EASTER -V-A.: Acts 6:1-7, 1Pt 2:4-9, Jn 14:1-12

Many modern-day gurus suggest that it doesn’t matter where you are heading as long as you are moving and making progress. As clever or profound as this may sound, it is pure hogwash. What’s the point of making a journey when it takes you nowhere or in different directions where we will never get to meet? The Truth is that getting to our destination and knowing which route we must take to get there are both equally important. We cannot discount one while elevating the other.

 

Unfortunately, this is what many modern folks have bought into, and we have a name for it - “relativism.” It is basically arguing that everyone should be given the freedom to choose their own path and Way - that every idea, opinion or thought is as good as another. In this way, by not enforcing “one way,” we can avoid friction or conflict and maintain harmony. These cliched statements are some of the popular taglines we hear: “There is no right or wrong answer; it’s how you look at it,” or “let’s agree to disagree.” As innocent-sounding and pragmatic as these statements appear to be, they actually violate the basic foundation of logic - the principle of non-contradiction: a thing cannot be both right or wrong at the same time. Either one is right, and the other has to be wrong. And when we sacrifice this basic logical principle at the altar of niceties, we are actually rejecting Truth or claiming that Truth is malleable and can be reshaped to fit our agenda. Without a firm anchor in objective Truth, modern man finds himself constantly tossed by the waves of one opinion or idea after another. Without Truth, everything would be a lie.

 

Relativism does not only obscure our destination but makes us regard our origins as irrelevant. Someone rightly noted that “those who don’t know where they come from do not know where they are heading—because they don’t know where they stand.” Most people today would never acknowledge that they are God’s creatures and that human life begins in the womb. Well, the first may require a faith confession, but the second should simply be an observable phenomenon from science. Yet, both are called into question these days because they do not fit within the larger secular humanistic narrative which promotes abortion.

 

Can Catholics accept relativism as a viable belief? Well, the gospel gives us this answer. Jesus, without mincing His words, says it as it is: “No one can come to the Father except through me.” This is an absolute claim that does not admit exceptions. “No one!” Our Lord tells us in no uncertain terms: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Not just any way, or one among many equally valid ways. No! He is the Way, the Truth and the Life! If you find this troubling, remember that many Christians were persecuted, with some going to their graves defending this Truth with their lives, unrelenting to the end.

 

Christ is not just the way, but as St Thomas Aquinas tells us, He is both the goal and the Way - He is both the destination and the Way to get to that destination. He is Alpha and the Omega. St Thomas Aquinas explains it this Way: “In His human nature He is the Way, and in His divine nature He is the goal. Therefore, speaking as man, He says: I am the Way; and speaking as God He adds: the Truth and the life. These two words are an apt description of this goal.”

When Jesus says he is "the life," he means that he is our destiny of eternal life. He is both life and the giver of life. For He says: ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly’ (John 10:10).

 

Jesus provides us with another key to the spiritual life by saying that he is the way.  We remember how the early Christians in the Acts of the Apostles were known as followers of the "Way."  The word "Way" here refers to Jesus as the model of moral conduct.  In the Sermon on the Mount, he says to his disciples: "...how narrow the entrance and how narrow the road that leads to Life!'"  He is referring to his disciplined and principled life. 

Other paths may seem more delightful, more attractive by appearance, easier to trod, and less challenging, but there is only one Way that leads to the Father. It is Jesus who is both the Way and our goal because He and the Father are one. This is why the Church must proclaim and continues to proclaim that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is a subversive claim. It is a scandalous claim, but it is a true claim, and for this reason, it is the only claim which can assure us of Eternal Life. Of course, the Church also recognizes that those who do not know Christ or His Church through no fault of their own, will not be penalized. They too may be saved if they follow the dictates of their conscience as prompted by the Holy Spirit. But their salvation, too, comes from Christ and never apart from Him.

 

If we are not willing to recognize Jesus as our Life, we are not going to get eternal life. Are we on The Way that leads to eternal life? Jesus says that he is in the Father and the Father is in Him (Jn 14:11). Are we in Jesus that we are already at the destination, our Eternal Life? Let’s abandon all the other ways that we are on and come to the Way.