Peace and well

30/04/2021

Gospel of saint John 14, 1- 6

In the Gospel passage we see that first of all he invites you not to be afraid: «do not lose your calm: believe in God and believe in me too.» He leaves, but that suits them: he is going to prepare the way for them. They too are destined to go where he goes, to «the many rooms in the Father’s house.»

Before the interpellation of Thomas, «we do not know where you are going, how can we know the way?», Jesus arrives, as always, at the manifestation of «I am»: «I am the way, and the truth, and the life : no one comes to the Father, except through me ». Just as he had said that he is the door, through which one must enter, he now says that it is the way, through which one must know how to follow in order to reach the Father and life. Furthermore, the categories of truth and life complete the presentation of the person of Jesus.

Reflection

At Easter is when we most clearly see that Christ is our way. A beautiful and powerful metaphor, which is now repeated a lot in the songs with which we sing the march of the Christian community («walk, people of God,» «we are a people who walk» …). Christ as the way is both commitment – because we have to follow after him – and tranquility – «don’t lose your cool» – because we are not going aimlessly: he shows us the way, he is the way.

We are people who have long chosen to follow him in our lives. Not only because we were baptized, but because over and over again we have consciously reaffirmed our faith and our following of him. But the simile of the path can help us to ask ourselves: do we really follow the central path, which is Jesus, with rectilinear fidelity? Or do we sometimes like to try other paths and shortcuts that may seem more attractive in the short term, easier and more pleasant?

Also, today’s meditation should be clearly Christocentric. To the «I am» of Jesus our faith and our always renewed and unambiguous option must respond. Aware that outside of him there is no truth or life, because he is the only way. That, which could remain in very solemn words, should be noted in the thousand little details of each day, because we continually try to follow their lifestyle in our dealings with others, in our experience of history, in our way of judging events. . Christ is the one who goes before us. To follow in his footsteps is to follow his path.

That is why the Eucharist that we celebrate every day is our «food for the journey»: that is what the word «viaticum» means, which we usually apply to the dying, but we are the ones who really need strength to keep walking. Celebrating the Eucharist, listening to the Word of Christ and receiving his Body and his Blood, supposes that during the journey we walk joyfully after him, letting him «teach us his ways.»

Fr. Antony Majeesh George Kallely, OFM.