“Thus says the Lord . . . I will make a way in the wilderness,” we hear the prophet Isaiah proclaim. Today I see that way as Christ Jesus, who said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”(Jn.14:6a) The way of self-giving love through the wilderness of life is the “new thing” that God promised. Two thousand years later and the new thing is still elusive. We all can recognize the wilderness times and places in our lives, those arid, barren, lonely desert times that crop up from time to time; we know the jackals who hound our journey, snapping at our heels, threatening every step, but “the way” remains shrouded in the fog of our self-centeredness.

So long as we want to be king of the hill, #1, top dog, the way will be dim. So long as we strive for the power, prestige, and wealth that our culture idolizes, the way will be dim. So long as we look for instant gratification, so long as we want everything to go our way, so long as we need to be in control of everything, so long as we fear letting go of anything, the way will be dim. So long as we are focused on me and mine to the exclusion of others, our eyes will be closed to God’s way. God longs to open our eyes. That is the purpose of the Incarnation, demonstrating for us how to reach out to others in self-giving love: showing compassion to all who are rejected, lost or lonely; comforting and restoring those who are grieving; nourishing those who are hungry in body, mind, or spirit; forgiving all who wound us; working to relieve the oppressed; caring for the weak, the marginalized; providing respite for the tired, the desperate—all those merciful actions we witness in the life of Jesus.

For our eyes to be open to the Holy Way before us, we have to be willing to surrender our self-centeredness, our unwarranted perception of ourselves as the center of the universe, and turn to focus on God, to recognize it is Love that makes the world go round. As we yield our hearts unreservedly to Love, we leave the wilderness behind and come to see the self-giving love of Christ as the Way before us, recognize the Truth that sacred Love provides, and begin to live a life of joy in God’s presence.