Jesus Christ: Center of Our Spirituality The Transfiguration by Fra Angelico

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jn 14:6 This sounds important and all encompassing, but what does it mean exactly? “I am” –God revealed His name to Moses: YHWH, (I am who am) which is almost always translated in English as LORD. The Hebrew was translated into the common Greek translation about 100 years before Jesus as Ego Eimi, which is translated into English as I AM. –CCC 213 The revelation of the ineffable name “I Am Who Am” contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church’s tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have form him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.

The Septuagint, the “official” Greek translation has the following to give some sense of the tradition of using I AM to refer to God: “Behold, behold, I AM, and there is no God apart from me.” (Deut 32:39) “I, God, am the first, and into all future I AM.” (Is 41:4) “That you may know and believe me and understand that I AM.” (Is 43:10) “I AM and there is none besides.” (Is 45:18) “Even to old age I AM and until you grow old I AM” (Is 46:6) These quotes show the universality, singularity, and timelessness of God.

Of course, every time we see the phrase “I am” we are not to think it refers to the divine nature. But in the Gospel of John there are 14 “I am” statements of Jesus, deliberately recorded, that refer to His divinity: –7 with predicates, or words that say what He is –7 without predicates, where it says He is simply, that indicate the divinity of Jesus. They are often translated in such way that obscures this.

“I AM, the one speaking to you.” (4:26) “I AM, do not be afraid.” (6:20) “Unless you believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” (8:24) “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM.” (8:28) “Before Abraham came to be I AM.” (8:58) “I am telling you now before it happens so that you may believe when it happens that I AM.” (13:19) “He said to them I AM. When he said to them I AM they drew back and fell to the ground.” (18:5-6) Belief in Jesus Christ and His identity seem to be the reoccurring themes.

Usually the predicative statements have an image, a conditional activity, and a promise. I AM the bread of lifethe one who comes to mewill not hunger (6:35) I AM the light of the worldthe one who follows mewill not walk in darkness (8:12) I AM the gateanyone who enters through me will be saved (10:9) I AM the good Shepherdmy own will listen to my voiceso there will be one flock (10:14) I AM the resurrection and lifethe one who believes in meeven if he dies, will live. (11:25) I AM the true vine…Every branch that bears fruit…bear more fruit (15:1-2) I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except though me. (14:6) The last is a kind of summary of all of them. Coming to the Father is the goal and purpose of our lives.

“The Way” Early Christianity was called “the way”. Whether we live with Christ is not just being with Him or not being with Him. It is a journey with Him, and He is the journey. It is not just we are in the state of grace or not. The “state” of grace is one of growth and development and drama. We will speak more about Jesus the way when we speak about glory being offered to the Father through with and in Jesus.

“The Truth” Jesus is the Wisdom of God, the one Word spoken by the Father eternally, and sent to us by being made man in time to reveal God to us. CCC217 God is also truthful when he reveals himself—the teaching that comes from God is “true instruction.” When he sends his Son into the world it will be “to bear witness to the truth”: “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true.” (1 Jn 5:20) Jesus teaches by example. We want to not only do what Jesus does, but we want to be as He is: not just WWJD, but BAJI, Be AS Jesus Is. Jesus is our example, model, exemplar, and by living a life a grace, and being the adoptive and real children of God, we can image Jesus’ Sonship and grace and sanctity, no matter how faintly.

Christ is the Master, a Teacher, a Rabbi, who tells us the truth, of which he is full. He can give I because it overflows form him. –“Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe; we are convinced that you are God’s holy one.” (Jn 6:67-69) The truth can make us holy. Our intellects are sanctified, that is we are sanctified through our intellects, by holding true things by faith and by infusion. –“Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.” (Jn 17:17) We can enter into the Trinitarian relationship through the truth. –“I have given them the teaching you gave me, and they have truly accepted this, that I come from you, and have believed that it is you who sent me.” (Jn 17:8) All of the teaching of Christ had the single purpose of leading to a life a sanctifying grace which makes us like Jesus and children of God.

The word for life here is zoë, not bios. It can mean biological life, but it can also mean a higher or future life. There are dead bodies and there are live bodies, and the difference is biological life; there are “dead” lives, and there are “living” lives and the difference is Jesus. We are most alive when we are most Christian. We have the greatest density of being when we are most like Christ. “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has grant the Son also to have life in Himself.” (5:26) God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit, do not have life so much as they are life.

Jesus is the source of life, the one who send the Spirit. –“For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom He will.” (5:21) You cannot give what you do not have. The Holy Spirit dwelt most intimately with Jesus. –“If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’ Now he was speaking of the Spirit. (7:38) Jesus won life for us by redeeming us. He gives us grace. He is the head of His Mystical Body, the Church.