Following Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life

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Manila Retreat 5


I am the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6)

The union with God is done through prayer but also through Christ. We need to conform ourselves to Christ, which is more than just follow Him; it means to become one with him, it means to say with St. Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2.20), or “The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had” (Phil. 2:5), and “ I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in me of Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Col 1:24).
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.” (Phil 3:7-9)
Jesus became one with us, He really took up our nature; He really went up to Heaven bringing with him the human nature. It is what we call the double dimension of the mistery of salvation: vertical and horizontal.
Which ones are the attitudes of Christ that we could make our own?
  • Christ is our guide. I am the good shepherd (Jn 10,3-5); I am the way (Jn 14:6); If anyone wants to become my follower, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me (Mt 16:24). The cross could represent also our shortcomings and falls and weaknesses.
  • Christ is our companion: I will be with you till the end of time (Mt. 20,20). We need to see him present in the word, in the Eucharist, in people.
  • Christ is the one who supports us: Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. (Mt 11:28)
  • Christ is the one who does the will of God: I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer (Lk 22:15); Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (Jn 13:1), When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he made up his mind and set out on his way to Jerusalem (Lk 9:51). And many other times when he predicts the passion to the apostles. One of the Beatitudes is “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied” (Mt 5:6). We know very well that in the Bible “Righteousness” means to respect what belongs to God, to satisfy the will of God.
  • Sharing his feeling becomes particularly important in the deep desire of Christ to save all. It is the experience of Blessed Mother Teresa who heard Jesus crying from the Cross: “I thirst”. How can I remain quiet and peaceful when I see somebody who gets lost? Our founder said: “Put me, o Lord, on the jaws of hell so that by your mercy I may close them”.
We should have some of that desire, which is the desire to be with Christ that Peter had at the Transfiguration, or the fire burning inside Jeremiah (Jer 20:9).
In being with Jesus, following Him, sharing his life, we will always encounter a double dimension, what theology calls “the already but not yet”.
God wants to stay among us, He has established his kingdom, but many things in the world oppose that.
The establishing of the Kingdom of God, a reality which is already present but not yet there is a central theme of Jesus preaching. The whole work of Jesus is oriented to that direction. Also the calling of the 12 Apostles, on which religious life is based, is at the service of that. So we can say that we religious have as purpose of life the establishment of this kingdom. With Jesus the disciples are already participating to the Kingdom of God, He even sent them around to preach it, and He is making them ready to carry on the mission for when Jesus would have been gone. To understand better the contradiction of the “already there but not yet”, we can see the passage of Colossians which we have mentioned above. The Kingdom is already there because Jesus is there, but it is not yet fulfilled because the fulfillment of Jesus work will be only on the cross. And finally the salvation of the cross, which is universal and for everybody, has not yet reached everybody and needs our work to distribute it to all “till the end of earth”.
How did Jesus live this reality? He left everything behind: family, house, etc. is fully dedicated to it. The mission becomes the engine which moves everything. That is his way of living the religious life.
Mk 1:15 “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." Because of this new vision he changes the way he sees the rules, the Sabbath, the family relationships. “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Mt 9:17)
Everything in religious life has to be “Kingdom” oriented:
  • Lifestyle: Mt 5:1 “Blessed the poor in Spirit, their is the Kingdom of heaven”.
  • Conversion: Mt 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. (see also Mt 4:17)
  • Mission: Mt 9:35-38 “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest”.
  • Daily duties: Mt 5:20 “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” So it is not enough just to follow rules, timetable etc.
Mk 10:17-22 We all know the episode of the young rich man and how faithful he was in observing all the commands of the law.
Mt 13: 24-53. In the chapter 13 of Matthew we have what are called the parables of the Kingdom of God (the parable of the weeds in the field, the mustard seed, the yeast, the hidden treasure, the precious pearl, the net). They show us clearly that the kingdom does not work with our parameters. The Kingdom of God is something small, humble, but very effective; in different fields it finds different destiny (like the seeds). Often it has to grow slowly among bad weeds. But only the possession of it can make us happy so we should be willing to give up everything to possess it. If we want to enter the kingdom we have to become like small children (Mt 18:3). We have to give up everything but the achievement does not belong to our work but is a grace/gift from God.
Lk 11:20: “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you”. So when we allow Jesus to work in us and his Spirit to guide our apostolate then we make the Kingdom of God present.
VC 1 again endorses this position. The Consecrated Life, deeply rooted in the example and teaching of Christ the Lord … By the profession of the evangelical counsels the characteristic features of Jesus — the chaste, poor and obedient one — are made constantly "visible" in the midst of the world … In every age there have been men and women who, obedient to the Father's call and to the prompting of the Spirit, have chosen this special way of following Christ, in order to devote themselves to him with an "undivided" heart (cf. 1 Cor 7:34). Like the Apostles, they too have left everything behind in order to be with Christ and to put themselves, as he did, at the service of God and their brothers and sisters.” (VC1).
To receive Christ in us and let him work means to make our own the spirit of Christ as presented in the sermon of the mountain. We must be free from the slavery of the law, but a freedom that does not mean rejection of the law, but freedom in accepting it as starting point to go beyond it. How far we are from a certain formalism which we see in many of our candidates or seminarians and from a discipline which requires only exterior obedience.
In the Sermon of the mountain Jesus came to give us new rules or better a new way of reading the rules. Jesus is the new Moses who gives the new rules for the new covenant.
Mountain is always a sign of a particular relationship with God: (the place of the third temptation, the Beatitudes, the multiplication of bread, the transfiguration, the calvary, the place of the Ascension).
There is a radical change in the experience of Sinai (Ex 20:19) full of thunder, fire, to the experience of Elijah (1 Kg 19) where the fire and thunder give space to the quiet breeze, to the experience of the Beatitudes (blessed the meek, humble, peacemakers etc.).
On Mount Sinai the nature suffers for fear of God, on Calvary nature gets back her peace because of the suffering of God.

For personal work:
  • We must have clear idea of what is the purpose of my being a religious:
    • Is it at the service of building the Kingdom of God
    • Is it for my personal sanctification
    • Is it for the growth of my Congregation
  • Do we feel the desire to look for Him, to meet Him, do more for Christ, to make others know of his grace?
  • Do we feel the presence of Christ along us especially in the moments in which we have to carry the cross?
  • Can I accept the small things, the humility or do I give importance only to the big things, the glorious, shining ones ?
  • How do I consider my discipline and my obedience to the rules? Am I free (happy) in doing things? Do I feel that they help me to be more holy, a better instrument?


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