33: The Spiritual Journey 7/11

“Christ is our Way”

Christ said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and Life” (John 14:6).

- He is our “Life”, our “inner breath”, “the way we connect to the Grace of God”. Saint Paul says it his way: “it is not me who lives, it is Jesus who [dwells in me and] lives in me” (Ga 2:20).

- He is the “Truth”, our Truth, who we are according to God and who we should be. He has a human nature like us, perfectly man: body, soul and spirit, like us. He is our truth, the “Son of Man”. We have to worship God the Father “in Him”, the Truth. “true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4:23).

- He is “the Way”: He opens the way for each one of us, He acts “for us”, he makes all the acts we will have to do during our life, so we are made ready (by receiving the Grace) to do them.

He opened this “New Way” for us on the Cross: “we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh […]”. (He 10:19-20). We can't reach the Father if we don't go through this Way of transformation: “nobody can reach the Father without going through Me” (John 14:6).

Let us contemplate the “Way” He opened for us, the “Journey of Transformation” He “ploughed” for us with His Body, His Soul and Hi Spirit. He opened in himself our Journey so we can grow, climb Him, until we reach His Heart, or Side. The Side of Jesus is the exact place of our New Birth: “one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.” (see John 19:33-37)

The different moments of Jesus' life are like stages of transformation for us, transformation in Him. Step by step, our body, our soul, and our spirit are transformed in His body, His soul and His spirit.

The “new man”, the “new creature” can then appear.

The journey shown here in the diagram (see below) could be seen as the journey of climbing a Mountain (Christ Himself).

This journey, the Layout of the journey, is our secure “Spiritual Way”, the journey of our realisation and transformation, the only Adventure that is worth living here on earth, the meaning and purpose of the journey of our life on earth, the definition of the core of our life.

Spiritual Theology: Part I of the Journey

Technically wise, according to “Spiritual Theology”, we cannot invent a different Journey and other Stages than the ones shown by Christ, in the Gospel. Our Journey is fundamentally “christological”: it follows Jesus' path. The transformative action of the Holy Spirit in us aims fundamentally to conform us to Christ, following the trail of His “Ploughing”.

The theological exposition of the “Spiritual Journey” and its “Stages” in “Spiritual Theology” manuals should follow very closely Christ in the Gospel. Otherwise, the risk is to invent steps that are not the Truth, our Truth. Jesus is our Truth, the shape of our Journey.

We need to understand and study “Christ the Way”, the reason why there are stages in our formation and transformation, and deepen this understanding by doing proper “theological research”. Some people should dedicate their life to this study and Service in the Church. The need is immense.

The easiest way to understand this journey is just to put ourselves in the shoes of Peter, and just follow the curve of the Gospel, of Jesus' life, and Peter's way of following Him, as presented in the Gospel.

For now we have 6 main Stages. Later we will see how the Journey continues after these 6 stages, because the “Union with Jesus”, and “being filled with the Holy Spirit” are the end of “Part I” of the Journey and the beginning of “Part II”. So there is a lot to come in the next posts.

The stages of course start with “Jesus' call” for us. This doesn't mean that there is no life before, no preparation, on the contrary. When Jesus calls Matthew to follow Him and he leaves everything and follows Him (see Mt 9:9-13), certainly there are hidden stages of preparation before.

When we start to follow Jesus, we can discern the presence of at least 6 stages. The “stages” are the “stages of the work of purification and transformation pursued by the Holy Spirit in us”. These stages, as shown on the diagram, are as follow:

1- Purification of the sense

2- Purification of the soul

3- Purification of the spirit

4- Spiritual Betrothal

5- Spiritual Marriage (Union with Jesus-God)

6- Acquisition of the Spirit

As we repeatedly said, they follow all together 6 stages in Jesus' public life and 6 stages of Peter and the Apostle's response to Jesus.

(to be continued)