Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - January 12, 2025
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). These beautiful and consoling words of Jesus are also, unfortunately, used today by some Christians to exclude rather than inspire. This happens when people look at Scripture as a collection of statements that can be used independently of their context or the situation in which they were spoken. Such a use of Scripture is what we usually call 'fundamentalist' or 'literalist.' The world in which the early Christians and the Gospel writers lived was, at least in their minds, quite a bit smaller than the one science tells us about. They had an excuse for thinking that they could bring everyone to Christ in a few years.
In view of the ever greater percentage of the world's population that does not accept Christ, we should be careful about using this text to condemn them. God's love for all creation does not allow us to believe that most people are being lost. In fact, the church has condemned the teaching of a priest (Father Feeney in mid-20th century Boston) who taught that everyone was damned who was not a baptized member of the Catholic Church.
The general tenor of Scripture tells us of God's love for all that has been created, for everyone. In ways we may not understand God is concerned to bring all human beings to eternal life. Why not use the text, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life,” as a reminder to ourselves that in Jesus we have the model of our response to God, the one who shows us the way and leads us to God?
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
