next update will be May 11, 2008

Sunday Conference 20 April 2008 Jesus the Way (Jn 14.1-12)

Last Sunday the theme was Jesus as the Gate for the Sheep. This Sunday I’ve chosen the theme of The Way. Jesus proclaims that he is The Way and the Truth and the Life. An “I am” statement we are very familiar with, one given in reply to the question raised by the Apostle Thomas: Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? (Jn 14,5-6)  This is another manner God relates to us, another manner God comes to us.

One of the earliest titles for the followers of Jesus is disciples of The Way. An example is given in the account of Paul’s conversion. He was on a journey to Damascus to seize and bring back to Jerusalem in chains men and women belonging to The Way. (Acts 9.2)

Raymond Brown in his commentary on John’s Gospel claims that the Way, the Truth and the Life are not three terms that are simply of equal rank or importance, not coordinate. Because Jesus is the Truth and gives the Life, he is the Way.  Jesus is the Way because he is the Incarnate Revelation of the Father (Truth), and if one believes in this Truth, it is impossible for one not to belong to Jesus. This intimacy with Jesus is the Life.

We should not see this idea of the Way as making Jesus a superb leader or superb moral guide for us. Nor should we see Truth as information that we can take or leave. And the Life is not having everything comfortable giving us a “good time” in our human existence.

When Jesus says “I am The Way,” he is saying that he is our only avenue of salvation. (Raymond Brown)  Bernard of Clairvaux and William of St, Thierry were fond of the verse from Psalm 34/35.3 I am your salvation.He is the only way to salvation, that is, to the Father, since he is the Incarnate Revelation of the Father, and the source of Divine Life.

Monastic life has been seen as an expression of this concept: The Way. One example: a group of monks asked Gregory of Nyssa for some spiritual advice on how to live a good, contemplative life. Gregory wrote his The Christian Way of Life in response. He sees the human person, body and soul, as moving towards God. This moving forward is a life unfolding more and more into the depths of the Will of God; Christ himself professed only to do the will of his Father. It is a matter of always doing good, of not being under an illusion of what is good, and of choosing or discerning that particular good which keeps our moving forward in a straight line and not meandering forward. This makes a person worthy of the Holy Spirit of Jesus who is the Life.

Then, there is The Rule of St. Benedict with its unique dynamism: the concepts of stabilitas and conversatio: stability in a monastic manner of life which is movement towards God. Benedict frequently uses terms that speak of a way, or journey or traveling to convey this sense of our monastic spiritual life as a dynamic process. The entire prologue is rich in this imagery. And there are many passages throughout the Rule that express the same.

What could be sweeter, dearest brothers, than this voice of the Lord, who invites us?  Look, the Lord in his devotion to us shows us the way to life. …Let us set out on his path with the Gospel as our guide….(Prol 19-120)

Another beautiful passage is: as we progress in the monastic life and in faith, our hearts will swell with unspeakable sweetness of love, enabling us to race along the way of God’s commandments…aka…God’s Will.

In Chapter 7 we are encourage to reach the highest summit of humility by a ladder of our ascent in this virtue. In Chapter 72 we are to compete with one another in the way of obedience, yet it is Christ who is leading us, all together, into everlasting life, that is, into the Father.

Benedict is very clear: We are to prefer absolutely nothing to Christ. (Ch 72) The implication is that our way of life is Christ himself who tells us: I am the Way: the revelation of God made Incarnate.

(Sr. Aquinata Bockmann, O.S.B., in her book Perspectives on the Rule of St. Benedict has a good section on this idea of way and dynamism, p 95ff.)

If we are faithful in living our monastic daily life as The Way, the experience of this daily fidelity will give us an insight into God as Father, which is the Truth, and what it means to share in the Father and Christ’s Divine Life: The Way, The Truth and The Life.

Daily fidelity to the monastic way of life and its values gradually introduces us into an experience of goodness which lead into an experience that God is good. While our human mind cannot comprehend or experience the very essence of God, but we can walk a Gospel path that leads us into the mystery of Divine Goodness. This mystery challenges us to an ongoing transformation in our life.

In the last Chapter of his Rule, Benedict wants us to attain to the highest peak of perfection. Why not? Doesn’t the Gospel of Matthew challenges us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? (Mt 5.48) Here we have the imagery of a way leading into the mystery of divinity itself. As we run with unspeakable sweetness along this path into God, I would like to think that as we realize our goal is beyond an intellectual grasp of what God is, which is a kind of seeing God, we find ourselves moving into a kind of darkness or an incomprehensibility that God’s perfection is love. Then as we learn to love the just and the unjust – everyone – upon whom the sun light and rain of our gracious heavenly Father falls (Mt 5.45), we are living in Christ who said: I am the Way.