Word to the Wise
Sunday, May 1, 2011 - 2nd Sunday of Easter - A
[Acts 2:42-47; 1 Pet 1:3-9; John 20:19-31]Although you have not seen him you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you atain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. [1 Peter] "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed." [John}
One of the greatest challenges of the new Christian community's faith came with the death of the apostles and other disciples who had known Jesus in person. These "eye witnesses" were the guarantors of faith. They had "seen" Jesus and could testify to the truth of the many stories that were circulating about him from many different sources. Once these eye witnesses were no longer alive, the task of keeping the faith alive fell to the generation that produced the gospels. St. Paul's letters were already in circulation but they centered on his personal experience of revelation on the road to Damascus and its meaning, with little information about the ministry and life of Jesus before his death and resurrection. The gospels were written in large part as a response to the need to preserve "eye witness" testimony so that others could come to believe. This is why the gospels must be understood as "preaching" and not as journalism or biography! The aim is to bring others to faith. Seeing and believing take on a different yet powerful reality. As the Gospel of John quotes Jesus this morning: Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. The Letter of St. Peter similarly states,Although you have not seen him you love him....
Perhaps a secular parallel can help us understand this process. We Americans constantly hearken back to the "founding fathers" of our nation. Scholars continually write books about the history of our revolution and the lives of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Hamilton and others, as well as the events that led to the writing of our "sacred" documents: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Copies of these documents are enshrined in special "tabernacles" for generations to come and see. The "Founders" are all deceased who wrote those documents. We know, too, that differing understandings of those documents led to the violent Civil War and its very long aftermath of "reconstruction." To maintain our national consensus we continually tell the story of our past and revere those figures who personify the values that underlie the national consensus. If we lose faith in that consensus, our nation will be in peril.
The same thing is true of the Christian faith. The Bible, especially the New Testament, and the traditions of interpretation that come down to us are the fundamental external statements by the "founders" of a faith that is lived internally and expressed in our way of worship and our love of neighbor. We no longer have the original eye-witnesses. We have the "successors to Peter and the apostles" as well as the "Fathers of the Church" and other great interpretors of the Christian tradition, such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. Over the centuries, their preaching has enabled and shaped our faith. We, in turn, add our reflection and Christian life experience which preaches to our generation and then to succeeding generations. In this way, we and others can "see and believe" in every sense of faith and love mentioned in the scriptures. AMEN
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