A prayer service
I am the way
When we look at the life of Jesus what was his way?
It was another way of being with self and with others. There was another way of seeing and judging and there was clearly another way of acting.
What was this new way? It was the Way of more, the understanding that there is more than what meets the eye. There is in Jesus' way of living more for example to the sinner than the sin, more to love than loving only friends, and more to forgiveness than forgiving those who forgive us.
There is more to being last rather than first, more to giving from our surplus and more to true worship than parading our good deeds. And there is ultimately more to life than death. His living his way was turning it all around. Upside down and inside out.
The cries of injustice in our society today, the struggle for dignity and true quality of life challenge us to model a new way of being. The challenge is to proclaim by our lives that there is something more than the little, the less, the selfish and unjust ways of our society and sometimes even of our churches.
The new way of living that Jesus gave us is the way of paradox. For us to live the way of Jesus is to recognise and own that the way of God is not our way and the thoughts of God are not our thoughts.
When John the Baptist's disciples come to Jesus on behalf of John to ask: are you the one to come or must we wait for another?" Jesus presents the criteria for assessing the validity of who he was and what he did. Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind see again, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf heard and the poor have the good news proclaims to them. What an extraordinary resume! What a remarkable measure of authenticity of one's being and one's ministry, the liberating, healing and affirmation of others.
I am the Truth
Jesus challenged people by speaking the truth
With Nicodemus, one of the leading Pharisees who came to Jesus at night to seek the truth, Jesus openly discussed the things of God with him. He explained that those who refuse to believe in the Son of God will be condemned by God and even though the light has come into the world they prefer the dark.
The truth of who Jesus is is how he acts with authenticity and integrity is evident in the meals at Simon's house This woman with a bad name in the town came and washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair Jesus responded to the woman with respect and acceptance. Simon, Jesus' host judged it to be inappropriate response to the woman given that she was a sinner.
Jesus did not respond as the Pharisees expected him to, not in this case or in any other situation On the contrary, he accepted the expression of love from this woman whom they judged to be a sinner While they judged her Jesus love her, forgave her many sins and affirmed her dignity.
What Jesus wanted to do was free the living God from the captivity of the Scribes and Pharisees, religious manipulation. In so doing Jesus gave all who were broken, and outcast (heavily burdened), all who were in sinners and in need, all who were humble of heart and poor in spirit, the opportunity the religious leadership had denied them he gave them the opportunity to come into the transforming grace of God's presence, to be welcomed, healed and blessed by God. Jesus as truth opened all to the loving embrace of God.
The truth that Jesus challenged was itself a prophetic action but what is important for us is
Why he challenged?
What he challenged?
And how he challenged in the name of truth.
Anyone who is foolish enough in the eyes of the world to speak the truth and challenge injustice needs to have a sure base and good measure of what they are about The measure is that we saw this in the life of Jesus this is the truth of the way.
If we are fired with a passion for God's kingdom then we will be people who at times are in conflict with others who are like Pharisees and their values and practices do not speak the truth. This means we need to be aware of our own agenda and painfully in many cases lay aside our own needs and vies and speak on behalf of those who have no voice, just as Jesus did for the poor and oppressed of his community.
I am the life
The whole public life of Jesus or his ministry was about life, the fullness of life. It was about lifting people up, affirming their dignity showering them with God's favours His life was about making God's presence immediate and real in their life experiences of all he encounter.
Let us journey to Emmaus and ponder with the disciples the meaning of life
As they journey, they talk and reflect on all that they have experienced, looking for explanations trying to make sense out of a seemly senseless death what meanings are they searching for?
They journey on downcast and burdened What was their deepest concern.. ? Were they angry? Whet hadn't Jesus listened to them
Why did he insist on going to Jerusalem? What wrong had he done? What was in store for them as followers? And so on......
And into their midst on this journey comes one who appears as a stranger. Did they sense something familiar about him? How did he know they were down in spirits and sad? What did they think of this stranger joining them? There was something in the way he responded to their story he understood he made sense of it all and what was that burning feeling in their hearts as they listened to him.
We know he stayed with them and when he took bread in his hands what did they sense? When he blessed and broke it did they recongise him? Did they realise there was only one who could take bread like this? Was it his hands? His presence?
Where they were without meaning and hope? Jesus made sense of the struggle The experience of God they thought they had lost in the death of Jesus was once again yet in a new way accessible to them.
They now had the conviction of who Jesus was. Fullness of life was possible for them now, not simply in remembering what Jesus had said and done, but in allowing the spirit of Jesus to live and breathe with them.
The life would always be there for them.
Like the disciples we have asked many questions and raised many issues at the end of the day it is what we do in love that matters, not the perfection of love but authenticity of our being in love.
Let us hold close to the one who first loving of us empowers us and makes all good things of life possible in us.
Let us go forth on the Emmaus journey fired and impassioned with the spirit of Jesus so that we might embody as authentically as grace enables us, the god of Jesus our Way Truth and life.
Betty McMahon rscj
province of Australia – New Zealand
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