How does the Catholic Church interpret his verse?

Question

John 14:6 (English Standard Version)
English Standard Version (ESV)

Jesus said to him, "I am(A) the way, and(B) the truth, and(C) the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'



The Catholic Church teaches respect for all religions, including Judaism and Islam. As a non-Catholic Christian with many Jewish and Muslim friends, I've always admired the Church's teachings about other faiths.

Still, doesn't this verse, often quoted by our more conservative Christian friends, say the Jesus is the only way? Or is there another interpretation?

Peace be with you.

Answer 1

There are various saints and scholars who have worked on the interpretation of John 14:6 throughout the two thousand year history of the Church. There is an allegorical sense: A spiritual sense; A literal sense; A theological sense etc.
They are all true but not exhaustive. What One usually wants to find is the meaning the original author intended when this verse was recorded.
That is what the Holy Spirit inspired for the Church.
You seem to desire to understand how "Inclusive" this verse can be and remain true to the centrality of Jesus in Christian Revelation.I think that your appreciation of non-Catholic Christians as well as of Jews and Muslims is a good starting point. How is Jesus related to them? If they are to be saved then He Must Be somehow. I believe Catholic Christianity uses what are termed the theological virtues(power implanted by God in the human soul where God indwells) to embrace many who belong to Christ even if they do not yet belong to the Church.
These Theological Virtues are Faith, Hope and Charity(Love). Imagine Faith as Light. God introduces Who God really Is. God tells us Who human beings are. God informs us of Who Jesus is. God allows our limited capacity to understand to be engaged in this light because God who speaks to us is trustworthy. For many this light is explicit embrace of Faith. Church membership and allegiance may follow. The connection to Jesus is apparent. Hope is more interior. It tells us that our dreams and desires for ourselves and for the world are good and reliable. It says that seeking honest answers to our questions is noble and God-designed.If Faith is like Light then Hope is like trust in what we see all around. Hope invites us to explore the
parallels in our experience with the specific terms of God's dreams and desires for the Universe. Some people are related to Christ by hope. They have a vision of where the world ought to be headed in terms of peace, justice, human dignity and conscience. Hope inspires us to seek the good, the beautiful and the true expecting that these wil be found. God would not move us to seek if we were never to find. Christ may be related to people of Judaism and Islam in this search. In fact Christ's Spirit is at work in moving us along in this quest. Love is the warmth of relationship: I and Thou; God and Human.
Charity or Love is the Heart of Who God is. To love anyone is to give ourselves for what is Best for the Other. To lay down our life for the Best that can be for the other. To focus our body, soul, mind and heart on what is Best for ourselves as well. This self-giving of God to Us and of Ourselves to God is expressed in care for one another; in forgiveness of others because of God; in recognizing our need to liberate those deprived of justice, dignity, safety and peace because God has given us these gifts in Christ. Charity is patient, kind, without airs, not self- seeking(See Paul Letter to Corinthians.Chapter 13) for a listing of all the characteristics of love.
Do you know anybody who tries to practice living like this. Then that person is related to Christ by love. They might be surprised but Matthew 25 tells us they ought to be. When The Judgement happens at the end of the world the just and the damned are surprised that they are told they served(or did not serve) Christ when caring for others. Explicit charity to others plunges us into the life of God in a human way. That is Christ in us, our hope of Glory. Jesus is the only way human persons come to God. I believe many are related by Faith, but many more by Hope and by Love. Sadly human beings often want to anticipate the Judgement of God by forcing people out of the Church or out of relationship to us. However That is God's prerogative. God alone knows the human heart. Even excommunication as practiced by the Church is meant as a corrective to bring people to an awareness of the serious defect in some part of their lives in terms of Christ. It is not Christ's Judgement. I believe we often expect God to agree with our accessment of others. That is dangerous. Paul the Apostle said he would not even judge Himself. That is Christ's Responsibility. I believe John 14:6 is Jesus saying "I am a reliable standard to get to God and for God to get to you". Follow Me and you will know WHo God is, Who You Are, and What this World is About. Pour yourself out in taking care of one another because I am caring for you in ways you cannot imagine. This is the limitless God working in a limited human fashion. How awesome is that?

Answer 2

First, is the truth important? Let’s consider John 8:32

“And the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32) When asked what He meant by “set you free” Jesus answers “I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there forever. If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free.” (35-36)

In other words, the truth will set you free from sin. We can already plainly see that the truth is a pretty important concept. Another verse to consider:

“I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6)

The truth is not just a concept, it is a person (I am the way, the truth and the life). “No one comes to the Father”, Where is the Father? The Father is in Heaven. Therefore we are to know the truth if we are to reach Heaven. Pretty crucial thing to have the truth don’t you think?


Second, we see that the truth is a precious commodity. But how do we know the truth? Where do we go? We pray to the Holy Spirit and search the Bible and we are guaranteed a successful search of the truth? Reality proves that belief incorrect. Most truth-seekers believe they have found the truth and yet we find that their belief is completely contradictory to other sincere truth-seekers. Nowhere in Scripture are we guaranteed to be infallible interpreters.

2 Pet 3:16
This is what he says in all his letters when he writes on the subject. There are some difficult things in his letters which ignorant and unstable people explain falsely, as they do with other passages of the Scriptures. So they bring on their own destruction.

A wrong interpretation of the Scriptures can bring on our own destruction.

This also means that other religions can get to the truth although the Catholic Church is the only guaranteed to be guided into ALL truth.

So, to know only parts of the truth of God is to know only parts of Jesus himself. How fully do you wish to know Jesus?

God Bless
Robin

Answer 3

The Catholic Church teaches respect for other religions because the other religions do teach at least some elements of God's Truth.

However, having said that, why settle for some elements of the Truth when there is a religion that possesses the Fullness of the Truth? That would be the Catholic Church; which believes Jesus is the Way, Truth, and life.

Answer 4

This is an excellent question and one that bothers many people, Christian or not. The high respect of the Roman Catholic Church for other faith traditions is indeed noteworthy, because a common prejudice about the Church is that it is harshly exclusive. This is not the case. It graciously recognizes that those who are not in full communion with the Church and united to Christ by faith and baptism are related to the People of God in various other ways. The Jews retain a special relationship with God by virtue of sonship, the covenants, the law and the promise - and this is in perfect keeping with Paul's teaching in Romans 9-11, where he says his own people may not have the fullness but are not rejected, either, because of this. The Catechism makes special note of Muslims, too, saying that those who hold the faith of Abraham and recognize one God as the final Judge deserve respect. As for other religions, the Catechism says that there is some truth in them all, albeit in shadows and images that, in many ways, hazily prefigure the full gospel revealed in Christ. There is something to be learned from them all. However - and this is where the John 14 passage comes in - outside of Christ there is no genuine assurance of salvation, for He is, indeed, the 'true and living way' (a better translation of John 14:6) in Whose Church we are secure. The metaphor used in the Catechism is lovely: "The Son's (that is, Christ's) Church is that bark which in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." This recalls another image dear to the early Church Fathers who said the church is like Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood. So the answer is: Catholics interpret the verse the same as conservative Protestants do, and yet at the same time recognize the mystery Paul himself describes in Romans 2:14-16 whereby those who never hear or understand the gospel in its fullness retain a conscience by which God will ultimately judge them. So we must have respect and act with charity toward those who are seeking after God in ways limited by their cultures.

Answer 5

I grew up catholic and became a born-again Christian when I was 25. I personally met Jesus and I know that He is the only way to God. Belonging to a certain church, no matter what religion it is, will not get anyone to heaven.

Answer 6

It takes more than simply knowing Jesus is the Messiah to be saved; even the Evil One knows Who Christ is.

The Bible and the Catholic Church don't separate the "works of faith," preceded and caused by grace, from salvation . You can have all the faith in the world, enough to move mountains, but if you don't have charity, you are nothing.

The Catholic Church and Her Bible condemn the idea that one can work his way to Heaven on his own merit or that God "owes" a person for doing the right things.

All our works get their merit only from Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf. We can do "works" 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for the rest of our lives, but without Christ's grace, they are nothing. Works have no merit in themselves -- and faith without works is not enough. We are saved by grace alone -- a grace that we accept neither "by faith alone" nor "by works alone," but "by faith that works in charity" (Galatians 5:6).

Answer 7

The New American Version (Catholic Study Bible) has this note on that verse.
"The truth: in John, the divinely revealed reality of the Father manifested in the person and works of Jesus. The possession of truth confers knowledge and liberation from sin."

I believe this means that as a Christian one has knowledge of and his being in Christ. Catholic Christians know more to be relieved of sin. This doesn't mean that God is limited to forgiving the sins of Christians making Christians the only ones destined for eternal life. God is infinite love forgiving whomever He pleases.

Yours in Christ Jesus

Answer 8

"Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said:

We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation; that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for this in the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?

Again, in his encyclical Quanto conficiamur moerore of 10 August, 1863 addressed to the Italian bishops, he said:

It is known to us and to you that those who are in invincible ignorance of our most holy religion, but who observe carefully the natural law, and the precepts graven by God upon the hearts of all men, and who being disposed to obey God lead an honest and upright life, may, aided by the light of divine grace, attain to eternal life; for God who sees clearly, searches and knows the heart, the disposition, the thoughts and intentions of each, in His supreme mercy and goodness by no means permits that anyone suffer eternal punishment, who has not of his own free will fallen into sin."

Benedict XVI recent statements were of the same nature exactly, he was merely reiterating this doctrine. They were heavily misconstrued by the media.

Answer 9

"Through me" can be interpreted many ways, and Catholics tend to accept that fact (unlike Evangelicals). Catholics, for example, commonly believe that good people, behaving in ways consistent with Christ's teachings of love for your fellow man, can get to heaven, even if they don't openly or even consciously profess a faith in Christ. "Only God knows what's in your heart" is a phrase I have often heard Catholics say in this context.

Ray J, below, is incorrect. The Pope may have said that the Catholic Church is the only true church, but he never said, or would say, that other Christians can't get to Heaven.

Answer 10

...whether you know Him or not.
He is the gate. Everyone will be filtered through that gate.

so sayeth the Lord, and mighty is He.
He announced Himself as the source.

Yet I have heard many Catholics, including priests, bishops and popes say this: If Christ is the door, His Holy Mother is the window. (sry, I just had to throw that one int there lol)

Answer 11

It is important to remember that Jesus was speaking to people who were able to see that He was the Son of God. Jesus was telling people that teh only way to the father was to believe that God had sent His Son to lead us to the Father.

The Father seeks the salvation of all people, but not everyone has the opportunity to know the Son. Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

Those who do not know Christ are still saved by Him.

Ray...can you post the quote from the Pope you are referring to? No, because he did not say that.