Christ, the way to our true home

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
September 14, 2026

THE Gospel of John (3:13–17) brings us to the very heart of our Christian faith. Jesus declares that no one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man. He alone knows the Father perfectly because he comes from the Father. He alone reveals the Father's love and leads us to our true home. Everything in our lives finds its deepest meaning when seen in the light of Christ.

We can easily become absorbed in earthly concerns. Work, family, studies, business, and legitimate ambitions often occupy our attention. These realities are good, but they should never confine us to a merely worldly outlook.

We are created for something far greater – to share in God's own life. Our daily responsibilities are not obstacles to holiness but opportunities to express our love for God and to grow in virtue.

Jesus recalls the bronze serpent raised by Moses in the desert. Those who looked upon it with faith were healed from the deadly effects of the serpent's bite. This event foreshadowed Christ lifted up on the Cross.

Though the Cross appears to symbolize suffering and defeat, it is in fact the supreme sign of God's love and the source of our salvation. Christ transforms suffering into redemption, weakness into strength, and death into eternal life.

Looking upon Christ crucified means more than admiring him from a distance. It means uniting ourselves with him in the ordinary circumstances of daily life. Every sacrifice accepted with love, every act of forgiveness, every hidden service, every honest day's work, every patient endurance of hardship, and every sincere effort to fulfill God's will becomes a participation in the mystery of the Cross. In this way, ordinary life becomes the path to sanctity.

The well-known words, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son," reveal the boundless measure of God's love. He does not love us because we are already worthy; rather, his love makes us capable of becoming holy.

His grace always comes first. He continually seeks us, calls us back whenever we stray, and patiently forms Christ within us. The Christian life is therefore not merely a moral effort but a loving response to the God who has first loved us.

Faith is more than accepting truths with the mind. It is entrusting our whole life to Christ. We seek him in prayer, encounter him in the sacraments, recognize him in others, and serve him through our daily duties.

As we remain united with him, our thoughts, decisions, and actions are gradually transformed by his grace. Holiness is not reserved for a privileged few but is God's universal call to every Christian, whatever his or her vocation.

Finally, Jesus assures us that he was sent not to condemn the world but to save it. This gives us great hope. Despite our weaknesses and repeated failures, God never tires of offering his mercy. He asks only that we continue returning to him with humility and trust. His grace is always greater than our sin, and his love is stronger than our fears.