Fourth Friday of Eastertide – Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6

Thomas’ question ceases to be surprising the moment we become aware that it was posed on the eve of the fulfilment of “God’s promise”. The mystery of redemption (the Cross, the Resurrection, the descent of the Holy Spirit) had not yet taken place. And it is thanks to it that the words of Jesus about the way, the Father’s house, and the places prepared find an explanation and validation. This is why the primitive Church did not begin catechesis from the moral order, but from the redemptive order. “We have come here to tell you the Good News. It was to our ancestors that God made the promise but it is to us, their children, that he has fulfilled it, by raising Jesus from the dead” (Acts 13:32,33a).

This order also marks the way of repentance. It doesn’t begin with breaking from sin (the moral order) but with acknowledgement and confession that the Resurrection is the fulfilment of all the promises of the Father (the redemptive order). Everything else is now only the consequence.

Indeed, Thomas may not have known the way. When the Lord had risen, acknowledgement and confession didn’t come to him easily either. This is why I rely so much on his presence each time another candidate for the way needs to be led through this most important and at the same time most difficult threshold.

Come, Holy Spirit, and give us the grace of knowing the great mysteries of God!