SYNOD ON SYNODALITY (2021–2023)
The cover illustration represents the exercise in which the Church is invited to engage in this process of synodality. Gathered by the Lord and guided by the Holy Spirit, through a journey of prayer, the people of God from all continents, representing diverse ages and kinds of lives, come together to listen to each other, including those marginalized, participating and reflecting on how to be transformed into an inclusive community sent to the mission in the world.
THE LAST WORD
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14: 6)
BY Fr Silvano Fausti SJ | Biblist and writer
“I AM”, an expression dear to the evangelist John when referring to Jesus in his Gospel, is applied here to three substantives, the way, the truth and the life.
Jesus, as the beloved Son who loves the Father and His brothers and sisters, is for us the Way of salvation, because He reveals to us the Truth of God and of man; and He is for us the Life, because He gives us His love, which is the very life of God. For in Him the life of all that exists resides (Jn 1: 4), and He possesses and communicates Life like the Father does (Jn 5: 26).
The way is not a road, but a person to be followed; the truth is not a concept, but a man to be encountered; the life is not a biological fact, but love to be experienced.
The way is always in reference to the Father’s house, from which or towards which the believer walks. The way of God is traditionally the law. Now, the doctrine of Jesus (Acts 9: 2; 24: 22), is the new law, which brings us home.
The ‘truth of God’ is the flesh of Jesus, the Son who makes us see the Father. The ‘life of God’ is the same love between the Father and the Son which Jesus witnessed by His life and has given to us through His death. Other paths lead astray, other truths are fallacious, other proposals for life are deadly.
Jesus, as the Way, leads us back to our identity, where we come from; as the Truth, He makes us see our own reality as children and that of God as Father and as Life, He is the love of God himself, beginning and end of everything.
Jesus is the way because He is the truth of love, which gives life. Thomas will find this way by entering into His wounds; in them he will touch the truth of an extreme love that knows how to give life. It is not so much a way to go, like the law; it is rather a way that leads us, because it gives us the grace and truth of the Son (Jn 1: 17).
No one comes to the Father except through me. One would expect to hear: No one ‘goes’ to the Father… but Jesus says ‘comes,’ because He is in the Father and the Father is in Him (Jn 14: 10). His very going away to prepare a place for us is a coming to us (Jn 14: 3); the love that He reveals to us on the Cross draws us and unites us to Him, making us capable of loving as He loves us.
Jesus, the Son, is the only way to return to the Father; through Him we know and love God, we know and love our brothers and sisters. This does not mean that whoever does not know Him is lost. In fact, the Son, the eternal Word of the Father, has always been at work, in infinite ways, to enlighten every person and make them know the truth of love (Jn 1: 9, 14). In fact, “whoever loves is begotten by God and knows God” (1 Jn 4: 7b), “for God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8b).
| Dates To Remember |
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June 1 – Global Day of Parents 4 – International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression 5 – Pentecost Sunday 5 – World Environment Day 8 – World Oceans Day 12 – World Day Against Child Labour 13 – International Albinism Awareness Day 15 – World Elder Abuse Awareness Day 16 – National Youth Day in South Africa 17 – World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 19 – International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict 20 – World Refugee Day 23 – International Widows’ Day 26 – International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 27 – Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day July 3 – International Day of Cooperatives 11 – World Population Day 15 – World Youth Skills Day 18 – Nelson Mandela International Day 24 – World Day of Prayer for Grandparents and the Elderly 30 – International Day of Friendship 30 – World Day against Trafficking in Persons |
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