Sixth Sunday of Easter 'A'

Saturday April 30, 2005

I Will Be With You

“I was a revolutionary when I was young, and all my prayers to God were, ‘Lord, give me the energy to change the world.’

“As I approached middle age, and realized that half my life was gone without my changing one solitary soul, I changed my prayer. ‘Lord,’ I prayed, ‘give me the grace to change all those with whom I come into contact—just my family, my friends—then I shall be satisfied.’

“Now that I am an old man and my days are numbered, my one prayer is, ‘Lord, give me the grace to change myself.’ If I had prayed for this from the very beginning, I should not have wasted my life.”

This bit of wisdom from a Sufi sage surely speaks volumes about my life trajectory and I hope I’m not presumptuous in suggesting that I am not alone in this admission or confession.

Even the babe in the womb attempts to get the attention of its mother and although this may seem more metaphorical than real, it does not take long for the infant to take control of the household, making adult sleep a precious commodity.

It is in the nature of us humans in the development of our ego, to identify ourselves by defining what we are not and by conquering anyone or anything that does not conform to our will. In the words of author, Rollo May, we have an inherently strong will to power!

During adolescence, we experience a shocking setback in the discovery that the world is not ours to control and is not going to cave in to our demand for attention. As often as we demand conformity to our agenda, the world will go about its business as usual, ignoring our petty claims.

Nevertheless, we do not give up on our attempt to control our parents, friends, neighbors, teachers, counselors and our employers. Although we are not always aware of our drive to manipulate, sooner or later we come to the realization that because others are engaged in the same search for identity, our feeble attempts to control will not only harm others but may result in self-destruction.

At some point we arrive at what we’ve known all along, that our identity is intimately and ultimately discovered in the depths of our inner self where we connect with God.

I am not denying the legitimate need for affirmation and positive reinforcement from others, particularly those closest to us, but it is only after all reality is filtered through our soul that we come to know who we are and what we are to become in life. It is for this reason that we must go to our ‘blue zone’ often—our quiet space, our deepest self where God lives so to speak, to that place where truth prevails and integrity reigns, where justice and mercy meet. Only then can we recognize God’s face in nature and God’s voice in the prophets and priests of old and in parents, teachers and preachers in the present.

The Acts of the Apostles continues to describe the earliest experience of Christianity as it emerged from the womb-tomb—in Jerusalem and set about to change the world. The apostles and disciples of Jesus had to grapple with their identity as individuals but also as a living organism, which only later came to be known as the Church.

Although it is true, Jesus sent them forth from Jerusalem to baptize all nations; it was his primary mandate that they first come to know the God who loved them and to proclaim the universal and indiscriminate love of God to everyone else. This is a little different from demanding that the world conform to their agenda. It was a subtle command that they first come to know God and succumb to God’s will, as did Jesus. It was in that surrender that they would mirror in their own life, the image of Christ.

Baptism was the doorway and the initial surrender and an expression of our willingness to give up our identity in order to put on Christ. Most of us who were baptized as infants didn’t have a clue and so we had to be confirmed at a later date but even then, most of us were still neophytes in the faith as we continued to search for our true identity as Christians.

Jesus himself had to search for his identity. It was not until three years before he died that his identity and his mission became clear but even then he needed the reassurance of others. “Peter, who do people say I am? Peter, who do you say that I am?” To which Peter responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus’ entire life and ministry was not to control but to empower.

At the final meal, he washed the feet of the apostles and when Peter protested he chastised him saying, “Peter, unless I wash your feet, you can have no place in my Father’s kingdom, “ giving evidence that his mission was not about power but about service. At this penultimate moment, as it were, before his death he came to know his full identity as Son of God. “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit” was the total surrender of God to God. It was in his powerlessness that he came to know his strength as ‘Son of God.’

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that as our Church comes to know its poverty will it come to know its strength. This is the theme that seems to be emerging in the early messages of Benedict XVI.

“It is really so: the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to others. And only where God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved; each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with him.” [Inaugural Homily, April 24, 2005]

Each of us as a member of this living organism we call ‘Church,’ the Body of Christ, must take to heart the words of Scripture, “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you and accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear…. for it is better to suffer for doing good than to suffer for doing evil.”

Before we preach to the world as Church, we must preach to ourselves and allow the Word of God to penetrate every fiber of our being as individuals and as a Church. After he washed their feet, Jesus said to his apostles, “As I have done for you, you must do for one anther…. [For] the servant is not greater than the master.”

“They who have kept my commandments [summarized in the great commandment to love God and neighbor] are those who love me; and I will not leave you as orphans but will come to you and will live in you.”

To believe is to live and to live fully is to have hope and that hope will not leave us disappointed.

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