I Am the Tradition

Fostering intimacy with Jesus

JOHN 15:26-16:4A

Jesus said to his disciples:  “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning. “I have told you this so that you may not fall away. They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me. I have told you this so that when their hour comes you may remember that I told you.”

            Have you ever known someone so well you could finish their sentences for them?  Now, that can be really annoying, but it can also be really beautiful.  Spouses can often do that, and so can good friends.  Some friends can read each other’s thoughts, just by the look on their face, without ever uttering a word (that's especially helpful if you're playing Bridge).  You have to spend a long time with someone, and they have to trust you implicitly, to share that level of intimacy.  One theologian described intimacy as “in-to-me-see” to know the depths of another person – their thoughts, their hopes, their fears – is true intimacy.  Pope Pius IX once arrogantly said, “I am the Tradition!” without the humility we’d hope from the Vicar of Christ.  But what he said was spot-on: the pope SHOULD be the best friend of Jesus on earth, who knows our Lord’s intimate thoughts, and shares them with the world through the Tradition.  That's what the Tradition is for: to help us know Jesus intimately.

            In today’s gospel Jesus expresses this clear hope for his disciples: their intimate friendship with him will lead them to giving testimony about him.  Jesus says, “And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”  Because the 12 apostles had spent the most time with Jesus, and he had trusted them implicitly, they could finish his sentences and knew his deepest desires.  In fact, do you remember when they have to replace Judas, what was the highest criterion?  Judas’ replacement would have to be someone who had been with Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry.  When you become an intimate friend of someone, you want to introduce them to the world.

            I believe one of the goals of the Christian journey is deeper and deeper friendship with Jesus; to arrive at the point where you can say humbly, “I am the tradition”; to know Jesus so well you could finish his sentences and know his thoughts from just a glance.  One of the best ways to do that is spend time in Adoration, at the feet of Jesus, listening to him, learning from him, becoming his best friend.  Archbishop Fulton Sheen said Adoration is like gazing at the sunset.  If you stare at a sunset long enough, your face begins to glow with the same colors.  At Adoration we share “in-to-me-see” with Jesus – he sees into us, and we see into him.  We become best friends, and we are eager to tell others about our Friend.

Praised be Jesus Christ!