[00:00] Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever. This Gospel passage which we just heard, our Lord was speaking as they had just left the Cenacle and they were en route to the Garden of Gethsemane, where our Lord would begin His agony and His passion.

[00:32] Our Lord is giving what is known as His final will and testament to His disciples, to His apostles, as they are all walking towards the Garden, which spans three chapters, actually four. This is chapter 14; it goes all the way through chapter 17, but anyways. In here, our Lord speaks of His leaving them, His going to the Father, and He's preparing

[01:07] a place for them, etc., and He tells them an interesting phrase, "You know the way already, you know the way," and it's Thomas first who asks, "Well, Lord, show us," Master actually is the word used here, "Master, show us the way," and our Lord responds with one of the most famous phrases we have, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." We do it through Him, by the merits, His merits, the merits of His suffering on the cross.

[01:43] We go back to the Father through Him, and then another point here; now it's Philip that intervenes, because our Lord tells us, "Now you have seen the Father; now that you've been with Me, you've seen what I've done, you have seen the Father," and what does Philip say? "Well, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." "Show us the Father," and our Lord's famous rebuke, "Have I been with you all this time?" Now He's been with them three years; they've been together; they've seen all the miracles

[02:16] He's worked; they've heard Him preach and what He has been saying, and He's been saying over and over again, "I am one with the Father, I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me." If you read St. John's Gospel, it's there in every chapter, from after John's prologue, all the way through to the Lord's Passion when He's before Pilate; each chapter, that

[02:48] theme comes up; He repeats it, "I am one with the Father, the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father; I have come in obedience to the Father." He's said it over and over again, and here the apostles seem to have not gotten it yet; they still don't get it. He is one with the Father; therefore you see Him, you see the Father; you already know the Father through Him, because the point He's making is He's God.

[03:19] He's one with the Father because He's God, but He, the Son, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, and He's also one of us; He's man. So then He speaks to them of that, and then He tells us something else here, very strong, right? Well, because He speaks of the works He's been doing, and we've seen it over and over

[03:51] again; you can read all the Gospels and see that, how many miracles He's worked, almost always as a reward for faith. The words I speak, and how often we hear it said, "Oh, He preaches with such authority, who is this, where did He get all of this?" They know Him, the people know Him as a carpenter, the son of a carpenter; He wouldn't be educated; how did He get all of this, how can He preach with such authority, etc.

[04:23] "You heard what I've spoken, you've seen the works I've done, but you're even going to do greater works, because I go to the Father." What is He saying here? And here's where we come to the central theme of today's liturgy, because by our going out and preaching what we already know; here's the disciples who have already, or the apostles who have already seen and experienced and witnessed what our Lord is doing, and who

[04:57] our Lord is; remember it was Peter who spoke out for all of them, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," at which point the Lord gave him the name Peter, rock, and upon this rock I will build My Church; Peter will be His representative. All right, you're going to do, if you believe in Me, you're going to do the works I do,

[05:29] and even greater ones. We saw this also in the second reading, St. Peter himself witnessing here. If you don't, if you don't believe, well, it's you yourself who will condemn yourself. The stone will fall upon you and crush you, but if we believe in Him, we're going to do these works too. What is that telling us? And here we come; here's the central theme here: it's priesthood, all right?

[06:00] We who are ordained have received the sacrament of Holy Orders, all right? We have the ministerial priesthood, but you, all of us who are baptized, starting with baptism, also share in the priesthood in a certain way. You are going to go out and evangelize; that is what we are called to do, all of us. What witness to the fact that our Lord is God; He has suffered and died for us; He has

[06:32] risen from the dead; He it is who will save us; He it is who will bring us to everlasting life with Him, with Him, and He emphasizes that here, with Him to the Father, all right? That's the share that every one of us has through our baptism, and even more with our confirmation, right? Those are the three sacraments; I just mentioned all three that have the indelible mark within

[07:02] us, give us an indelible mark. It actually introduces a change in us; we become something we were not. With baptism, we become, we become children of God, all right? Which we were not before, because we are not in the friendship of God without baptism. But with baptism, we become children of God. Even with confirmation, so somebody at baptism generally professes our faith for us, particularly

[07:38] for baptized infants. Now at confirmation, we become adults. Now we go out and profess our faith ourselves. We become soldiers of Christ, so we become again something we were not before. Now with Holy Orders, we become a share in that high priesthood of God; we who will receive that sacrament have a share in the high priesthood of God, of our Lord. We become something we were not before; we become the alter Christus, all right?

[08:16] But bearing in mind, it is Christ who is working through us, always, all right? But the main central point there is by which that share in that priesthood we are called to evangelize, witness to the Gospel, witness to Christ, that He is the one who is saving us from our sins, and we need to be one with Him. In fact, that will be; now there are two points here. As He goes on, they're walking towards the garden; they're going to go through a vineyard.

[08:50] "I am the vine, you are the branches." In fact, I think, okay, it's not there, but that's what He tells them, all right? You are one with Me, and I'm one with you. Without Me, without the vine, the branches, of course, just die; they can't survive. But with the vine, united with the vine, they do; they grow, and they produce fruit, you

[09:22] see, but it's with Him, one with Him, and that's going to be our Lord's final prayer towards the end of these three, these Gospels, these four chapters, that I; in fact, that is the response of the oral psalm? No, it isn't, but it's in there, I think, somewhere, perhaps in the response to the oral psalm, all right? May they be one, that we will be one with Him, as He and the Father are one. "Where I am, they will be too." That shows His love for us, the intensity of His love, that He would even give us; that's

[09:58] one of the things He points out here in this whole long passage here, all right? "No man has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," but our Lord will lay down His life for all of us, anyone and everyone who will accept Him. And so there is our call again, I say, to evangelize, to witness to His love of God for us,

[10:30] to witness that our Lord is risen from the dead, and it is He who will save us, bring us to everlasting life with Him. And it's through Him we can do the works we do, the ones He was doing; now He's allowing us to do it as well, all right? We may not see the effects of it, the fruits, and we don't need to, but they are certainly there. Otherwise we'd be puffed up with pride and say, "Look what I can do." Nope,

[11:00] it's not you who does it, not I who does it; it's Christ working through us, always, and He is, if we will let Him, let Him in our prayers, in our work, in everything, in anything we think, do and say; do it for the love of Him and allow Him to work through us and bear much fruit. Praise be Jesus and Mary now and forever.