April 10, 2005: Imitating the Faith of Jesus

+ THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

When tragedy strikes, the human brain kicks in to protect us from the shock and the trauma. Our system goes onto a kind of “auto pilot,” and we may walk around in a daze, feeling numb, until our mind can grasp and start to deal with the enormity of what’s happened to us. I think most of us can relate to this from personal experience… whether it’s the death of someone close, a devastating personal loss or even a calamity like the events of September 11 or a high-school shooting.

After Jesus’ betrayal, arrest, kangaroo court trial and execution, the disciples were reeling. Before they could even come to terms with everything that happened, along came another zinger. Some of the women reported back the incredible news from an angel: Jesus was alive again—resurrected, as he had said. That was Sunday.

Today’s gospel takes place the next day, on Monday. Even though the angel had told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit, evidently these two fellows we meet on the road were too antsy to stay put. So they’re walking to Emmaus, a hike of seven miles. Maybe they thought the three-hour or so walk would help them put things in perspective. In their numbness, they don’t realize that they’re disrupting God’s plan by walking away from the place where God had intended them to stay. Jerusalem is more than just a geographic location; it’s where someone experiences suffering, death and resurrection in imitation of Jesus.

From the gospel, we learn that Jesus doesn’t meet the pair of disciples from the opposite direction. Rather, he’s walking the same way they are, and he overtakes them. In other words, it’s clear that Christ is coming from Jerusalem. On the way, Jesus explains God’s word and then breaks bread with them. It’s at this point that their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And their recognition caused something else to happen, too: he vanished from their sight.

Listening to the word, then breaking bread, is a classic way to describe the Eucharist. Through the Eucharist, Jesus takes Jerusalem to them.

From the earliest days of Christianity, it was in the breaking of bread that believers discovered the risen Jesus among them. The Eucharist was each Christian’s Jerusalem: the place where they died to themselves by becoming one with all those others who joined in the action. The act of suffering and death brought them the spiritual insight to perceive the risen Jesus in their midst. And that is why the instant he’s recognized, he disappears: we recognize him over and over again only because we’re willing to give ourselves over and over again.

So here we are in the year 2005. Does the Eucharist still work the same way? Yes—if we truly make it a personal experience of dying and rising.

On Holy Thursday—the Last Supper—Christ instituted the Eucharist. You all know how he took bread and said, “This is my body.” He broke it, passed it around. Then he took the chalice of wine and said, “This is my blood.” He passed it around, too. He told the disciples, “Do this in memory of me.” His instruction was that we were supposed to imitate him.

Now listen to Peter’s speech in our first reading today. The first pope taught that we’re not supposed to just think how great Jesus is, but we’re also expected to imitate some of his attributes.

Peter speaks about Jesus’ “mighty deeds, wonders and signs.” He tells us that God worked these through Jesus. It’s important to understand that Jesus didn’t accomplish these solely by his own choice and power. Rather, they were part of his life because he had opened himself so thoroughly to God that God’s actions couldn’t be separated from Jesus’ actions.

Now, when Jesus’ first followers tried to imitate his giving of himself to God, they not only became witnesses of his resurrection, but they also discovered the same Spirit poured into their lives that God had poured into Jesus’ life.

We see another aspect of Jesus’ self-giving in Peter’s letter. He doesn’t say that Jesus “rose from the dead”; he writes that God raised him from the dead. There’s a huge difference between doing something yourself and having someone do it for you.

Peter’s point is that God will do the same thing for us as he did for Jesus… so our faith and hope should be in God. You see, we discover the risen Jesus among us not so much by having faith in Jesus as by having the faith of Jesus. Instead of just worshiping Jesus, we’re also expected to copy him. Only then do we notice that the risen Jesus has entered our lives.

We all know from personal experience that figuring out what would Jesus do—much less doing it—isn’t always easy. Life is messy and complicated. Yet Jesus, who we’ve got to remember was truly human so he in some mysterious way was in the same bind as us, managed to light up the path for us. The more we can keep our head and heart with Jesus, the better we can do at imitating him.

The best ways to do this are by ruminating on God’s word in the Scriptures and by praying always. And of course, the Eucharist is the top of the mountain when it comes to both.

The peace and strength and power and love and incredible joy of God are before us on a silver platter. During this blessed season of Easter, may the Holy Spirit stir up our hearts to desire and seek these wonderful gifts.

Amen. Alleluia!

Today’s Readings:
Acts of the Apostles 2: 14, 22–33
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1: 17–21
Luke 24: 13–35