by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

If you have ever been lost than you know what a difficult and stressful experience it can be. Nowadays we have satellite navigation systems and many other technological aids, such as Map Quest and Yahoo Maps, which can help us find our way to where we want to go. However, sometimes it is a little bit of human input and help, along with the experience of someone who personally knows the route, which can be even more beneficial to us in getting to where we want to go.

There is a story told about a couple of tourists who were spending a few days on vacation in Maine. They really enjoyed walking the back roads and the byways. One day, however, they wandered so far that they had no idea how to find their way back to the hotel where they were staying. As the daylight hours were beginning to dwindle, they were relieved to suddenly spot and old man sitting on the porch of his cottage enjoying the setting sun. Explaining their predicament, and where they needed to get back to, they asked him for directions. The old man thought for a few moments, shook his head slowly, and said, “Ah, I know the place you mean. The trouble is, if you want to get there, you wouldn’t want to be starting from here.”

Today’s gospel from John takes place at the Last Supper and is called the “Last Discourse.” It goes on for approximately four chapters as Jesus prepares his disciples for his imminent departure from them. But, he also assures them that he is going to prepare a place for them, so that where he is, they also may be.

In the story I just related, the final line goes: “You wouldn’t want to be starting from here.” In a sense, that is what the disciples seem to be thinking in today’s gospel. Jesus has just told them he is going away. And despite all his assurances, and his words of comfort to them, they are worried. They wonder how they will be able to go on without him, and how they will ever manage to follow him where he says is going. It is Thomas who sums up what they are all silently thinking when he says: “Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” This is most definitely not where they want to be starting from.

If heaven is our ultimate destination, how can we be sure we know the way there without some kind of map or guide? In response to Thomas’ question, Jesus doesn’t draw a map, or give a set of directions. Jesus proclaims, “I am the way;” and, not only the way, but also,” the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” he says. He did not simply give advice and direction, but rather, states that he, personally, is the way, and we cannot miss it. He is the only one who can lead and guide us each and every day.

The Lord Jesus says that he is the Truth. Many people might be able to say, “I have taught you the truth;” but, it is only Jesus who can say, “I am the Truth.” Moral truth – morality - cannot be conveyed to others by words alone; it must also be conveyed by example. And it is Jesus who embodies absolute truth in his personhood.

Jesus also is the Life. He not only shows us the correct path of life, but he also gives us the kind of life that only God can give – and that is eternal life. Jesus is our way of life. If we live out our lives in the truth of Jesus’ living and life, than, as we heard in the second reading, we will be “living stones, built as an edifice of spirit, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

One of the greatest truths of the Christian faith is that we can know the living God. Our knowledge of God is not simply limited to knowing something about God, but we can know God personally. The essence of Christianity, and what makes it distinct from all other religions, is the knowledge of God as our Father – Abba – our Dad. To see Jesus is to see what God is like. In Jesus we see the perfect love of God – a God who cares intensely about us and who yearns over us, loving us to the point of laying down his life for us upon the Cross. Jesus is the revelation of God - a God who loves us completely, unconditionally, and perfectly.

The months and years that the disciples had spent with Jesus had been for a purpose. As they had spent time with him, hearing his words, watching the things he did, sharing the life he lived, they had, themselves, started to change. Sometimes they had indeed been slow to understand; and sometimes they got things wrong, and sometimes, they would continue to do so. But they had learned; not only from Jesus’ teaching, but also, from his example. They had seen and witnessed the way he related to people. They saw how he had put the loving will of God, his Father, first in his life. They saw the way he lived his life. Consequently, they slowly, but surely, began to know the way, and to live it out themselves. They had come to see it as the way of truth; they had come to know it as the way to life. And so they became followers of The Way.

We, too, are called to follow Jesus’ example; but we are not expected to do so alone. When Jesus told his disciples that he would no longer be physically present with them, he also gave them a promise. He said that when he returned to his Father, he would send them the Spirit of Truth, who would remain with them always. It would be through that Spirit that they would be able to perform even greater works than those of Jesus, himself, he said. We see this happening in the amazing growth of the Church in the Acts of the Apostles that we hear being read throughout this Easter season.

That same promise holds true for us today. We, too, are followers of The Way. We are not lost on the road; and we are not abandoned to make our own way. We are, in Peter’s words, “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation.”  As we follow the Way of Jesus, we can know and rest assured that we have the promised Spirit with us, to guide us and show us the way to our Father’s house with its many dwelling places, our true and eternal home.