Our Lord in the Gospel speaks about a very important aspect of our Christian life that I think is misunderstood by many in the world today. This passage comes from John 17, and it is what is called the High Priestly Prayer. These were the words of our Lord just before He was betrayed and arrested…voluntarily going to the Cross on behalf of us all:
Jesus lifted His eyes to heaven and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You. You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as you have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.”
Ever since Holy Pascha, The Orthodox Church has been reading from the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles; a book that is a record of what life was like for the earliest Christians after our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Towards the beginning of the book, before the followers of Christ were called “Christians”, there is an interesting term that is used to identify His followers. They were described as people who were of “The Way”.
Being people of “The Way” is a wonderful way to describe the true Christian Faith. Christianity isn’t about a one-time acceptance of Christ, nor is it about coming to Liturgy for 2 hours on Sunday and then forgetting you are Orthodox until the next Sunday. Being an Orthodox Christian is in fact a way of life...something that should be the first thing on our mind when we wake up, and the last thing on our mind when we go to bed.
Eternal life, coming into the knowledge of God…is this way of life. Knowledge of God isn’t only an intellectual understanding of Who Jesus is…it is participation in His Divine Life! Eternal life is learning to Know God in a personal and real relationship; experiencing Him in ways which many of us cannot possibly imagine! This is the life we were meant to live in the beginning!
If we want proof of this, we need only to look at what happens to us when we come into the presence of Holiness. I had the blessing last week of visiting two monasteries and spending several hours conversing and praying with women who have spent the entirety of their days living out “The Way”. I must admit, as many of you also experience, that even only being in those places of prayer for just a few hours, we leave rejuvenated and wanting to pray. We leave craving for MORE!
We not only get this when we go to holy places, but also when we learn about Holy People. I received a phone call this week of someone who was reading about the life of St. Haralamos, and they were so full of Grace from just learning about him that they could not stop talking about it to me! When we read stories and sayings of the Saints and Holy Elders about the way in which they lived their lives, we get that same rejuvenation that we get from the monastery. How often have we read the lives of the Saints (not just on twitter or on the internet in passing), and just immediately wanted to go pray so that we could feel that same union and connection with God that they experienced?!
Our Lord said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”. Learning to come into knowledge of Him Who is Life, is what our journey towards eternal life is all about.
Knowing “The Way” is also of vital importance when we are faced with such tragedies as the School Shootings in Texas. I was at my son’s kindergarten breakfast this past week, and was watching his entire class sing a song that gave thanks to God for all that they had learned in their first year of school. Immediately my heart was broken for all of the parents and relatives of the 19 children who were needlessly slaughtered...those who were not able to experience the same joy that I was experiencing in that moment.
If the news of the shooting wasn’t horrible enough, we learned of the death of a young teacher who was trying to protect the innocent youths, and her husband who died of a broken heart just a few days later, leaving four more children as orphans…all as a result of the needless violence that has been made manifest in our world.
All of this devastation has been met with a lot of pain, anger, and agony. Pain for the families…anger over the sin and the brokenness of our country…and agony over the tremendous loss of life that our country has experienced over these past several years. Whether it is the mental health of our youth which has been severely damaged…the ease of obtaining weapons capable of such destruction…or the failure we as adults and a society, who have slowly removed the knowledge of God from our everyday life, it is apparent that there is something that is inherently broken in our world.
In reading all of the letters from the various Bishops and Hierarchs of our Church in America, all of them spoke of the same solution to this evil. When we are faced with tragedy, darkness, and misery, we show “The Way”. We don’t react with angry words, but rather in humble action and prayer. Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Archdiocese says that in the midst of this evil, we are called to “live the way Christ asks us to live, to live lives of peace as a solution to the violence in our society.” Metropolitan Tikhon echoed these words when he encouraged us to “always oppose any and all forms of violence, giving instead the example that our Lord Himself gives us; one of meekness, gentleness, self-sacrifice, love, and patience.”
This is “The Way”. This is what we teach our children, so that they can teach other children who will not learn the Christian Way of Life at Home. We strive to be examples of love and peace to those who surround us, in obedience to Christ who exhorted us by saying: “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
May our children be that light, and may God have mercy on us all who have failed to show them that light by the example of our own lives.