The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 3, 2026
St. James Cathedral (Saturday 5:30pm and Sunday 10:00am)

Watch this homily! (begins at 40:30)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus says in today’s Gospel. Those are words meant to comfort his disciples. They need comforting because he is preparing them for his departure. These comforting words come in a long discourse in John’s Gospel at the Last Supper.
 
How can their hearts not be troubled? This is our experience too. When we are at the bedside of someone we love who is dying. When a relationship that has meant so much to us has ended. When we are fearful about what lies ahead in our lives, or in the life of our world, how can our hearts not be troubled?
 
Jesus calls out to us in all of those situations and says, don’t worry. He says to his disciples that even though he is going away, where he is going is to prepare a place for them, for us.
 
“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? 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.”
 
“Okay,” we might say, “how do we get to that place where you are going to take us?” Jesus says, “Where I am going, you know the way.” Thomas speaks for us when he says, “…we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
 
When we are afraid; when things are not going our way and our lives seem like they are in chaos; when we have to face difficult decisions and don’t have a clue about what God is calling us to do, those words of Thomas ring in our hearts: “Lord, I don't know where you are going with this challenge in my life. How can I possibly know the way to you, and this place you want to take me in the midst of  all of this?”
 
Jesus says to us, as he said long ago to Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth and the life.” The way through all the confusion and doubt and fear that we can experience in our lives; the path through all of that is not a particular road or strategy, but a person - the person of Jesus.
 
Drawing close to him in prayer, developing a deeper and deeper relationship with him - a personal, intimate relationship - can show us the way through all our struggles. Being close to him can show us the truth as well as the way. For the deepest truth in all of creation is the truth that Jesus brings, the truth that Jesus is.
 
This truth isn’t just intellectual truth; but the truth that comes from a wholeness, an integrity of life that Jesus shows us. And what he shows us is the abiding love of the Father.
 
As he says to Philip, to see Jesus is to see the Father. In and through the mission and ministry of Jesus, the abiding love of the Father is revealed to us. That is the truth that is fundamental to all that is.
 
Jesus is not only the way and the truth, he is also the life that the Father gives in abundance. Whenever we are lost or afraid or confused, Jesus reminds us that he has come to bring us life in abundance.
 
Whatever diminishment we feel in life - whether through sickness, or loss or confusion or fear, or simply the diminishment of growing older, Jesus tells us that this diminishment will not have the final say.
 
That’s why Jesus can reassure his disciples at the Last Supper to not let their hearts be troubled. Jesus is going to continue his mission to reveal the Father - even to the point of death. But this diminishment in his life will not be the end.
 
He will go to the Father’s house and pour forth their Spirit that will empower his followers to continue his mission and to do even greater works than he was able to accomplish in his earthly ministry.
 
Jesus has shown us the way, the truth and the life. It is he, himself, and his mission that reveals the Father’s abiding love - a love that brings new and more abundant life. It is that mission which is now entrusted to the Church, to us.
 
As Peter says in the second reading today, we are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his own wonderful light.”
 
We are here today, gathered around this altar, to announce the praise of God, through His Son Jesus, in the power of their Holy Spirit. We are here to once again be plunged into the saving death and resurrection of the One who is our way, our truth and our life.
 
And from this font of life, this place where we are nourished for the journey to the Father’s house, we are sent forth on mission. In this saving meal we are reassured once agin that our hearts need not be troubled, no matter what might be going on in our lives or in the life of our world.
 
And then we are commissioned to bring that reassuring message to our family and friends, to our co-workers and classmates, and to all whom we meet whose hearts are troubled. May they see and experience in us the abiding love of Jesus who shows us the way, who is the truth, and who promises us life in abundance.

Father Gary F. Lazzeroni