Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time A.   May 22, 2011.  Our Lady of Grace 6PM  Acts 6:1-7. 1 Peter 2:4-9.  John 14:1-12

Every day more than seven thousand high school students drop out of school.  Each year more than 1.3 million students in our country fail to graduate from high school.  Some would say that our education system is failing because of lack of money.  Others would say that it is failing because of lack of good teachers. My sense is that there are so many opportunities in our society and so much confusion about values and the meaning of life, and so many pressures on high school students that many young people are confused about whom they are and where they are going.  Some of these young people fall out of school and over their heads into a sexual relationship or into marriage. Many of them will fall out of a failed relationship hurt and even more confused.  Some fall into a life of boredom or drugs.   We live in a success hungry world.  At the same time there is little agreement about where we are going with our lives and what true success is really about. Our young people are under great pressure coming from many people and from many directions.  In response many young men and women run faster and faster as they become busier and busier, without know where they are going. 

Jesus said, “I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.  Where I am going you know the way.”  Thomas spoke up and said, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Jesus responded in a very strange and challenging way.  He said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”   Jesus didn’t say, “I will teach you the truth” or “I will show you the way.”  Jesus said, “I am – Yes, I AM the way the truth and the life.”  “The way to a successful life and to true happiness is through me.”

This evening we are sending our 10^th graders to the Cathedral for the Sacrament of Confirmation on June 5.   Confirmation marks the beginning of the rest of their lives.  In a very personal way Jesus is saying to them, “Do you believe that I am the way, the truth and the life?” “Are you willing to promise publically that of your own free will you choose to follow me?” Before we ask our 10^th graders to stand up here in front of this community to renew the vows of their baptism and to tell us that Jesus is the way the truth and the life for them, I ask them to consider what this means. 

The way of life that Jesus teaches us begins with an attitude of thanksgiving.  Everything we have and everything that we are is a gift from God.  The planet that we live on, the life we have been given, the family and friends we have, the talents and abilities we use and develop – all of these are a gift from God.  Even tragedies and disappointments, mistakes and sins in our lives can make us kind, compassionate and loving – making us really good people if we look at everything as a gift from God and allow God to work in everything that happens in our lives.  Jesus did not want to be crucified.  The people who put him to death committed one of the greatest crimes in the history of the human race.  Yet God used the death of Jesus to make Jesus completely holy and to save us and to teach us that God works through everything that happens to us make good people out of us who believe in him.  The way of Jesus begins with an attitude of thanksgiving.  Grateful hearts are happy hearts.  I have listened to people who are in a lot of pain tell me how lucky they were to be alive.  Being grateful always and for everything is the first step in following Jesus.  Waiting to be surprised by God when things seem to be the darkest allows us to smile, knowing that God is bigger than our problems.

The way of Jesus is also about self-giving love.  We were made by God to find happiness in giving ourselves away in love for God and for other people.  Jesus opened his arms on the cross and gave every inch of his life and every drop of his blood in love for each of us and for the whole world.  We live in a world that tries to find happiness in possessing things and even in possessing people.  Jesus teaches us that we will never be happy and at peace until we give ourselves away in total love for others.  The cross of Jesus reminds us that we will not find completion and fulfillment until we give ourselves away.

The third part of following the way of Jesus is knowing that we are being sent to bring good news to the world in which we live.   Each of us has been given a mission by God.  We all have a purpose and fulfilling that God-given purpose is an important part of making us happy.  A personal mission belongs to us that was given to us and to nobody else.  We are fully happy and successful only when we discover our mission in life and seek to fulfill our mission with every fiber of our being.   

Jesus is a living person who shows us the way to happiness in this life and eternal joy in heaven.  Jesus is not a philosophy or a program or a set of religious questions.  Jesus is a living person who demonstrates the way to life and joy. The Sacrament of Confirmation is about life and joy. 

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”

Following Jesus means:

1. Being thankful to God always and for everything. An attitude of gratitude.

2. Imitating Jesus in giving our lives and ourselves completely to God and to other people. Living the love Jesus showed on the Cross.

3. Seeking to understand and live God’s mission and purpose for our lives.

That our Confirmation candidates may find joy and peace in following Jesus always we give God thanks and praise.