In this Sunday's gospel, Jesus' followers are alarmed when they hear that the one who has led them will soon leave them. Why will Jesus abandon them? What are they supposed to do? How will they hear his living voice?
"We don't know where you are going," they cry out. Perhaps the disciples are thinking (and we with them), "We don't know where we are going in this chaotic world?" Jesus responds, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life."
Jesus invites us to see his life as our life. Jesus is gracious in his love for the little ones of this world. He is merciful with the unwashed and the stumbling. He lifts the burden of others. He breaks bread with the hungry. He opposes injustice.
In Jesus' words and deeds, we see the truth that he invites us to live day by day. "Here is the way," he says, "and my word, my love, my body."
Jesus calls us to a simple, trusting faith--a faith of a child. We are invited to believe that what Jesus has done in his life, death, and resurrection gives our lives meaning and hope. We may walk the path before us with confidence because the one who is "the way, and the truth, and the life" has secured it for us.