Throughout this year, we are considering
Jesus, the Truth (last year it was
Jesus, the Way). Jesus speaks the Truth to our hearts, and, intuitively, we know the wisdom and
rightness (righteousness!) of what he says. So,
Love God and
Love People, for example, express the Truth of the Great Commandments.
However, Jesus
IS the Truth. In His very Being, He expresses certain truths. In Advent and Christmas, we celebrated one of those—
God is with us! (Emmanuel). In Jesus, God has come to dwell in our midst. God is so bent on establishing a relationship with us, that even if we won’t come to Him, He will come to us!
But we are also given free will. Jesus came not to force God on us, but to remind us that God is always the Father, eager for us to come back. By story and parable, Jesus tells us of this invitation,
Come back to me! Take, for example, the Prodigal Son parable that we will hear on the Fourth Sunday of Lent. Also, we will hear of God’s patience in the story of the fig tree (Third Sunday of Lent). And if we are tempted to give up, because we are such a mess, there is the story of the woman caught in adultery (Fifth Sunday). God is intent on us. In Holy Week, starting with Palm/Passion Sunday and through the Triduum and Easter, we see the lengths to which God is willing to go!
We may be unworthy sinners, but God will breach the gap. This is the Truth that Jesus teaches, and the Truth that Jesus
IS!