Jesus The Way, Truth And Life

In today’s Gospel Passage, Jesus shows himself as the Way to the Father, the Truth that reveals the Father and the one who gives the fullness of life of the Father.

What is it that Jesus is offering us by identifying himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life? He is offering Himself, i.e. with the way he lead his life on earth, and offering us his passion, death and resurrection as models to take inspiration from. All these are important for us to be purified and brought before the Father as the bride of Christ. Living our lives in Christ is not a rosy experience, but a challenging one. It is a everyday struggle to say ‘Yes’ to Jesus/God, despite all the disillusionments, confusion and a sense of betrayal. This Yes needs to be anchored in our own experience of God/Jesus, not based on someone else’s experience. In a way, each moment of decision for us, casts us in the boots of Adam and Eve, either to give in to the doubts and confusion or to do an active of Faith and trust and Believe in the Goodness of God/Jesus. There is no condemnation there, even if we fail and in choosing the wrong thing. But the condemning act comes after that, and is actually a self-condemnation. Do we find ourselves worthy/right to come in the presence of God, or do we want to hide behind fig leaves.

This self judgement stems from taking our focus from who God is, and making him the creation of our imagination. We make him a judging, harsh, disciplining, feelingless God. When in reality he is nothing like that. As God he knows human fragilities and knows that we will fail day in and day out. But what he desires, and this is what I understand when I read God walking in the Garden and calling out to Adam and Eve, enquiring where they are, ‘I know you have erred, but do not hide yourself from me, come clean and let me help you.’ To runaway from God is like the Prodigal Son asking for his inheritance, which meant that he assigned his father to be dead to him, because only in his father dying he could inherit his inheritance. We likewise assign God to be dead to us in turning our face from Him, when we do mistakes and not accept his Love for us even in our fallen state. This is sin, because this turning from God is what drives a wedge between us and God.

What then is the Antidote? The Truth that God/Jesus is Good and He can only Love. Weigh all the thoughts that come your way against this Truth and you will begin to experience the Fullness of Life in you.