Have you notice the rapid rise in the popularity of self-help books, programs and seminars these days? People seem to be running around looking for gurus and experts who will help them answer the questions about life. They are constantly asking, "What is the best way to find happiness and peace?" "What is the best way to deal with pain and suffering?" "What happens after death?" and so on.

More than 2000 years ago, Thomas asked Jesus, "Lord ... how can we know the way?" Jesus' response to Thomas was that Christian hope was not in a method or a program but in a person, Jesus himself. Jesus is "the Way, the Truth and the Life" (Jn 14:6). The answer to Thomas' question had been right before his eyes but Thomas did not recognise Him as the Way.

In the first reading Paul preaches to the Jews in Antioch. He argues that the promises found in the scriptures which they read every Sabbath, have been fulfilled in the person of Jesus. The answers to their age old question, "Who is the Messiah and when will He come?" was right before them. However, the people and their leaders in Jerusalem failed to recognise Jesus as the Messiah.

As Christians, we too may be constantly seeking out experts, methods and programs to find answers to life, happiness, suffering and death. Do we not realise that the source of the answers we seek have always been and will always be before us in the person of Jesus?