Chasing Ghosts

Being present to Jesus and thereby more present to ourselves

04/15/2018

Luke 24:35-48 The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them  in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.

I recently learned a new vocabulary word that our teenagers have probably known for a long time. The word is “ghosting.” Have you heard that term before? The definition of ghosting reads: “The practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.” In Fort Smith we call that “switching parishes.” Some parishioners have become ghosts to me. Have you ever abruptly cut-off all ties with someone? Ghosting means that you’ve disappeared off their radar, like a ghost, and vanished from their lives. Now, ghosting does not occur accidentally or gradually, like how you lose contact with a high school or college friend over the years. Rather, ghosting is immediate and intentional.

But have you ever thought you could “ghost” yourself? What I mean is have you ever felt like a stranger to yourself, uncomfortable in your own skin? Have people raised an eyebrow at you and said: “He’s not acting himself lately,” we might have lost communication with our better selves. This was precisely the problem that Ishmael faced in Herman Melville’s famous novel called Moby Dick. Ishmael joins a whaling expedition not only to catch “Leviathan,” the notorious whale called “Moby Dick,” but really to catch himself. At the beginning of the tale, Ishmael ponders the deeper meaning of water. He asks: “Why is almost every robust healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, at some time or other crazy to go to sea?...Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy?...And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus, who because he could not grasp the tormenting mild image he saw in the fountain, plunged into it and was drowned. But that same image, we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans (he means our own faces). It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life, and this is the key to it all” (Moby Dick, 4-5).  You might recall the Greek myth of Narcissus (from which we get the term “narcissism”) where a handsome young man sees his reflection in a pool of water and falls in love with himself. But when he tries to touch that image he falls in the pool and drowns. Ishmael set sail because he was willing to take the chance of falling in the ocean and drowning in order to touch his true self. He was tired of “ghosting” himself.

In the gospel the apostles wonder if Jesus has “ghosted” them. With his death on the Cross, had our Lord abruptly and intentionally cut off all communication with his closest friends? As if to answer that exact question, Jesus says to them: “Touch me and see, because a ghost – a ghost – does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” In other words, I am not “ghosting” you guys anymore! In fact, I want to establish an even closer contact with you than when I was alive. But in reuniting with Jesus – and this is the bigger point – they also discover their better selves. Jesus reveals to them their deepest identities when he declares: “You are witnesses of these things.” You are apostles and the bishops of my Church. Only when Jesus was no longer a ghost to the apostles were they no longer ghosts to themselves. In finding Christ, they had found themselves.

My friends, I would suggest to you that Ishmael and the apostles are not the only ones who have embarked on a journey of self-discovery, so have we all. In a sense, you could say we are all “chasing ghosts,” especially our own ghosts because we’re not quite in full possession of ourselves, our true selves. As Mathew Kelly might say we are searching for “the best version of ourselves.” I am convinced that we will not find ourselves by looking in the mirror, like Narcissus, but by looking for Jesus.

Lately, we have witnessed some very dramatic examples of people who touched Jesus and thereby found their better selves. Jesus was no longer a ghost to them, he became real to them. On Easter, seventeen adults became Catholic and touched Jesus in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Communion. On Friday and Saturday, over a hundred teenagers received Confirmation and touched Jesus, and Jesus touched them. On May 26 and June 2 eight men will be ordained as priests for the Diocese of Little Rock, and one of them, Fr. Stephen Elser, will come here as our new associate pastor. Jesus will say to those newly ordained priests the same thing he said to the first apostles: “You are witnesses of these things.” The heart of all healthy spirituality can be summed with this statement: when Jesus is no longer a ghost to us, we cease being ghosts to ourselves. When Jesus becomes more real to us, we become more real to ourselves.

In 1979 the classic rock group, Little River Band, released one of their biggest hits called, “Cool Change.” It could have been the theme song for Ishmael in Moby Dick because it, too, reflects on how water helps us get in touch with ourselves. Imagine Ishmael singing these words: “If there's one thing in my life that's missing / It's the time that I spend alone / Sailing on the cool and bright clear water / It's kind of a special feeling / When you're out on the sea alone / Staring at the full moon, like a lover.”

Only when we fall in love with Jesus, can we reestablish contact with everyone and everything else, the albatross and the whales, and even ourselves. Only then we are no longer chasing ghosts.

Praised be Jesus Christ!