"The Way, The Truth and The Life"

This Sunday's Gospel reading relates the conversation that Jesus had with his disciples, in particular Thomas and Philip, about the Father's House. This passage began saying, "Let not your hearts be troubled; Have faith in God; Have faith also in me." I attended two Masses today; and in the first Mass, I missed this phrase. In the CHOICE family, we have prayer meetings every first and second Wednesday, as well as during the retreat weekend (which ends today). We study the coming Sunday's Gospel reading, and this afternoon, I discovered this phrase that began the Gospel reading.

The Father's house has rooms for plenty of people, Jesus said, and that he was going to leave his disciples to "prepare" the house for them. But Thomas asked where Jesus is going, and how to find the Way if they did not know where he is heading? And Philip later displayed an ignorance which a lot of us today found ourselves strangely familiar with, asking Jesus to show them the Father! I could imagine Jesus trying to hide his exasperation as he patiently explained (again!) that who has seen Him had also seen the Father. He and the Father are one. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

"I am the Way"
After a silent reflection, the small prayer group turned to relate to each other how this Gospel passage have spoken to us through the events in our week. My friend told us that one of his friends from college had passed away so suddenly while training in the gym. He had been married for less than 7 weeks, was younger than my friend, and seemed to have such a promising life ahead. It seemed like, a silly death, and yet, only God knows why he is called back so soon. Our mind will never fathom the mind of God. My friend went on, saying that his life had been dominated by work, and the sudden loss of his friend is a strong reminder of the need to find meaning to life.

"I am the Truth"
I for one, do not believe in "mundane-ness" of work. I love my work; perhaps a little bit too much, because above all things, I find that by pouring best quality into my work, I am consecrating it for God. Right now, my company is in the midst of launching a service which we believe will become revolutionary after the setup period. It is an exciting time; and I often think, sometimes worrying, about how this product can be used as an instrument to help proclaim the Truth.

The Way leads to the Truth. We are called to seek the Truth, which is Christ Himself, and follow after Him bearing our tiny crosses, in all circumstances that we find ourselves in. St. Francis de Sales in his Introduction to Devout Life said that each person in his own profession, there needs to be devotion.

[The] devotion which is true hinders nothing, but on the contrary it perfects everything; and that which runs counter to the rightful vocation of any one is, you may be sure, a spurious devotion.

I am a daughter, a sister, and a CTO. In each of these vocations, there is room, plenty of room, for devotion. I am seeking the True Way by devoting myself in each of my vocations. Often, it runs against the values of the world; for who'd find profit in "God did not ask us to be successful but to be faithful"? I shared my own experience being separated from my family from the age of twelve, and having my youngest sister suddenly joining me 8 years later, and finding myself called to be her 'spiritual' reminder. I shared that it had been difficult and baffling because I am not sure what right I have, despite my parents' absence, to act as a surrogate spiritual parent to her. Deep inside, we believe in the Truth that the Catholic Church proclaims, hence the need to convince our loved ones to see the Truth and love it, too.

We ended the session with a Mass, this time having Fr. James reminding us that we are 'holy'—set apart that is— and that we need to be, in order to join the Father in His house.