In the Gospel, Jesus is talking about his departure, and the disciples are understandably worried. So Jesus tries to reassure them and tells them about his Father’s House. The last time we heard Jesus talking about his Father’s House, he was in the Temple and rather angry that it was being made into a marketplace. But now we hear a calmer Jesus say “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms.”

The Jews believed the Temple was the place where heaven and earth would meet. But Jesus is hinting at a new city, a new world, a new ‘house’. Heaven and earth will meet again, he promises, when God renews the whole world. And at that time there will be room for everyone.

This promise reassures the disciples that, though he’s going away, it will be for their benefit. He won’t forget them. He won’t abandon them. But his promise of salvation reaches out, beyond the disciples on that dark spring evening, and embraces all of us.

Jesus says: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”. At first, this might seem restrictive. But we must remember that He offers those who believe in him this unique access to the Father by sharing with them the truth and the life of a loving Father desiring to know each one of us. And whether we like it or not, God will find a way into our hearts.