First Reading – Acts 6: 1 – 7
Second Reading – 1 Peter 2: 4 – 9
Gospel – John 14: 1 – 12
“I am the way the truth and the Life”
When St. John Chrysostom was summoned before the Roman Emperor Arcadius and threatened with banishment, he replied, “You cannot banish me, for the world is my Father’s house.” “Then I will kill you,” exclaimed the Emperor angrily. “No, you cannot,” retorted Chrysostom, “because my life is hidden with Christ in God.” “Your treasures shall be confiscated,” the Emperor replied grimly. “Sir, you can’t do that because my treasures are in Heaven as my heart is there.” “I will drive you from your people, and you shall have no friends left,” threatened the Emperor. “That you cannot do either, Sir, for I have a Friend in Heaven Who has said, ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, gives us the same assurance. “In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” The disciples are gathered together with Jesus on the last Thursday night of his life in the Upper Room for the Last Supper. The departing Jesus instructs them about how they are to preserve his memory and carry on his mission. As his final hours on earth approach, Jesus prepares his disciples by explaining to them the full significance of what will happen. He will return to his Father and send them the gift of the Holy Spirit. And after dedicating their lives to leading others to the Faith through the power of that Holy Spirit, they will be reunited with him in his Father’s house. “I am going to prepare a living space for you, a mansion, a place for you for all eternity… I will come again and take you to that place.”
It is clear that Jesus’s aim was pastoral, an attempt to comfort those friends of his who were afraid and who needed assurance. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in Me… “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” In fact, Jesus took three of the great basic concepts of the Jewish religion and made the unique claim that in him all the three found their full realisation. This means that He alone is the surest way to God. He alone, Son of God and Son of Man, can authoritatively and flawlessly teach us truths about God, and He alone can give God’s life to us. We go to God the Father who is Truth and Life through Jesus, and Jesus calls Himself the “Way” because He, the Only-begotten Son of God, is also Son of Man, the visible manifestation in human form of all that his Father is. To those who teach that all religions lead us to God or that religion used is immaterial provided man lead a good life, Jesus has the answer that He is the safest and surest Way to God because He came from God and He can lead us to his Heavenly Father.
Jesus is the Truth. Gandhi said, “God is truth.” Jesus is the Truth because He is the only one who reveals to us the whole Truth about God. He teaches us that God is a loving, merciful, providing and forgiving Father. He also teaches us the Truth that our Triune God lives in each one of the believers. Jesus is the Truth also because he has borne testimony to Truth, demonstrating through his Life and death the Love God is, and has for human beings.
Jesus is the Life. As God, Jesus is Life because He has Eternal Life in himself. In addition, He is the one who gives us his Life-giving Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Life also in the sense that He allows us to share in God’s Life through the Sacraments. Christ rose from the dead for two reasons: first, to give us eternal life; second, to make us fully alive now. His Spirit animates every moment of our lives. To be fully alive is to be in God.
We need to know Jesus the Truth and walk Jesus the Way: Jesus asked Philip: “Have I been with you all this time and you still do not know me?” He is asking us the same question: “Have I been with you all this time – in the Mass, in the Sacraments, in the Bible in the worshipping community – and you still do not know me?” If we really believe that Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life, then we will find fresh and creative ways to keep alive his memory. Jesus asks us to keep alive his memory by reading and praying the Scriptures, by gathering in Jesus’ name and celebrating the Eucharist “in memory” of him, by handing on the great tradition of Christian Faith and by living according to his wise teachings. Jesus says, “If you believe in me, you will do the work I do.” This is the work he’s talking about: creating safe, secure, happy places for one another in which the really important work of life — transformation and big-family building — can happen. We can help one another “get a life” in the same way Jesus did: by recognising the powerful effect we have on one another, for good or ill, and by consciously deciding to make even our smallest choices add up to safe, secure, happy spaces where every member of our big family can grow whole.