Dear Friends,
I recently read an interesting commentary from Eugene Peterson, the translator of The Message Bible. Speaking of Jesus referring to himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life, Peterson says:
Jesus as the Truth gets far more attention than Jesus as the Way. Jesus as the Way is the most frequently evaded metaphor among [so many] Christians…but the Way comes first.We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get to the truth of Jesus as he is worshiped and proclaimed. The way of Jesus is how we come to understand the truth of Jesus, by living Jesus in our homes and workplaces, with our friends and our families.
Yes! That is what Jesus himself means when he says in today’s Gospel that we are to abide in him and his word is to abide in us: We live Jesus’ words; we live Jesus’ example. We invite all to the table; we don’t make categories of “us and them”; we forgive our enemies; we have compassion on the hungry, sick and poor; we trust completely in the Abba who has every hair of our heads counted and knows about every sparrow that falls from the sky!
We live Jesus Way because that is the Truth.
Peace and every good,
Father Liam