I AM

In today’s Gospel Jesus proclaims, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. He invokes the name of YHWH, 'I AM' seven times in John's Gospel. Each time he says, "I am" he is revealing more about his identity as the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

The Way

Jesus is the way to the Father. He said, "No one can come to the Father except through me”. This declaration has become a very accurately placed bomb that Catholic apologists have dropped on the growing error of syncretism or indifferentism (the belief that all religions are a way to salvation).

The early church saw itself as an extension or sacrament of the life of Christ on earth. The Church was called the body of Christ by Saint Paul so it was fitting that others called the early Church, ‘The Way’.  If Christ the head is the way then so is his inseparable body, the Church.

The Church offers us the way to get to the Father through Jesus because when we are baptized, we are incorporated into Christ. We gain access to the Father, ‘through Him, with Him and in Him’. In a similar “I AM” statement, Jesus says, “I AM the Door” -Jn 10:9. Jesus is the door waiting to be knocked.  “Knock and the door will be opened to you” -Mt 7:7. 

The Truth

When Pilate asked the haunting and redundant question, “What is truth?” Jesus stared at him in silence. We all wish he would have shot back a snarky response, “I am the truth - You are looking at it!”. Jesus is the Truth in the flesh, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us” Jn 1:14. The word of God is always true. God can neither deceive nor be deceived.There is no untruth in him because he is total light. As he said in another I AM statement, ‘I AM the Light of the World” Jn 8:12. The light overcomes the deceptive deeds done in darkness and exposes all lies. We simply have to trust that Jesus uses his shepherd staff to guide us into the truth at all times and the crook of his staff to pull us away from the danger of error.  We know he will do this because he said, “I AM the Good Shepherd” -Jn 10:11.

The Life

To those who already had biological life, he said,  “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you do not have life in you”-Jn 6:53. What life is he referring to? Divine life, eternal life, supernatural life all of which surpass biological life in the abundance of grace.  “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly”- Jn 10:10. We feed on the Body and Blood, the source of this abundant life. This is why Jesus said, “I AM the Bread of Life” Jn 6:35.

Jesus also said, I AM the vine and you are the branches” -Jn 15:1. When we receive the Eucharist in a state of grace we are like branches receiving life giving sap, full of nutrients, from the vine. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Jesus said, “Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me”-Jn 15:4-5.  This inter-communion, where we are in Christ and he is in us, is a sign of the kind of life that defeats death. This is why he said, “I AM the Resurrection and the Life”. The life we have in this world may be passing away but life in Christ is truly eternal