Pay Attention

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to our junior class during their junior retreat. My talk was about the call to discipleship, specifically an invitation by Christ to take up the cross and follow him. My reflection was on Matthew 16:24-26. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”

And while I did not get into it during my talk to those juniors, it was on my mind that just a few verses before this passage in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus foreshadows his own death and resurrection, and they refuse to believe it, “From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Ignatian spirituality invites us to be reflective practitioners and I think that today's Easter morning gospel reading is a reminder to us to stop and reflect and pay attention to what is going on around us. Here are the disciples, who have been told by Jesus that He will return. They have been told by Jesus that He will be resurrected on the third day; they have been told by Jesus that they are not alone, and yet on the morning of His resurrection, on this Easter morning, they are dumbstruck and immediately assume the worst. They assume that somebody has stolen Christ's body, and that He is gone. But He is not gone. He has risen! He has done exactly what he said he would do, he has not lied to us, and through his destruction we are saved.

Perhaps this is what Christ was talking about when He told Peter that He was not thinking as God does, but as human beings do. Perhaps this is Christ’s way of acknowledging our humanity, and also His own Divinity, and also reminding us that He is the bridge between our humanity and our divinity. And because we are human, we are not ready to fully understand that.

After Mary of Magdala tells Simon Peter and the other disciple that Christ is gone, that His body has been stolen, they assume the worst and run to the tomb so that they can see it for themselves. And it is only after they see the stone rolled away, and see the burial shroud rolled up and set aside - only then do they remember and believe, their faith restored. Today’s readings are an invitation to ask ourselves, “What happens when my faith is tested? How many times do I forget that Christ is with me and jump to the worst possible conclusion? How many times have I assumed that somebody has undermined me, or deliberately let me down, or sought to harm me? How many times have I forgotten that I'm surrounded by my friends, and that they are here to help me? How many times have I forgotten the promise of Christ?”

We are told that, ‘For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” The message of the resurrection is an invitation to let go of those pieces of our humanity that get in the way of accepting the truth of Christ’s resurrection. It is an invitation to let go of the doubt, the uncertainty, and the assumption of ill-will that so often characterize our humanity. It is an invitation to re-engage our faith and think instead like Christ, who looks forward to his resurrection and to His assumption into heaven where He will be reunited with God the Father. It is an invitation for us to think in a similar manner, to think beyond our humanity and to look forward to our own resurrection.

Author: Tom Garrison, Principal