NOTES for Joh 14:1-11

In mathematics, the equality of two sets can be proved as follows: first it is shown that every element of the first set belongs to the second, and then the converse - every element of the second belongs to the first. It turns out that this mechanism applies to much more than mathematics. As we read in today's Gospel, Jesus Himself uses it when He says: “I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:10). We do not know why He does not tell the disciples directly that He and the Father are one, for He has already said this publicly (see John 10:30). Perhaps He wants not simply to communicate this as a fact to those closest to Him, but also to explain why it is so. This is probably sufficient for our understanding of how the Father and the Son can be one: everything one does is done through the other and in the other. If we try to penetrate completely into the mechanism of our God's inner unity and arrange it neatly “on separate shelves,” nothing may come of it. The Lord asks us simply to believe that it is so. And if we cannot, then simply to look at what Christ does and recognise the Father in it (see John 14:11).