“Jesus said to his disciples:

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled.

You have faith in God; have faith also in me.

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.

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?’

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

This part of the Gospel reading is often, very often, a reading chosen by grieving families for the funeral of a loved one who has died. It is a beautiful choice. It is filled with hope. Jesus will come back for us. There is a place prepared for us. Jesus is the way for us to eternal life. Death is not the end. A new horizon of possibility stretches out before us through the doorway of death. Death is not a final victory, but the passage to a new and eternal reality. In these images, it is a real and tangible home, eternal and without decay, a dwelling place in love. It gives us hope beyond this life. In the midst of the deepest darkness many of us will ever feel, the death of someone we love, it is a light ignited in our hearts. There is something more. There is something beautiful, good, and true beyond the limits of this life. There is eternal belonging and eternal love. Life conquers death. Love conquers all. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our hope. 

This is an appropriate reading for the Easter Season. Pain and loss are real and, as Catholics, we embrace the cross. But, the cross is not the end. Hope endures. Hope promises the dawn of a new day. Resurrection is coming. The Paschal Mystery, celebrated in every mass, is the story of death and new life. It is only when the seed falls to the earth and dies that it become a new life. It is only through, not around, the cross that eternal life is given. A new day, a new hope, dawns. Last week, I concelebrated at the funeral mass for Fr. Kenny Kamber. He was the oldest living priest in our archdiocese (that distinction now belongs to our own Fr. Oz) and had been a priest just a month shy of 70 years. The funeral was well attended and over 40 priests concelebrated with Archbishop Shelton. Fr. Kenny was well loved by priests and laity alike. The homilist, Fr. Roy Stiles, estimated that Fr. Kenny stood at the altar for mass, the memorial meal of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, nearly 26,000 times as a priest. How could his own life not reflect the life of Jesus? Fr. Kenny’s faithfulness and love give us hope. His entire life bears witness to the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the light in our darkness. Jesus is our hope. 

We are a people of hope. St. John Paul II said, “We are an Easter people and alleluia is our song.” Whether it is death, trial, or tribulation, we embrace the cross and journey through it with Jesus to a new beginning, to new life. Death is not the end. Death is never the end. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. There is always hope. Alleluia.