Fifth Sunday of Easter: Reflections

The following message by Sister Ellen Keane, SNDdeN was originally published by the SNDdeN Congregational Mission Office:  

Read: John 14: 1-12
Reflect: Today’s Gospel passage from John is one I have always loved.  Jesus speaks to his friends with the following promise:
“I am going to prepare a place for you and when it is ready I will take you with me that where I am you also may be.”
While I was on retreat as I was preparing for my mission to Kenya this     sentence leapt off the page as the words came to life…What I heard with the ear of my heart was, ” Ellen, I am going to prepare a place for you and when it is ready I will take you with me that where I am you also may be!”
For me the words of Christ took flesh, as I journeyed to Kenya and discovered home away from home… A time of countless blessings.
As someone once said of scenes from the Gospel, “What help is this moment if it does not continue in our time?” If it does not continue in the here and now?  This line from John’s Gospel continued in the here and now for me.
Think of the countless moments when this was true for you; when you said yes to what was being asked of you and dared to step into the unknown,  only to discover that Christ had gone to prepare a place for you and when it was ready  he came and took you with him that where he was you also would be…
In my earlier years in religious life, I was not aware of this passage, but, one of the gifts of growing older is looking  back and discovering ever more deeply how true to his word Christ was…is…will be!
 
Read: John 14: 1-12
Reflect: 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. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
 
Meet Sister Ellen Keane, SNDdeN
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Sister Ellen Keane entered Notre Dame at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1963. Her ministries have included teaching, administration, pastoral counseling, retreat work, spiritual direction and training of spiritual directors. In 1981, she was invited to join Notre Dame in founding and developing a girls’ secondary school in Kakamega, Kenya, where she ministered for 12 years. Those years in Kenya were a time of awakening to the richness and diversity of God’s goodness, a homecoming of sorts that has remained with her. Sister Ellen currently ministers at the Spirituality Center in Ipswich.
 
This reflection appears on the SNDdeN International website.