The Fifth Week of the Holy Fifties

Christ is the Truth, the Way, and the Life

He who has seen Me has seen the Father: the fifth Sunday is the last Sunday in the forty days prior to the feast of the ascension. Therefore, the readings provide a full theological report on the work of salvation that the Lord completed for our account through His incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension to the heavens, and sitting at the right hand of the Father. The vespers readings begin by teaching us about Christ abiding in us when we keep the commandments, as such, Christ reveals Himself to us and then He creates a home within us for Himself, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him andmanifest Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him,and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14:21-23)

As for the matins readings, they teach us about the importance of our steadfastness in Christ, just like the branches in the vine, while pointing out the importance of mutual steadfastness: we are in Him and He is in us, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5) Then St. John emphasizes the steadfastness in the mystery of the Word, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7) Keeping the commandments and the mystery of the Eucharist are the means by which we abide in Christ and He in us. When Christ abides in us, we become a dwelling place for him, and by abiding in Him we become living members in His body, which is His Holy Temple.

But why do we abide in Christ and Christ in us? “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh…” (Hebrews 10:19-20) “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) “…and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:6)

From a theological point of view, Christ is in the Father and the Father is in Him; He does not need to ascend to sit at the right hand of the Father, but He ascended in the flesh for our account, and for the account of His church, which is His body, “…and He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning…” (Colossians 1:18) Christ said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) Therefore, the readings of vespers and matins focused on abiding in Christ and for us to be branches in the vine, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1) The eternal building that is not made with hands is God’s heavenly temple - His glorified body, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.” (Hebrews 9:11) “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…” (Hebrews 9:24)

Therefore, He asks us to abide in Him, and He abides in us, and thus it is the way to eternal life. We abide in Him and He in us in His words which are truth, for He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life.