Choose the Way That Leads Home — Silvio José Báez, ocd
On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, we have heard the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples at the Last Supper, just before his death. Everything suggests that his end is near and that the outcome could be tragic. Jesus assures them that his departure will not mean the end—that he will remain alive in their midst.
He urges them not to be troubled by what is about to happen. His words are unforgettable: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me” (Jn 14:1).
How much we need to hear those words again and again!
Uncertainty, problems, and suffering trouble us in life—they bring sadness and anxiety. There is no such thing as a problem-free life, no life without difficulties to face or struggles to endure.
When these situations overwhelm us, Jesus invites us to trust: “Trust in God still, and trust in me” (Jn 14:1). These words are not a magic formula that makes problems disappear. What Jesus wants is that we live with serenity—the kind that comes from knowing we are loved and cared for by God with a tender love.
There are also painful periods in the history of the peoples, when the ambition for power, the irrationality of violence, and the disregard for human freedom and dignity seem to prevail. We must not despair.
Faith in God is our greatest strength and our surest source of consolation. When it feels as though the paths are closing and solutions seem out of reach, we must not doubt that the God of life—the God “who is just and loves justice” (Ps 11:7)—is at work in history, through our capacity to dream boldly and to persevere in the struggle.
To strengthen his disciples’ trust as his departure draws near, Jesus speaks to them of a house that awaits us at the end of life: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places… I am going now to prepare a place for you… and I shall return to take you with me, so that where I am you may be too” (Jn 14:2–3).
With this image of the house, Jesus speaks of a place that is welcoming, warm, and familiar—where Someone lives: God. A God who desires us, who cannot imagine himself without us, who wants us with him forever.
It is consoling to know that our final destiny is not death or the destruction of life, but an immense house where there is room for everyone.
This house—where the Risen Lord has prepared a place for us—is the very heart of our Father God, toward which we are on our way, to live with him forever. At the end of life and of history, a spacious home awaits us: an embrace of love, immense hands that will receive us with tenderness.
Our final destiny is communion and love. A Father’s house awaits us.
We must begin now to prepare ourselves to live in this house: by welcoming one another with love, by ensuring that human diversity is not a cause of division but the leaven of a deeper communion, by building societies where there are no oppressors or oppressed, where the dignity and rights of all are respected, and where we renounce our own interests so that we may live together in peace and justice.
We have to walk if we are to arrive. That is why we must choose the right path—one that helps us to anticipate, even now, the fullness of the communion and love of the Father’s house.
This is exactly what Thomas asked Jesus: “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (Jn 14:5). And Jesus answered him: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn 14:6).
“I am the Way.” Jesus presents himself not as a goal to be reached, but as a path to be walked.
We are called to act as he acted, to prefer those he preferred, to stand against what he opposed. Jesus is a way of freedom and love that leads us to the Father, and a way of solidarity and service that draws us closer to others.
He is the one sure path we can follow—sometimes with fatigue, sometimes tempted to turn back, but always moving forward at the humble, steady pace of a believing heart, with the certainty that we never walk alone and that the light and strength of Jesus sustain us.
Jesus is the path that leads us to true life and to God: “No one can come to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).
“I am the Truth.” Jesus is not a teacher who came to teach a religious doctrine to be learned and then applied to life, nor a set of ideas that leave the heart dry, nor a system of thought that can go out of date. No. Jesus himself is the Truth.
He is truth made flesh—a living truth that beats with love and that, by enlightening us, sets us free and transforms our lives. Jesus is the one truth on which we can build our lives, with the certainty that we are laying solid foundations to sustain our fragile existence.
Jesus is the Truth because in him the faithful and eternal love of God has been revealed—the one truth that does not pass and never will.
“I am the Life.” When we walk in the way of Jesus and rely on him as the one truth, he opens us to communion with him—a communion that overflows into a life that is meaningful, worthy, and eternal, given to us as a gift.
Jesus is the life that frees us from all the shadows of death that threaten us. He is the life that dies for love and rises again to fill us with divine life.
United to him, life itself is renewed again and again, even in the midst of the desolation of pain and darkness. And united to Jesus, one day we will see brought to fulfillment all that has remained unfinished: our unfulfilled desires, our frustrated efforts, our imperfect loves—our health, our work, our homes, our celebrations, and our embraces.
Drawn by the loving attraction of the Father’s house, Philip says to Jesus: “Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied” (Jn 14:8).
Jesus insists that they have already seen him and know him: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9; cf. 14:7). We have seen the Father in the intimate communion Jesus shared with God in prayer, and in the fidelity with which he obeyed him throughout his life.
We have seen the Father in the compassionate gestures of Jesus, which teach us that, for God, what comes first is not God, but the human person. This is the God in whom we believe—the God who has revealed himself as our Father in Jesus.
God is invisible to our eyes, and only through the humanity of Jesus can we see him. Jesus is the surest way to live, the most reliable truth by which to find our way, the most hope-filled secret of life.
In him, God has told us everything and given us everything. Saint John of the Cross explains this beautifully: “In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word – and he has no more to say” [Ascent of Mount Carmel II.22.3].
Bishop Silvio José Báez, o.c.d.
Auxiliary Bishop of Managua
Homily, 3 May 2026
Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.
Featured image: Olga Demchishina, Path with lavender in Provence, is a landscape photograph depicting a country path lined with lavender fields and olive trees leading toward a distant dwelling. It is available from Adobe Stock (Asset ID#: 107263712).
#BishopSilvioJoséBáez #JesusChrist #path #spiritualLife #trust
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