My Dear People, 

The Temple was the largest building in Israel and was full of storerooms, antechambers, and other spaces. Thus, in it there are “many dwelling places.”  Several temple terms are used here. “My Father’s House” is used as a designation for the Temple in other parts of the Gospel (Luke 2:49; John 2:16). Additionally, in Judaism the word “place” had a special connotation. It often meant “the Holy place,” that is, the “sanctuary.” All these explanations indicate Jesus is departing to prepare a temple for the Apostles to live in. 

Where is this Temple that Jesus will prepare? In one sense, it is the Church, elsewhere identified as the temple of God. The Disciples will live and abide within the Church, the Body of Christ, where they will experience communion with the Father, the Son, and each other. Jesus’s words also have an application to heaven, which is nothing other than the church triumphant. 

The Disciples want to know the “way” to make a pilgrimage to this Temple, and Jesus tells them: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Isn’t that rather arrogant of Jesus to claim that He alone, of all the great religious teachers in human history, is “the way” to the Father”?

Actually, it is not. No other major religious figure in human history taught God is a Father. Mohammed denied the Fatherhood of God, and Buddha taught no specific doctrine of God. Technically, Buddha was an agnostic. Some forms of Buddhism are agnostic and claim only to show you the path to Allah or to Nirvana. Neither do the lesser-known religious founders of human history (Zoroaster, Gru Nanak) claim to show the way to the Father. 

Only Jesus proposes that God is a father. Jesus and His teachings are “the only way to the Father,” the only viable path to knowing God in this way.

After emphasizing his own unity with the Father  (“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”), Jesus promises “whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and will do greater ones than these.” What? Is everyone who believes in Jesus going to raise the dead and perform even greater miracles than Jesus himself? How can this be? 

I’m convinced the sacraments are at least a partial solution to what Jesus means by the “greater works” to be done by the Disciples. The miraculous “signs” of the Gospel of John have been told in such a way “we can see” the resemblance to the Church’s sacraments; especially in the case of the Water to Wine (John 2); the Feeding of the Five Thousand (John 6) with respect to the Eucharist, and the Healing of the Man born Blind (John 9) with respect to Baptism. But, all the signs Jesus performs have some connection with the sacraments. 

Throughout John, Jesus warns people not to be overly impressed with the physical miracles, but to look deeper into spiritual realities (for example, John 4:48; 20:29). Seen from a spiritual perspective, the interior effects of the sacraments—like forgiveness of sins—are much greater miracles than the physical transformation effected by Jesus’s signs. Some of the Church’s greatest theologians have insisted that the resurrection of Lazarus pales in comparison to the power of the confessional.  

But raising of the dead to lif—the miracle by which a corpse is reanimated with its natural life—is almost nothing in comparison to resurrection of a soul, which has been lying spiritually dead in sin and has now been raised to the supernatural life of grace. 

Likewise, St. Augustine teaches:

“The justification of the ungodly is something greater than the creation

 of heaven and earth, greater even than the creation of the angels.” 

 Among the “greater things” the Apostles will do after Jesus ascends into heaven include the administration of the sacraments, (John 20:22-23). All the readings point to the Eucharist,  The Eucharist is the Body of Christ, which is the true Dwelling Place and Temple of God. By extension, we who participate in the Eucharist are also incorporated into God’s Temple. 

Those of us in Holy Orders, who bring the Eucharist and the other sacraments to the faithful, are key to the structure of this human temple. These sacraments are the “greater works” that when performed in Jesus’ name, bring us to the Father so we can dwell with Him and with the Son.  [Source Reflection on the Sunday Readings for year A by Dr. John Bergdsma]

Yours in Christ, 

Fr. Vincent Clemente