Don’t You Want To Know The Plan?

27 May 2025   John 16:5-11  

“Now I am going to the One who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are you going?’”  John 16:5​

The Twelve were certainly not chosen because they were the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.

Here they were, at what must have clearly been a farewell dinner, where Jesus says He is going away, and they don’t even want to know where He is going? They have grown accustomed to calling Him “Lord,” and “Messiah,” they have seen Him do incredible works of power, they believe He has the words of eternal life, and now, when He says He is leaving, they don’t even want to know what the plan is?

Even Jesus was startled by this: “Isn’t there even one of you who wants to know where I am going? Doesn’t anyone want to know the plan?” (see John 16:5).

Fortunately, however, Jesus laid out the plan.

1. First, Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit, an engraved invitation into the inner life of God. You will have the very life of God inside you, and your very life will be within God. All day, every day, from now on.

2. Not only that, but Jesus will renew that gift every day. He will send the same Holy Spirit upon the simple gifts of bread and wine, things that we make, and they will be transformed into the very life of Jesus. Everything that makes Jesus who He is will be in those simple gifts, and then He will feed us with them. That food will not be like normal food, the kind that becomes, as soon as we eat it, what we are. This food, transformed by the Holy Spirit, will make us what Jesus is – every day, at every Mass, everywhere.

3. And then we will be able to live in such a way, and witness in such a way, and serve in such a way that others will see and begin to suspect that there is something wrong with them if they don’t become what we are, that they are missing something of infinite value if they don’t become what we are, that they won’t finally “get it” if they don’t become what we are.

And all that starts when we ask, “So, where are you going? What’s the plan?”

A quote often attributed to Flannery O’Connor warns about the danger of asking questions: “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you odd.” If we ask to know the plan, we will find out, but it will make us oddballs. It is OK to be “deep.” It is OK to be “spiritual.” People who are “deep” and “spiritual” aren’t threatening to anyone. There isn’t anything about being “deep” and “spiritual” that implies any sort of obligation, like we should be deep and spiritual too. It isn’t the same as being “religious.” Being “religious” means there are rules, and expectations, and judgments, even final judgments. Being “deep” and “spiritual” doesn’t leave anybody out – there is only heaven. Being “religious” does – there is heaven andhell, and a plan to attain the one and avoid the other. And the plan to attain the one and avoid the other (among Catholics) has resulted in more hungry people being fed, more naked people being clothed, more homeless people being housed, more ignorant people being educated, more sick people being treated than any other plan on the planet has ever achieved. And that is to say nothing about the deep and abiding sense of meaning and purpose that has followed that plan wherever it has gone.

So, don’t you want to know where He is going? Wouldn’t you like to know the plan?