Friday in the Fourth Week of Easter at Mississippi Abbey

Scripture Readings: Acts 13:26-33; Jn 14:1-6

“I go and prepare a place for you so that where I am you also may be; where I am going you know the way.”

Jesus is going home and He’s inviting us over for dinner!

Jesus is the way to the Father because He is the incarnate truth about the Father and with this truth gives life from the Father to humans.  Christ introduces us to ourselves today as “Homo Viator in via”; as human wayfarers on a journey. When Jesus says He is the way He is saying that His life sets the boundaries that will conduct us to the Father. The boundaries will keep us ordered to the end. It is important to have a clear image of one’s destination in this spiritual journey. Otherwise, we won’t know if the obstacles we encounter along the way are worth it. We must be clear about what we hope in. And the boundaries will let us know (if we wander out of them) when we are back on track. A wanderer is different from a wayfarer.  

As we go along the way we will routinely carry out three life-tasks: what to believe, how to behave, and what to care about. These tasks will move us down the way if we believe the truth. But it is not just believing the truth; it is caring about, loving the truth. It is humility that allows us to care about and behave in accord with this truth. And it is loving it together with our fellow wayfarers. We need community for this because the way calls us to change—adaptive change—and we resist that especially when we see that it involves loss. And it will involve perceived loss because the way is Jesus and Jesus is sacrificial love. In trying to follow Him we will experience discrepancies between what we believe and how we behave and these will expose what we really care about. Then we’ll need to recall what He told Thomas today. And we can also remember His call to “Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart.” His meekness means He is non-threatening and accepts others openly and confidently. He is the way because we can learn from Him. He is the truth because He is humble. He is the life because He is meek.