"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life"

In the Gospel of today, Jesus says about himself: “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life.” 

Jesus Christ is the Way back. Jesus is the way because the Son, who was with the Father, came to us and returned to the Father showing us the way to our house, where we are at home.

In Jewish tradition the way is the law that starts life, the life of God. The new law is Jesus the Son, but the law of the Son is no longer something or someone that ties, his is the law of freedom: the freedom of the Son, who is the way because he is the truth that sets us free. It is a freedom that is able to give freely life as an offer of communion. Only Christ is the way to the realization of the deepest desires of the human heart, and Christ does not save us in spite of our humanity, but through it, taking into account also our fear and our weaknesses/limits. And while recognizing that our life is a struggle, he teaches us that life is a battle for the good, for the truth met in Christ who embraces us from the Cross, feeds us with the Eucharist, and forgives us in the sacrament of Confession. He is the way of forgiveness.

"Lazy, get up! The way itself is coming to you and shook you from sleep;

and if it has been able to shake you, get up and walk! “(St. Augustine of Hippo)

Jesus says: I AM the truth. He is the Way because He is the truth that makes us free and allows us to live. The truth is that God is our Father and we are his children in the Son. Jesus revealed the Father as love and freedom and absolute gift to the Son. This is the truth. Our truth is the truth of God who is our Father and loves us so infinitely to give His Son for us. This makes us understand our infinite dignity.

Finally, “What is Life?” It is the love between the Father and the Son; it is the life of God. Let also ask ourselves what is a man alive? It is the one that knows how to love and to give life. And Jesus gave us life, the life of God; He has given us the love of God as our life.

Only with the encounter with the risen Christ the disciples understood that He Is the way, and that his offered love, is the way, that His love is the “embodied truth”, that His love is the life. Why does Jesus say these words at the Last Supper? To make it clear to his disciples that they should not be distressed by the fact that he leaves and goes away dying infamously.

Just going away, He becomes the way, the truth and the life and gives meaning to our journey because we all walk and we’ll go away. Our leave and our return to our home will be in the way of truth and life. The Truth that is Christ unites us to the life of love of God, who welcomes us as a merciful Father.

Easter Sunday 5 - A