Today's Gospel was Bl. Alberione's favorite: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." I was thinking about this in the light of the example of the saints, especially St. Ignatius (who, you may know, is up there with St. Paul in my regard). Ignatius is famous for his "indifference," which sounds really terrible--like a shrugging "whatever" before good, bad, etc. Of course, that's not what it means at all. But I still find the whole attitude a bit threatening: to be equally disposed toward sickness or health, success or failure, and so on, as long as God's greater glory is achieved.
But if Jesus really is "Way, Truth and Life," if he really does have a place prepared for us and will come to take us to himself--well, you see, the ultimate good is all sewn up. So sickness or health, success or failure or whatever could go "right" or "wrong" in our life--none of these can threaten the ultimate good.
Sometimes the lives of the saints overwhelm me, not just because I know I am not capable of the kinds of self-gift they made to God and neighbor, but because in my own limited vision, I somehow feel that some pitiful little "good" that I cherish might be threatened by a greater good that they saw, but that I don't. And that's the whole point. They knew that the greater good could not be threatened, lost, compromised. It was that "unshakable" kingdom that the letter to the Hebrews talks about. And Ignatius' famous indifference is not apathy at all: it is a whole-hearted grasp of the kingdom.
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