Friday, May 17, 2019


Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6)

In today’s gospel Jesus declares himself as “…the truth.”  He means that he is the highest truth because he reveals God the Father.  In reaching for this truth, the scholar does not abandon the truth found in nature.  The physical sciences discover much that leads to God.  Nor should people think that the truth that is Jesus is different from the truth they are supposed to tell in daily life.  When we conform our words to reality, they will eventually tell of Jesus.  Nevertheless, God still belongs to another order than humans.  Jesus, who is one with the Father, has made Him known as much as humans are capable of understanding.

The pregnant gospel passage hints in different ways to the Father.  He is beneficent, that is, ready to shelter those who come to Him in need.  To reach Him one must follow Jesus, the way.  Jesus has just washed the feet of his disciples and told them to do the same to one another.  To follow Jesus, then, is to care for one another by providing service.  Finally, God bestows life.  More than being the source of life, God gives life in its fullness sense.  He enables humans to thrive, to be all that they can be.  In the end this means that all humans become Jesus-like.

Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  We might say that he is the true roadmap to happiness.  When we follow him we will neither lose our way nor become tired and disillusioned.  We will find ourselves ever satisfied, ever grateful.