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Jesus is the Way
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September 30, 2026“And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)
The word “predestined” can stir up questions and curious debate. What is predestined, for whom and how? But instead of dissecting the concept, what if we reflect on the simplicity of its direction? Our destination has been predetermined: we are journeying to heaven to be with God and the saints forever. This reality is true for all of us. But to be welcomed into heaven, we must first be washed clean, purified, and made holy. The next reality is that we are not capable of doing that because of the fall of man and original sin. Our life is held in tension: we are destined for heaven but can’t get there. It is the impossible dream.
The journey of life is made up of our labor, leisure, and love. When healthy, our natural inclination is to seek ways to live well, ordered, and rightly for each person. The education, opportunities, methods, theories, resources, mentors, and friends we engage with shape our mentality, spirituality, personality, and life.
In God’s Creative Genius, we are all given the make up of a unique reflection of Him. The personality types of the heart, mind, and spirit are placed in each soul in a unique combination and lived out uniquely through each body, resulting in a unique and unrepeatable story. It is known that each personality type has strengths and weaknesses. The strengths reveal our natural tendencies in how we engage with our labor, leisure, and love. The weaknesses shed light on the type of motivation, thought, or activity that is not natural to us. The strengths and weaknesses are not good or bad in and of themselves. What qualifies them is how they are used.
The experience of being “held in tension” relates to other life examples such as braces on crooked teeth or an authoritative adult who expects good behavior from children. If we engage in the “tension” of life, we allow our minds, hearts, spirits, and bodies to be reformed so that we live our strengths and weaknesses virtuously and excellently (exercised in the right place, with the right person, at the right time, and in the right way).
By grace through the Sacraments, we are infused with the gifts of faith, hope, and love. We have the potential to see what is unseen, to believe that we will arrive at our destination of eternal happiness, and to treasure the unique gift of each soul. We are called to see, believe, and live that Jesus is the way to what is promised in these virtues. Jesus has crafted the path, unique for each individual, that will increase these virtues in us. As we journey, Jesus will bring the methods, resources, activities, and people we need in order to grow into who he’s created us to be and engage in our labor, leisure, and love in the manner that gives Glory to God. Our personality strengths and weaknesses are the casing in which Jesus’s presence is brought into the world in a way that has never been before.
The challenge is that we have to keep choosing to follow the person of Jesus himself. If we find the right fit for our bodies, souls, relationships, and work in order to live well and be true to who we are, it is easy to attach the activity, method, person, or resource to “the way”. We, then, engage in disputes with others about what is right and wrong and remain held in the tension of the world.
The spiritual reality is that the Father has given Jesus to be the “tension” so that we can arrive at our predetermined destination. Jesus calls us to an opportunity or relationship because he is waiting to love us through it. The “tension” that is Jesus will help us break from the attachments, judgements, preferences, or comparisons of the flesh, and fill us with supernatural virtue. In time, our mentality, spirituality, personality, and life will be refined and justified to be one with Jesus, while remaining uniquely who we are through our gifts, strengths, and weaknesses.
The self denial, detachment, and refining draws us into deep union. It becomes Jesus who lives, loves, suffers, dies, and rises through our mind, heart, spirit, and life. We start to let go of the tension between us and others and embrace the tension that is Jesus. Our life becomes a unique song of trust in the Lord because the path has never been walked before and no one has lived the story before. Courageously, we give the gift of ourselves through our strengths and we await the power and love of Jesus to enter through our weaknesses.
We journey alongside those who belong to God. Jesus, the treasure our hearts desire, draws near to us through the hearts of one another. He will bring out in us what he wants to refine (frustration, anger, or judgement are common indicators because the strengths of the flesh are challenged by what is weak). We only know our own experience so we are blind to the experience of how Jesus lives and moves and acts in another. It takes prudence to see the treasure of Jesus in another because the weakness of the flesh will want to claim our understanding. It takes justice to embrace the treasure of Jesus in another because he is encased in the weakness of the flesh. It takes fortitude to seek the treasure of Jesus in another because we will be met by the dragon of the flesh. It takes temperance to accept the treasure of Jesus in another given or taken away according to God’s will. In time, we will prize the treasure that is each other because it is Jesus who leads, loves, and lives through us. The impossible dream is made possible: Jesus is the way and we are given tastes of the eternal union, even now.