The Way, the Truth, the Life - Fr Dalmazio Mongillo, OP

I have read this over and over and each time it grows on me. See what you think.

MEDITATION OF THE DAY

In Jesus Christ one comes to see that not every way of existing is life. Life becomes authentic when creatures begin to love as he loved (cf Jn 13: 34); life grows when it becomes gift; it develops when it is shared. There is only one way to penetrate it, and that is to live in Christ the mystery of his existence; to live as he lived, without resisting what he feeds us as branches of his vine (cf Jn 15: 1ff) and sheep of his flock (cf Jn 10: 1ff). We know life in living it and we live life in sharing it. Those who do not thwart this stimulus come to discern the way to support it, and collaborate in leading others to live together their own joyful experience (ch 1 Jn 1: 1-5).

To become, to be a Christian, means to live God's life in Jesus Christ, and to live it together, sharing it with all God's children. To live as a Christian and to live in "koinonia" are synonymous. We cannot become Christians by ourselves, apart from Jesus Christ and the family of those who live in him and of him. The Christian life is a journey in communion with others in Jesus Christ. It is born in communion with other believers; it grows and develops with the growth of communion among believers. It enters into crisis when it languishes and becomes asphyxiated; it cannot be obtained by "spontaneous generation"; nor is it cultivated in vitro.

Meditating on this, there comes to mind the link between the elements with which Jesus identified himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life: (Jn 14: 6): He is the way to "life," the truth about life and the way; he is the life that sustains our journey towards the fullness of truth (cf Jn 16: 13). Jesus not only gives life, he makes us become a source of life (cf Jn 7: 38). He leads us to recognize and consolidate the bonds of communion with those who live in him. He strengthens us to overcome the conflicts which hold back or compromise the growth of life, the knowledge of the truth, the discernment of the way. Those who share the hope in which they are saved, journey together; they recognize that they are vivified in the same wellspring, called to share the same happiness.
- Father P. Dalmazio Mongillo, O.P.
Father Mongillo (+2005) was an Italian Dominican priest and a moral theologian.

Journals of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, 1984-1997

From The Magnificat May 2012.