Bishop Barron’s Gospel Reflection

John Dunne told us that “no man is an island.” Rather, we are all interconnected. How do we identify ourselves? Almost exclusively through the naming of relationships. Coinherence is indeed the name of the game, at all levels of reality.

And Jesus lays out for us the coinherence that obtains within the very existence of God. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Though Father and Son are really distinct, they are utterly implicated in each other by a mutual act of love.

Now, the impossibly good news is that Jesus and the Father have invited us to participate in the life that they share, to enter fully into their coinherence. “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” What is the “house” of the Father but his own life? Jesus’ point is that there is infinite room within the expanse of God’s life. The love between the Father and the Son—which is called “the Holy Spirit”—can be penetrated, entered into, participated in.