Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
Their hearts were troubled because the sensed the approaching hour of the death of their Lord. In the face of such darkness Jesus sought to teach them how to hold onto hope. Humanly speaking, things were indeed likely hopeless. But not when viewed from the perspective of faith. The same sort of faith that one had in God the Father was also appropriate to God the Son. The Father was deliverer, help, stronghold, shield, and refuge. As a consequence Jesus knew that he himself need not fear. He was secure in the love of his Father. And because the Father had these attributes, Jesus, who revealed the Father, did as well. And therefore his disciples too ultimately had nothing about which to worry.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
Jesus was going to prepare a place where, together with him, humanity could rest in the love of the Father. He himself was the true temple, but would be torn down and raised up so that we could be built upon him as living stones. He was the Body that would suffer and die so that we could be united with him as his members. No impressive design, size, or features, of an innate building could compare to the mansion Jesus was promising. The Father's house on earth, the physical temple in Jerusalem, was only a dim image of what awaited in heaven. To be his hands and his feet was a more exulted destiny, and more secure, than any inert and lifeless construction.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
This place Jesus desired to take his disciples was not yet ready and could only be prepared by his going the way of the cross. He had to reshape human nature, twisted and tainted by sin, and render it capable of receiving divine life. Then, finally, he himself had to become that life for them, by the power of his resurrection. His human nature was exulted and enthroned so that his disciples and we ourselves could hear it said of us, "You are my Son", not begotten as he was, but adopted into the life of the Trinity.
Where I am going you know the way.
Thomas said to him,
"Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?"
Sometimes we know more than we think we know, just because we know Jesus himself. We may not be able to map it out or to list all of the steps in the form of turn-by-turn directions. But we do know the way, because Jesus himself is the way. The more we follow him the more we come to experience in our own lives that he himself is the Truth who sets us free. We grow in increasing confidence that he himself, together with the Father and the Spirit, is also our goal, the source of the life for which we long, the place now prepared to receive and welcome us, our true heavenly mansion.
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