"I am the way, the truth and the life"
The Word for Sunday: http://usccb.org/bible/readings/051814.cfm
Setting out on a road trip or finding directions from one point to another has certainly changed over the years. Many of us remember road maps or something called a “trip check” that we would inevitably need to find our destination.
If
it was a summer trip to a National Park or some new destination you had never
been to, out came the map spread wide on the dining room table. You would find the road, maybe pull out a
colored marker and plot the route needed.
You would measure the distance in miles and approximate how long it
might take you to arrive for the night. In the end it was somewhat of a guess
and if you made a wrong turn or missed the road you had marked on the map you
either encountered an unexpected delay or it became an adventure in exploration.
However,
today we use a GPS which not only tells you how far the destination is but how
long it will take you to arrive. The
more sophisticated ones actually speak to you.
How often have many of us heard “recalculating” when we take a wrong
turn or change our course. All in a
matter of seconds. No more expansive
unfolded road maps or need to stop for directions. Now you just punch in your destination and
voila – just follow the voice.
In
our Gospel this Sunday, Jesus offers us a clear direction. His voice speaks: “I am the way, the truth,
and the life.” He encourages his
Apostles, and through them, all who would come to embrace the Christian Gospel
and the person of Jesus to, “not let your hearts be troubled.” That we are called to put our faith in Jesus
and know that it is his desire, and that of his Father, that we be united with
him in his “Father’s house” for eternity.
Further,
when Jesus implies that though he is going away: “I am going to prepare a place
for you,” then “I will come back again and take you to myself” we may scratch
our heads a bit and wonder what exactly is he getting at? It’s clear the
Apostles themselves were slow to comprehend the full extent of Jesus’ words and
mission before the resurrection event.
So,
this Gospel may appear on the surface as more confusing than clear. This is not Jesus walking with his disciples
on the road, or appearing in the upper room after the resurrection, or speaking
to Mary Magdalene in the garden as she discovered the empty tomb of Jesus.
Jesus here appears almost as professor attempting to explain to his students,
the Apostles, the mysteries of a post-resurrection Christ.
But,
we stand on the other side of the resurrection and five weeks into the Easter
Season we may feel the same way. While the resurrection of Jesus changed
forever everything and we see the transformation of the Apostles in their bold
preaching and martyrdom still we are lost at times. We need direction we need a
God who is not always hidden and mysterious.
Here
we can glean from Jesus’ words in the Gospel this weekend the invitation to
enter into relationship with him and each other. No one need be fearful or lost
for at the essence of what it means to be a Christian is not a disembodied
doctrine or a moral code, one among others, but a direct relationship with a
person, who is Jesus Christ the risen Savior, and membership in a family formed
by him.
Pope
Francis recently stated: “You cannot
understand a Christian outside of the people of God. The Christian belongs to a
people: the Church.” In other words our Holy Father is reminding us that actual
membership in a family and participation in that faith community where we come
to know and encounter the risen Christ is the only sensible way to live our
Christian life. We are not called to separation or individualism.
In
our shared faith, in the living encounter of the risen Christ in word and
sacrament, and in the love and service we offer to one another, we are
Christian. Outside of these crucial
relationships we are separated and distant from our very source; like walking
away from our own families and abandoning all contact with them
The
Lord Jesus, then, gives us more than a road map in the life of our faith
community. Through him we find our way to the Father, he walks with us as he
did with the disciples to Emmaus, he calls after us like a shepherd calls to
his sheep. In the life of the Church we
learn these truths.
In
a deeper sense the truth of Jesus is verified by the resurrection. Why should we not follow some other voice?
Why can’t we just apply truth according to the situation we find ourselves in,
which is the favored way of our culture today?
If
what Jesus taught was nothing more than a moral code of behavior then we may
accept many other truths as legitimate. But Jesus said, “I am the truth.” His claim
to be truth itself changes the picture for us in our oft confused culture which
claims that truth is relative and nothing is for sure or lasts forever. If
Jesus is truth itself, then we can trust that all he said and did offers
humanity a code for life.
His
call to be life reassures us that if we follow faithfully in his way, we will
know what is true, have confidence in his voice and not be troubled by what
life may throw at us. This is the fullness of life which St. Peter speaks of in
the second reading:
“You
are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so
that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into
his wonderful light.”
What
a claim! What a promise! What a truth!
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