Ukrainian Catholic ChurchAustralia, New Zealand and Oceania
The Missionary Decade. First day — “Christ is the way, the truth, and the life of marriage”
May 15, 2026
We encourage everyone to respond to His Beatitude Sviatoslav’s invitation to prepare properly for the feast of Pentecost. Over the next few days, we will reflect on passages from the Gospel of John in the context of married and family life. Together, we will seek answers to important questions: how to preserve love in times of trial, how to learn unity, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and mutual support, and how to build a family centered on God.
Friday, May 15
A reading of the Holy Gospel according to John 14:1–11
The central verse of today’s passage from Sacred Scripture is the words of Jesus: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). These words, spoken by Jesus to His disciples at the Last Supper, reveal one of the most important tasks that every person is called to fulfil in life: to walk one’s path to discover the truth and, in doing so, to find life.
What is this way? Human life is filled with an entire network of roads. We are constantly moving somewhere. There are wide roads and narrow roads, easy roads and dangerous ones. There are also many roads that lead to a dead end. Yet among all these roads of life, the most important path that a person is called to walk is the path towards God. Importantly, this path passes through the person of Jesus Christ: “No one comes to the Father except through me” (Jn 14:6).
What is this truth? Today we witness an obvious paradox: on the one hand, people have almost unlimited access to information, while on the other hand, it becomes increasingly difficult to discover the truth. The modern world often says that there is no universal truth and that everyone has their own truth. However, such thinking is a great deception! Objective truth does exist, and it begins with the knowledge of the Creator. Importantly, this truth is also revealed in the person of Jesus Christ: “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also” (Jn 14:7).
And what kind of life is being spoken about here? It is not merely physical existence but a life filled with deep meaning, a life that gives a person the experience of true happiness. Such life is received when a person remains in unity with God, the best example of which we once again find in the person of Jesus Christ: “I am in the Father, and the Father is in me… the Father who dwells in me does his works” (Jn 14:10–11).
How important this logic is for family life!
Marriage and family are not merely the meeting of two people but a shared journey which a husband and wife are called to walk together. Today many families experience crisis not because they lack material goods but because each person lives according to his or her own interests and plans and consequently almost as if living a separate life. This usually happens when husband and wife are not walking together in the direction of God.
On the other hand, when Christ and His Word become the way of marriage, spouses begin to discover God’s plan for family life: what the meaning of marital love truly is, how this love is connected with openness to the birth of new life, and why the family is called to become a “domestic church”. By coming to know these truths, spouses open themselves to the presence and action of God, who reveals to them the true beauty of one another and allows them to experience genuine family life filled with deep meaning.
Therefore, may every married couple today choose Christ as their way, so that in Him they may discover the truth that leads to true life and family happiness.
Mission Tasks:
1. Personal Level: Let us ask ourselves today: what can I do to help my family walk towards God?
2. Parish Level: Let us reflect on the concrete way in which each of us can contribute to making our parish an even more living place of proclaiming the truth and new life in Christ.
3. Missionary Level: Let us try to help at least one family that has not yet found, or perhaps has lost, the path to God to rediscover the way to Him.
