me, Philip?  Whoever sees me is seeing the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the father?’

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own behalf, but the Father dwelling in me performs His works.

“Believe in me, since I am in the Father and the Father is in me.  Or if you can’t, believe through these works.

“Very truly I say to you: Whoever believes in me will do the works I do and will do greater than these, because I am going to the Father.

“And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

~~

The hardest part of writing a petition is starting it.  Sitting down over Christmas break to write a petition for final vows, at first I was at a loss for how to begin.  How do I explain how perpetual profession makes sense for me, when such an extravagant gift of self is not in the least bit sensible?  Being at a loss gave way to frustration, when I read over the brief for the petition.  In five pages, we had to cover all five pillars, three vows and talk about our intercultural experience and willingness to serve overseas.  Where would there be space for this and the spiritual magnum opus I was at a loss for how to write?

So, I started writing.  I started with all the factual details they had asked for.  Details reflected on at a depth level, but still details: the ins and outs of my life in formation so far.  And that was when it hit.  My clearest articulation for why I’m convinced God is calling me to live and die as a religious of the Congregation of Holy Cross does not lie in some clever reasoning or virtuoso prose; it’s not some abstract esoteric secret that I need to dig out and display.  It’s right here, in my life, in the details, the things I take for granted, my day to day over the last 1664 days.

“Lord, show us the Father.”  It’s a bold request that Philip makes at the Last Supper, a request that evidences the kind of trust Jesus called his disciples to – “have faith in the Father, have faith also in me.”  It’s a faith that shows very little understanding.  And for two thousand years of theological reflection for the Church, and a hundred odd credit hours for me: our faith can often show a similar lack of understanding, or at least forgetfulness.  “Show me the Father” and make it esoteric and grandiose and dramatic and hermetically separate from my day to day!

“I have been with you for this long and you do not know me?”

The more I pray with this passage from John’s telling of Jesus’ farewell discourses, the less it surprises me that Moreau had his novices memorize it.  Make bold requests in prayer, but remember to look for the response in the daily details we so often look past.  The disciples were asked to take the risky step of putting their faith in a dying man.  The world may be passing away, but in and through a dying world, we find him, we find Life.