Jesus is the Way, the only Way

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Homily given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
By: Fr. Ron Floyd

My friends today we get to the heart of our Christians Faith.

Today Jesus tells us the Christian difference. He tells us what makes our faith in Jesus Christ so different, and so much better than anything that came before it or has come since.

All religions set up a strict separation between God and Man and a system by which Man appeases God and thus wins favor All religions demand obedience and submission to God’s law All other religions fall short of showing us the true face of God Who made us, not because He needs, not because He desires our help, not because He is lonely, or even desires our worship—but because HE loves us

As we read: God so loved the world that He sent us His only begotten Son that we might not perish but have eternal life.

Finally today in John’s Gospel Jesus reveals himself as the bread of life

Today our Lord reveals Himself as the way, the truth, and the light as the only way to the Father.
And for this revelation the crowds reject Him. The world has always rejected Him, even when much of the world professed Christianity, as was once the case in our own state, because we have always rejected giving up the counterfeit Christ: Our way, our truth, and our light.

We reject giving up “religion,” because we really don’t want a relationship with our God. All we really want is a way to control God! Jesus tells us today there is no other way to the Father, it’s His way or the Highway to Hell. You see Catholicism is a journey on which God is both our destination and travel guide. We like the Prophet Elijah are making a pilgrimage to God through all the difficulties of Life and all the while being fed and kept alive by God.

Catholicism doesn’t promise you that if you follow the rules you will win God’s favor, and be rewarded in this life. It promises that God favors us already no matter what we do and that our eternal reward, awaiting us since the beginning of the World, is returning to the embrace of our Creator.

You see my friends, properly speaking, Catholicism is not a religion, it’s not a system for pleasing an aloof God rather it is a way, a road, to approach and eternally embrace a God who has always loved us who made us to share in His life.

Today in John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus is a map, a compass, and a pack of food. He is all we need to lead us to hidden treasure.

He gives us fuel for the long journey ahead, He shows us the way, is the way, and walks with us along the way. But we reject the way, because we don’t want to follow it!

We want to do a couple good deeds, or a couple of rituals, to satisfy God and then we want to be left alone to follow our own ends.

But our true end and purpose is God! And like any destination every deviation and every wrong turn away from our goal, must be corrected, if we ever hope to arrive at our destination.

Our heart and our soul needs God, but our mind and our will point us toward other things. And so today when Jesus attempts to set us straight He is rejected.

This is the revelation the world has always rejected, even after they saw Jesus’ miracles and heard His wisdom, even after it saw Him risen from the dead, even during the days of the Churches greatest power and influence when most everyone claimed to be a Catholic Christian.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, He is the bread that will sustain us and lead us back to the Father. Will we eat this bread? His Body, and allow its saving power to change the course of our life or will we eat it, to fulfill a ritual obligation, and not give up our way, our truth, and our light?

Christianity is not about doing this or that but about being on the way to Heaven, and to God. Will we reject Jesus’ invitation to join Him on the Way?