5th Sunday of Easter
Acts 6:1-7; Ps 33; 1 Peter 2:4-9; Jn 14:1-12
I remember a time when I was helping to train a group of students in map-reading for adventure sports and this funny incident happened. A few of the fitter and faster senior students were far ahead of the others in an orienteering course but still managed to come in almost last towards the end. When I asked them what happened, one them told me, ‘Aiyoh, at the 2nd last checkpoint on a slope, we were supposed to go south but just went down the slope instead.’ I stared at them in disbelief before reminding them of the need to be sure of our bearings, but also realised how our reliance on the GPS has changed our relationship with directions and maps. Finding our way is more about following a blue dot or listening to instructions that using a map and compass find a route. It’s a lost art that can actually give us great insights into how we live our faith.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life – a saying that we know well but have we thought about what this actually means? Jesus is the way to the Father as knowing him will allow us to know where he is pointing us to, as Philip and Thomas found out. Jesus as the way is like the map and compass, allowing us to find a route towards God. Jesus is the truth in what he speaks to us, revealing to us what we need to know about God. Jesus as the truth is like true north to one who is navigating, a fixed point from which we can orientate ourselves properly. And Jesus is the life as he gives us everlasting life through the paschal mystery. Jesus as the life is how we make use of the map, compass and true north to go on the big journey towards God in our own lives.
Finding a route and charting a course with map and compass is something that involves the whole of ourselves as we exercise our minds to study the map, our senses to look at the compass and our surroundings and our bodies to get us to where we need to go to. Living out our lives as Christians also requires us to navigate our way to the Lord through the difficulties of life, balancing work and prayer, while always keeping him as our focus, our true north. The First Reading emphasises this as we heard how the early Christian community saw the need to have people serve both spiritually and corporally by electing the seven deacons to aid the apostles. The balance is important as we realise that the navigation can be challenging but we’re assured of something more than just a map and compass in our lives in the Lord.
The way and the truth help us to lead the life. And the life is a journey with the Lord who calls us. His words in the Gospel tell us how his presence with us leads us to him and the Father, assurance that just as he gives us life, he also helps us by being the way and truth. The Lord journeying with us in our lives is like having the master navigator leading us to our destination. We’re invited to participate actively in this life given to us, to learn the way and keep the truth in mind, not allowing the vicissitudes of life to distract us or to lead us astray. We don’t walk alone as the Lord walks with us.
So let us pray for the grace to find the way to the Lord, to keep his truth always in our sights as we live the life that we have been given, realising that we are ‘a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called us out of the darkness into his wonderful light.’
musings of a brush 