“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Imagine the apostles hearing these words for
the first time.
For centuries, the apostles and their Jewish ancestors had
been praying to God in the psalms “Teach me your way, O Lord” and here Jesus
was saying, “I AM the way.” They like their ancestors had been imploring God in
their daily and weekly prayers, “Teach me your decrees” that “I may walk in
your truth,” and here Jesus was saying, “I AM the Truth.” They had been begging
God in times of difficulty and oppression, “Show me the path of life,” and here
Jesus was claiming, “I AM the Life.”
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In this profound
declaration, Jesus declared to the apostles to be the answer to their deepest
and most insistent longing for God. Yet, these desires and prayers were not
exclusively Jewish, of course. They are deepest religious desires every human
soul.
I’d like to focus today on that first declaration, where Jesus
says, “I am the Way.”
Have you ever lost your way? Many of us carry around
sophisticated Global Positioning Devices and satellite-connected maps with us
wherever we go at this point, to avoid losing our way, and showing us the way
to our destination because being lost is destabilizing, terrifying. Many people
avoid traveling because losing ones way in strange places with strange people
is terribly unsettling.
But have you ever lost your way, in life? The loss of a job,
the death of a spouse, a financial setback, perhaps even retirement, can lead
us to question: “what’s the way forward. What am I to do now?” Being at the
crossroads of life can be overwhelming. Seniors in high school often feel this:
do I go to college, do I get a job, do I join military service, or volunteer
with the peace corp, or do some missionary work. “Where do I go?”
Sometimes the way forward is unclear among the many ethical
or moral decisions we face: what is the right thing to do? What is the right
thing to do to be happy. What is the right thing to extend my health. What is
the right thing to do with my money, with my time? Here we often face real
temptation: a choice to follow the way of the world or the way of God—and the
way of God is not always easy.
Well, what does it matter if I follow the right way? Well,
for thousands and thousands of years, in nearly every culture, we find that the
an awareness of the fact that the way that we follow in this life has eternal
consequences. What is the way the leads
to the best possible afterlife. If I want to avoid eternal punishment, if I
want to live in a way in which I can rejoin my ancestors, what is the way to
the best possible outcome of my existence?
And as Christians, we believe we have the answer to all of
these questions: Jesus is The Way. What is the best way to live. Look at Him,
follow Him, listen to Him, learn from Him. What is the best way to endure your
trials: Jesus Christ. What is the way to live forever and be happy in eternity?
Jesus Christ.
His prayer life, his obedience to the father, his teachings,
his example, his outpouring of his life, his sacraments, his Church, his Most
Sacred Heart, his embrace of the sinner, his mercy, He has the words of
everlasting life. “No one comes to the Father, except through Him.”
Now, many people don’t believe this simple truth. They think
they can be happy without him. Why do people choose not to follow Jesus? His
Way is not always easy, it’s certainly not popular. It’s a blow to one’s ego to
admit you need God. Americans especially, we like to pretend we are so
self-reliant, that we can build a life on our own. We don’t need anyone telling
us how to live, “I’ll decide my own way” thank you very much.
But we know that not every path leads to happiness, not
every avenue leads to human flourishing. Just look at our world. Look at what
happens when God is replaced with drugs, with promiscuity, with the pursuit of
internet celebrity, with wealth and power at the expense of the happiness and
well-being of others. A life centered on the false gods of the world will
always result in exhaustion and unhappiness—restless, lonely, confused,
addicted, enslaved.
Sin always makes grand promises it cannot keep. It says,
“Choose yourself, indulge yourself, define yourself apart from God, and you
will be happy.” But it never works. A life built apart from God eventually
collapses because the human heart was not made for lesser gods. It was made for
the living God.
Which is why Christians proudly profess that we should not
settle for anything less than the best way to live: Jesus Christ.
And notice: Jesus does not merely say, “I will show you the
way,” though he does. He says, “I am the Way.” The Christian life is not simply
about following a list of rules or adopting a philosophy. It is about communion
with a person. To walk the right path is to walk with him. To remain on the
right road is to remain close to him. We lose our way when we drift from Him.
We wander in darkness when we separate from Him.
Are you following the Way? In your priorities? In your use
of your time? In your moral decisions? In your speech? In the way that you
treat people? In the way you handle suffering, frustration, and disappointment?
How do you know if you are? Do you seek him? Do you include
Him? Do you start every endeavor and end every endeavor pleading his help and
thanking Him for his help? Do you draw near to Him? Are you still open to
learning from Him? Are you growing in his grace? Are you rooting out the
attitudes and behaviors that are inconsistent with His life? Are you being
refreshed by Him near the restful waters of prayer every day? Are you seeking
to decrease that He may increase? Are you committed to leading others to Him,
so that they may too, walk in his ways?
Today the Lord places before us once again this beautiful,
comforting, but demanding truth: “I am the Way.” If you want to know how to
live, look to him. If you want to know how to love, look to him. If you want to
know how to suffer, look to him. If you want to know how to be saved, look to
him.
And so let us ask for the grace not merely to admire the way
from a distance, but to walk it. Lord Jesus Christ, you are the Way. Lead us.
Keep us close to you. Do not let us wander. Bring us through the confusion of
this life into the joy of the Father’s house for the glory of God and the
salvation of souls.
