Christ’s most wonderful promise

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

“If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (Jn 14,3)

What a wonderful promise Christ is making not only to the apostles but also to all of us, his believers, followers, disciples! Imagine the prospect of being with Christ forever. “You also may be where I am.”

These words should be etched deep in our mind and heart to reassure us that whatever happens in our earthly sojourn, as long as we are with Christ, everything will come to be as he promised. Nothing can thwart that promise made with divine assurance.

We may be like Thomas, always the doubting and questioning Thomas, who asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Given our earthly condition, it’s a question that we understandably ask.

But let’s listen again to what Christ said in response. “I am the way and the truth and the life,” he said. “No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

We should just enliven our faith, revving it up with a functioning life of piety, so that at least we can go along with what Christ is promising us even if we cannot fathom it fully.

And like another apostle, Philip, we might ask, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” To which Christ said in so many words that whoever sees him sees the Father also, since he is in the Father and the Father is in him.

Again, it’s a mystery, a supernatural truth that can only be accessed through faith, and not just by our own reasoning. We can never overemphasize the need to enliven our faith, because it is there where we can enter into the far richer world of the spiritual and the supernatural. Without getting out of the world of nature, we can go beyond it and not trapped by it.

This truly is a call for us to be real men and women of faith, of prayer and solid piety, even and especially while we are in the middle of the world, immersed in our temporal affairs.

We need to keenly remember that we are on an earthly journey here on earth. We are supposed to be with Christ in heaven as he wants us to be. That’s our destination. And he is the guide, the way. We need to be most aware of the truth of our faith so we can do our part in corresponding to Christ’s continuing guidance on us.

He is in every moment of our life, never leaving us, whether we are in good times or in bad. There is nothing in our life, including the mess that we may make, where Christ is not around to help and guide us. If we need mercy, which is what we usually need, he will give it to us abundantly.

We just have to remember the parable of the unmerciful servant (cfr. Mt 18,21-35) to reassure us of Christ’s most available mercy. Also, his forgiveness of one of the thieves who was crucified with him, plus that episode of the woman caught in adultery.

We should see to it that we are not distracted, confused and, much less, lost in our earthly journey toward heaven. That is why St. Paul said, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3,2) Not that we should disengage ourselves from earthly things. What we have to do is to realize that we should be stranded in the earthly things that ought to be pathways to heaven only, not things where we ought to stay definitively.

Let’s ask Our Lady, the Star of the Sea, “Stella Maris,” to show us the way to Christ.Email:

roycimagala@gmail.com