The Open Search

Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter responds, “You are the Messiah.” Jesus then rebukes them and orders them not to tell anyone. Why? What is going on here?

Christ is searching for a personal response to him from the depths of one’s heart, moved by the unseen Father, to recognize the maximal presence of God in Jesus. Personal revelation —“Now I see who you are!”—brings one into contact with Life, for one is allowing oneself to be moved by the God of Life from within.  Mere verbal answers, such as Peter’s, are inadequate. Unfortunately, with the development of doctrinaire and fixed answers to genuine questions, many people stop looking, wondering, discovering for themselves who this is.   

The Jews at the time of Jesus had heavily political expectations about a Messiah, for he would deliver the Jews from political suppression, and make them a powerful nation. That is not Jesus’ task at all, as one sees in the Gospels and letters of the New Testament. Jesus is not the Messiah as expected, not a political leader, but something other, and far better. What that is, Who He Is, must be discovered for oneself.    

In the Quran it bluntly states that anyone who says that Jesus is “the son of God” is blaspheming and should be punished by death. “Son of God” is one title given to Jesus by his first generation of disciples, as we can see from the letters of Paul and then from the Gospels. It is obvious that Muhammed did not recognize God in Christ, or he would not have given this murderous injunction. He finds the answer threatening and an affront to Allah, that is, to God as Muhammed understands God. A lesson here: Do not overreact to mere words about God. In the far wiser words of Kipling, “Be gentle when the heathen pray to Buddha at Kamakura.” Many are the ways to respond to God, and no one has a monopoly on it—not Jews, Christians, or Muslims. 

 

Other phrases were also used to articulate the experience of divine presence in Jesus; the most precise or careful one is found in Paul’s letter to the Colossians (2:9):  “In Him dwells all the fullness of divine reality bodily.” The words are more grounded in concrete experience than are simple labels such as “Messiah,” “Christ,” “Lord,” “Son of God.”  There is nothing wrong with the Christological titles such as “Christ” or “Son of God,” but like quick answers, they may stop the process of inner searching that Christ seeks to initiate in us.  “Who do you say that I am?” is meant to induce the process of wonder and searching, and not yield to easy, quick answers.

 

Jesus seeks to move us to an open search for God. Paraphrasing Wordsworth, we ask: Where are the searchers in Christendom?  For centuries now, Christians have been bogged down in doctrinal answers, and stopped searching for God. This means that many of us have preferred stale bread to living Bread. The God who creates all that exists, the God whose loves has neither beginning nor end, wants us to “enter the dance,” to engage in an active search for the One moving us to search. Is that so difficult to grasp?  No, but many people prefer to wade in shallow waters rather than to risk all by launching out into the deep.    

As we read in St. John’s Gospel (5:39-40):  “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and yet these bear witness to me; you refuse to come to me, that you may have life.” We are being drawn to respond to the living God, not to rest in quick answers, labels, books, doctrines. The questions are real and searching; our answers are often too easy, familiar, comfortable.

 “Who do you say that I am?”

L'Chaim: To Life

When we toast one another in America, we usually say, “Cheers!” or “Bottoms up!” or“Here’s looking at you, kid.”  The Germans often use “Prost!” or more formally, “Zum Wohl!”meaning, “To health,” or “To your health.”  If we have celebrated with Jewish friends, we haveprobably heard their expression, “L’Chaim!”  It is a great way to toast a friend, family member, orstranger.  “L’Chaim” means “To Life!”  To celebrate Life, the gift of Life, the joy of Life, God’sunsurpassable gift to each and every creature.  To celebrate Life is to honor the giver of all life,the God who is Life itself.  “I have come that you may have LIFE,” says the Lord, “Lifeabundantly.”   

Our Mass readings this week-end and next focus our attention on Life and Love. And the two are intimately connected, of course.  True love is life-giving, and life-affirming.  And what could life be for a human being that was not grounded in love, and a living fountain of love? Who would want to live a loveless life?  Truly to love well is to live well.  To refuse to love is to squander one’s life. The unloving life is not worth living.   

This week we hear readings from the Book of Kings and from St. Luke’s Gospel that speak to us about life.  As one can tell if s/he pays close attention to the readings, there are multiple meanings of “life.”  The prophet Elijah restores a young boy’s life through his prayer to the God of Life, and his mother sees proof of the creative, life-giving power of the word of God. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus similarly restores one to life, in this case a young man, but once again, the only son of a widowed mother.  Jesus’ action bespeaks divine mercy, as the LORD has pity on the widow. Without her son, she would be forced to beg on the street. At the same time, multiple meanings of life are present in the story, and each meaning should be of concern to us.
  
Life:  there is the life of the body, biological life, without which we are cold, still, motionless, physically dead.  From the perspective of our existence on earth, this meaning of life is primary, foremost, and highly to be treasured.  Biological life is a gift and joy far more precious than wealth.  Only a fool would trade life for passing pleasures, or for “getting high,” or for making money.  

Beyond biological life, there is spiritual life.  Both show up on one’s body, on the face.Where there is not just biological life, but spiritual life, what shows up is joy, energy, kindness, attentiveness, sweetness, and even—for those with eyes to see—the glory of God shining on a human face. Spiritual life is communal, the fruit of communing with “God as one understands him,” with the source and energy at work throughout all of creation.  One must undergo many conversions, many changes of heart, to be truly alive in spirit.  It comes to those who love, deeply and well. Spiritual life is life lived now, in the moment, in communion with God.

A third meaning of Life portrayed in the Gospel passage is life eternal.  Both spiritual life and eternal life are essentially a sharing in God’s life, in the God who is Life eternal.  But the Gospel story has Jesus raise a young man from the dead in words bespeaking resurrection.The story is intended to be a sign of future glory:  a sign of the God who calls the dead back to life, and who bestows on his beloved the fullness of life beyond death:  “I AM the Resurrection and the Life” is beautifully portrayed in the Lucan story.  Life beyond the grave, beyond physical life-death, is the fullness of spiritual life, as one is fully immersed in the sea of divinity, the sea of divine Life. As Jesus declares: “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; to Him all are alive.” And to this One we say, “L’Chaim!,” “To Life!”