The Way
These are now his witnesses before the people. We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers he has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, “You are my Son; this day I have begotten you.” Acts 13:31C -33
Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:5-6
how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:5-6
Piety
Primary Wonder by Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.
Study
At work, we have an expression we use in memos. BLUF. Bottom Line Up Front. It basically means, tell your audience what you want them to know right away, without any fluff. No beating around the bushes. No long arguments. Avoid the “Whereas-Whereas-Whereas-Whereas-Therefore” memo. Put the “Therefore” up front.
It might be nice if the Gospel writers used that technique a little more. When the literal disciples try to understand the allegorical Savior, sometimes, they (and we) we lose something in the translation. Fortunately, Jesus comes back and hits them (and us) between the ears with the bottom line.
The messages we have today from each era ask us to contemplate and witness the “Sonship” of Jesus in relationship to the Father and where we fit into the family compound (many rooms, a place for us, etc.). Before the Resurrection, when Jesus would speak about topics allegorically, the Apostles would be puzzled as we hear in Thomas’ remark today. “Master, we do not know where you are going: how can we know the way?”
The weeks after Easter allow our hearts and minds to rest in two different parts of the Good News. One focus is in the Acts of the Apostles recalling and recounting the early days of the Church. The other focus is trained on Jesus’ recently concluded mortal life on Earth. What was puzzling before is understood clearly now. These are now his witnesses proclaiming the good news.
Perhaps no other term today is evidence that the disciples understand than the term “the way.” Thomas in the Gospels does not know the way. Jesus reminds him over and over again that Jesus is the way.
By the time we get to Acts, the church is now actually called The Way.
As Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas Diocese explains, Jesus is the “WAY because in his humanity we discover the TRUTH about who we are and who God is; and can thus direct ourselves to our LIVE, the full contemplation of his divinity as WORD eternal of the Father.”
Action
Are you a member of The Way? Do you know the Way?
“Membership” impacts WHERE we go, WHAT we say, and HOW we live as this “tweet” by the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers reminds us.
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