Miles to Go Before We Sleep

     In today's Gospel, Jesus announces, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. (Jn 14:6) Often, we feel like Thomas, who says to the Lord, We do not know where you are going; how can we know the way? (Jn 14:5) But Jesus is the way, that is to say, he is the path that leads to himself. In imitating Christ we stay on the road to eternal life, which is the destination to which the way leads. This reality is the truth, and how good the truth is once we come to believe it!

     Why is it then that all of us at times let ourselves stray from the true way towards life? Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, humanity has failed to resist the desire for immediate gratification. Whereas Adam and Eve sought after knowledge before God willed it for us, today we desire to satisfy ourselves here on Earth, rather than trust in God's will for us to reach true happiness with Him in Heaven. As Jesus warned us the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mt 26:41)

     Is it any wonder really that we face mounting moral societal crises at a time when we have increasingly chosen speed over substance, and quantity over quality, convenience and comfort over out Christianity? We have a seemingly insatiable desire to be the quickest, the most prolific, the pacesetter. Yet when did Jesus ever proclaim a special prize to the first through the pearly gates? In fact, He said on the matter: the last will be first, and the first last. (Mt 20:16)

     Indeed, it seems our Savior knew that, because of our nature, we would require a slow, methodical pace on the way to salvation. Saint Peter implores us in his second epistle: but do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Pe 3:8) Let us learn to be at peace with a slower journey, confidant that God wants us to stay squarely on the way, even if we must crawl along it. As Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote in regards to this Gospel:

It is better to limp along the way than stride along off the way. For a man who limps along the way, even if he only makes slow progress, comes to the end of the way; but one who is off the way, the more quickly he runs, the further away is he from his goal.