Two
unrelated things struck me in our readings for today.
First,
Ruth is a relief after Joshua and Judges. We have had a lot of violence. Joshua
is, among other things, a story of genocide. Judges ends with the most graphic
and distressing story in the entire Bible: the story of the Levite’s concubine.
But, for today at least, the violence is on hold. The value celebrated is
family love and loyalty. Women are the main characters. Most surprisingly, a Moabite
(i.e. foreign) woman is the hero. At the end, we learn that the Moabite Ruth is
the grandmother of King David. There could be no better reminder that foreigners
are not all bad, Joshua notwithstanding.
The
other thing that struck me was the famous line, “I am the way, and the truth,
and the life” (14:6). It is interesting to reflect on what it means to BE the
truth. We normally talk about knowing the truth or teaching the truth or
discovering the truth. But Jesus is claiming to be the truth, to fully and
perfectly embody the truth.
I
cannot wrap my mind around what that means. But one thing seems clear. The kind
of truth Jesus is is not a fact. It cannot be captured in a proposition. Truth
is not something we can know with our heads. Instead, truth is personal. Truth
is a person. Truth is someone we love, not something we know. To say we know
truth, in this sense of the word truth, means to be in relationship with truth.
If
we connect the claim that Jesus is the truth to the opening lines of the gospel
of John about all things coming into being through the Word, then we can say
that creation is much more than inert matter. Creation itself is personal, in
the sense that a person stands at its heart. We should interact with creation in
a way analogous to our interactions with the people we love. At the very least,
we should not abuse and exploit it!
I
sense there is much more to the claim that Jesus is the truth. But, perhaps
appropriately, I have reached the limits of my understanding. Maybe I should go
commune with Jesus!
Fr. Harvey
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