“I Am the Truth”
Presence of God – O Jesus, Incarnate Word, splendor and brightness of the Father, instruct and illumine my soul.
MEDITATION
Jesus came to give us life and to show us the way which leads to it. He, the Teacher of life, is also its source.
At the beginning of Jesus’ apostolate, the heavenly Father presented Him to the world as its divine Teacher. The Holy Spirit, descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove immediately after His baptism, and the voice from heaven saying, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17) are, as it were, the divine credentials guaranteeing His teaching and giving the basic reasons for it. Who could refuse to believe His doctrine if He is the Son of God and the Holy Spirit is with Him? Two years later on Mt. Tabor, the same presentation is renewed: the same voice, the same words, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” but this time an explicit mandate is given us: “Hear ye Him!” (Matthew 17:5). By these words an even greater light is cast upon the teaching mission of Christ.
Jesus revealed Himself as Teacher, as the one and only Teacher: “You call Me Master … and you say well, for so I am” (John 13:13). “Neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, Christ” (Matthew 23:10). Strengthening the validity of this claim, Jesus declared that He was the Life and the Truth. He even equates the latter with His origin and mission, as when He declared to Pilate: “For this was I born, and for this I came into the world, that I should give testimony to the truth” (John 18:37). Those who listen to His word, hear the truth: “If you continue in my word … you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31,32).
COLLOQUY
“O divine Father, You have opened the Book of Life, Jesus Christ, before us, Your children. In Him, the God-Man, we find all that we could wish to know. Reading in Him, we shall be filled with holy knowledge; we shall find all the doctrine we need for ourselves and for others. But, O my soul, if you want to be enlightened and instructed, you must not read this Book of Life hastily or superficially, but slowly and attentively; then you will be inflamed with divine love and you will know the truth.
“Above all, O my soul, try to have a true knowledge of God and yourself; you can obtain this only by reading, meditating, and studying the Book of Life, Christ, Our Lord” (St. Angela of Foligno).
O my Jesus, true light, drive away the clouds of ignorance which come from my evil nature, and give me the grace to seek the truth with a sincere heart and to love it; for You, the Incarnate Word, are the Truth.
Be the only light on my path, the only Master to guide my steps. I need You, eternal Truth, to liberate me from the slavery of my frailty and wretchedness, and from the passions which often blind my conscience and hinder me from complete adherence to the good and the true which You teach me.
Your truth teaches me that You are He who is, and that I am one who is not; that You alone have worth, and that I have no value; that You are All, and I am nothing, and if there is any good in me, it is a wholly gratuitous gift from You.
O Jesus, grant that I may seek Your truth and love it, even when it is painful, or when, like a two-edged sword, it lays bare my miseries, my faults, my sins. Let Your truth penetrate my whole being and all my acts; make me courageously reject every light which does not emanate from You!
O my only Master, make me comprehend the vanity of all knowledge and thought which does not reflect Your truth. O Lord, submerge my soul in Your light, penetrate my mind and heart with Your truth. Unite me to You, O eternal Truth! O Jesus, Incarnate Word, Incarnate utterance of my God, instruct my soul. I wish to learn everything from You, to “spend my life in listening to You” (St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Elevation to the Most Holy Trinity).
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Note from Dan: This post is provided courtesy of Baronius Press and contains one of two meditations for the day. If you would like to get the full meditation from one of the best daily meditation works ever compiled, you can learn more here: Divine Intimacy. Please honor those who support us by purchasing and promoting their products.
Art: Detail of the Traditio Legis mosaic in the Cappella di sant’Aquilino chapel in the Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore in Milan, artist unknown, 4th century, photographed by Jakub Halun, 26 July 2011 own work, CCA-SA 4.0 International, Wikimedia Commons. Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, mirror from open source material.
