fifth sunday of easter

There is a story in the Buddhist religion of a mother who went to see the Buddha. First her husband had died, then the only remaining elder family member she had died, she was then left only with her young son. She then was left to watch as her boy took ill and died. She carried her dead child to the wise men looking for someone who may be able to bring him back to life. Finally this brought her to the door of the Buddha. There she begged him for a way to bring her son back to life. The Buddha told her to find a handful of mustard seed, the commonest of local spices, in the village. He told her that the mustard must come a house where no one has died, not a parent, a spouse, a child, or even a friend. The woman went off in search of the spice but at the first house she entered the grandmother had just died a few days before, at the next house she met a man who had lost both his wife in childbirth three years ago, and at each house she visited there was another story, another house touched by death. She reached the end of the village and in every house she had heard another tale of death. It was at this point that she realized that everyone and everything that is born dies. She went back to the Buddha and asked for wisdom and refuge to guide her in this world of birth and death…

There was a custom in the Buddhist country of Tibet of bidding a traveler farewell at the beginning of a journey. A group of friends would prepare tea and cakes and banners a few miles out along the road and wait for the traveler. When the traveler reached the group a little final party was had and good byes said, wishing a prosperous journey.

It is such a last gathering we see in today’s gospel. It is also in today’s we see one of Christ’s meaningful teachings to us when we are faced, as the mother who went to the Buddha was faced, with death. The words “I go to prepare a room in my father’s house” are words we say at the beginning of every funeral. They are a comfort to hear, to know that for each of us, for those we loved who are no longer with us, there is a place, at the end, to go.

We have the knowledge that to know Christ, to read of his deeds and his words, is to know the father, to know the creator of the universe.
Christ is the way the truth and the life. Christ is the wisdom and refuge we seek in this world of birth and death. He will be with us at death as he was with the martyr Stephen as he was stoned. Christ will be with us now if we are like newborn infants and long for the pure spiritual milk, by it we can grow into salvation. If we go to him we will be the living stones with which God will build the Kingdom of Heaven… allow yourself to become a spiritual house and God will be with you in this world of birth and death.