The first two who followed Jesus asked him: "Rabbi, where dwellest thou?". We translate as dwell the Greek meneinin Latin, manere. "He answered them, Come and see." They wanted to know where he lived because they wanted to live with him. When he tells them "come and see".We can understand that he was also referring to the three years together, during which he would reveal to them the important places of his dwelling: where they could find him and dwell with him. We find these places by following the verb meneinThe word "to dwell" is very important in the fourth gospel.
The first dwelling revealed: after the Samaritan woman tells that she has found the Messiah, "Samaritans came to where he was, and asked him that he might morara with them. And he stayed there for two days.". Jesus dwells among heretics and sinners.
In the discourse on the bread of life, Jesus says: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood blackberry in me I in him".. Jesus dwells in the one who eats his flesh and drinks his blood. In the eighth chapter: Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him, "If you you dwell in my word, you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free".. Jesus dwells in his word and asks us to choose it as our dwelling place. In the dialogues of the Last Supper, after Philip's question about the Father, he asks us to choose him as our dwelling place: "The words that I speak to you I do not speak of myself. The Father who blackberry in me, he performs his works".. The Father dwells in Jesus and Jesus in the Father. Further on: "I will pray the Father and He will give you another Paraclete, so that you may more with you always. You know him because blackberry at your side and it is in you".. The Holy Spirit dwells in us. "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode in him.". The Father and the Son, that is, the whole Trinity, also dwell in us.
In the discourse of the vine and the branches, the verb to dwell is very present: "Morad in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in the vine. you dwell in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who blackberry in me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not blackberry in me is cast forth as the branches, and withers; then they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you dwell in me and my words moran in you, ask what you will, and it shall be given to you"..
The first disciples had asked the right question, and Jesus, throughout those years, answers in a way unimaginable to them. The chief dwelling of Jesus is in us, and with sinners, and we dwell in him. Through his flesh and blood. Through his word. Through his love.
