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May 3, 2022“I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
The gospel passage on today’s feast of the apostles Sts. Philip and James is John 14:6-14.
Jesus speaks these well-known words (Jn. 14: 6) to His apostles in the context of the Last Supper. Jesus has just said that He goes ahead to
prepare a place for them,
“so that where I am, there you may be also.”
Thomas tells Him that they do not know where He is going, so that they cannot possibly know the way.
I used to think (mistakenly, as i now realize) that these words were certainly very beautiful, but also rather rhetorical and lofty, not to be taken too literally. I now see much more clearly that Jesus meant exactly what He was saying.
Jesus is God Made Flesh, the embodiment of God, God incarnate. He tells them in this same passage that to know Him is to know the Father (that is, God Himself). Jesus is the perfect revelation of precisely Who God is. Jesus, therefore, is the way to God. To be Christ-like is to be God-like. The mind and heart of God is to be found in the mind and heart of Jesus. And we find His mind and heart clearly revealed in the life and words of Jesus as told to us in the gospels.
Never in my lifetime has the notion and understanding of the meaning of Truth and facts and reality been less clear and agreed upon than currently.
So in this context I find Jesus’ statement that He is the Truth more
important, orienting, and clarifying than ever before. The values and
priorities that He lived out, for me personally (for us?,) give direction in the midst of the “confusion” of these days.
For example, to mask or not to mask. This was a burning question not very long ago. Is wearing the mask a violation of my personal rights and freedom (the focus here being me), or it is an expression of my concern (i.e. “love”) for my neighbor? Suddenly the tension ceased to exist for me. The choice was clear.
More recently, another example: the commandment “to love your neighbor as yourself”. This central commandment has informed the position of the Church regarding immigration issues, a position which has come under very recent criticism in some quarters. Is the truth of Jesus’ words in question?
We believe that Jesus has promised all of us the gift of Eternal Life. The Resurrection is His pledge of this. He is the Life. And both in the hereafter and in the here and now. My lived experience tells me that I am more fully alive when i am not focused primarily on myself but rather on the welfare and good of my neighbor.
Jesus’ desire for us is that He be the center of our lives, giving them both meaning, clarity, and direction.
“Alternative realities” and other options surround us in abundance. The choice is ours.
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.”
Words to live by.
