"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

I know that gospel passage very well, as do many other Catholics.  I can't tell you how many times I have heard it throughout my life as a cradle Catholic.  I don't know if you are like me, but this phrase often puts images in my head.  Maybe it has to do with reading road signs while I was young: Wrong Way, One Way, etc. but I always pictured a road, like a highway.

That's how we get to Heaven, by following Jesus on the road that he made for us, with the 10 Commandments and sacraments.  It always made sense to me, and I was okay with that image.

Until Friday.  The kids had a school Mass with Fr. Juan, who always hits the nail on the head.  We heard this passage in the Gospel and he told the kids this:
"When you feel sad, or depressed, or don't want to go to school, or are crying (like that baby in the back) or having trouble with something, Jesus is the Way.  He is the one who gives you the Way to get through it."

It was like I had been hit over the head.  Whoa.  Jesus doesn't just show us the way.  He IS the way: the HOW, the WHO and the WHAT.  He IS the way.  Not He will just SHOW us the way.  I don't know if this is coming across with as much sense as it made to me, and maybe it was just my "a-ha!" moment with my Lord, but I felt that I wanted to share it.  (and yes, it did make me cry)