THE TWO WAYS

THE TWO WAYS Fr Luke A Veronis   “There are two ways, my soul, my soul, and they are not the same. One leads to everlasting life. One leads to dust and shame. One leads to dust and shame." This is a song that my old friend and co-missionary Peter Gilbert wrote, as he reflected on the ancient Christian writing called The Didache, or the Teaching of the Twelve Disciples. This early 2nd century writing opens with the line “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between the two ways.” Well, what are these two opposite ways of life and death? The way of the world verses the way of Jesus Christ. The way of a society that welcomes an easy, wide path that most people choose to take, a path which leads to self-destruction and death. While the way of our Lord Jesus is quite counter-cultural, it goes against the grain of society. It is the narrow, difficult path that few will follow, yet this path leads to eternal life. This may sound a bit harsh and extreme, yet we see this opposition of ways again and again throughout the life and teachings of Jesus. He contrasts the way of the world with the new way He reveals. Today’s Gospel story is just another example which offers this juxtaposition of two very different ways and worldviews of living. First, we see Jesus warning his disciples of what is going to happen to Him – “"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise." This path of Jesus Christ doesn’t seem too appealing. Actually, this talk about betrayal and suffering and a disgraceful death all goes right over the heads of his disciples. They don’t understand, or possibly they choose to not hear what he is saying because they aren’t interested in talk about suffering and death. They still have a worldly mindset. Thus, right after Jesus talks about His impending death, two disciples in his innermost circle pull Christ aside and ask if each of them can sit, one at his right and the other at his left when He comes into all His glory. The Apostles John and James are interested in worldly position and power. They’re not interested in hearing about sacrifice, suffering, and death. They want to focus on worldly glory and fame and power. The ten other disciples all get angry at John and James, but not because they ignored Christ’s words about his upcoming Passion. Instead, they’re angry because of the presumption of these two brothers to ask for the first seats of honor around Jesus. Maybe the other disciples also wanted that worldly honor and glory. We see how the disciples reflect our own egocentric desires, desires which the world often promotes – desires to be first, to be in positions of power so we can be comfortable and can be served by others. Yet, Jesus is trying to teach them that living under the reign of God, living according to the Kingdom of Heaven, is all about being counter-cultural. He invites His followers to understand divine love – divine love which is ready to sacrifice oneself for the other, divine love which joyously serves one another as a slave, divine love which willingly takes the last place, not the first place, and divine love which is ready even to offer one’s life as a ransom for others. Do we hear this message of Christ in our own lives, or are we like the disciples who seem to ignore it or choose not to hear it. Their minds, and ours, have been so formed by society’s egocentric desires, the deception that says a pursuit for position, power, influence and fame will bring happiness. And yet, Jesus is inviting us to a completely different path of the world. We heard it on the Sunday before our Great Lenten journey, when we were invited to forgive one another and reconcile with them, not to hold on to any bitterness or anger or hatred toward anyone. We heard it again on the third Sunday of the Cross when Jesus reminded us that anyone who wants to come after Him must deny themselves, deny our egocentric desires and carry whatever Cross He gives us in our lives in order to follow Him. We heard it last week when we talked about climbing the spiritual ladder of divine ascent, which emphasized overcoming the egocentric vices in our life and pursuing the virtues of loving others in our spiritual struggle. And today, we are reminded once again of the narrow path that every follower of Jesus is called to follow – a path of taking on the role of a slave in serving others, a path of not striving to become the first but accepting the humble role of being the last, a path of willingly sacrificing for others even to the point of death. It may not sound like an enticing road, according to our worldly viewpoint, and yet, this is the path that leads to life – an abundant life here and now and an eternal life in the future.“There are two ways, my soul, my soul, and they are not the same. One leads to everlasting life. One leads to dust and shame. One leads to dust and shame. So, bless the Lord, my soul, my soul, and bless His holy name. And leave the path that leads to death and walk the righteous way. And walk the righteous way.”