Strike a Pose

Taking the next step in drawing closer to Christ

04/07/2017

John 10:31-42 The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?" The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God." Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true." And many there began to believe in him.

          Throughout our life we strike a different pose in our relationship with Jesus Christ. We travel a long journey with Jesus from where we start with him and where we finish. When we are small children, we cannot get enough of Jesus, “curiosity kills the cat.” Small children love to serve at Mass, they sing at Mass, they say the prayers at Mass. When we become teenagers, we’re too smart for Jesus, just like we’re too smart for our parents. Mark Twain once quipped, “When I was 17 I couldn’t believe how stupid my father was. When I turned 21 I couldn’t believe how much he had learned in 4 years.” Faith seems foolish. When we are young adults we don’t have time for Jesus because we’re too busy with our work, our wife and our weekend. As adults, we see Jesus either as a friend or as a foe. He’s a friend when life “goes super” and he’s a foe when life “goes south.” Richard Dawkins, the loud and proud atheist, once said: “I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world’s greatest evils, comparable to the small-pox virus but harder to eradicate” (“Is Science a Religion?” The Humanist, January, 1997). The final pose we strike is toward the end of life when we call Fr. John to come to the hospital to anoint us because we’re knocking on death’s door. After retirement, many people start going to daily Mass.  We have time for Jesus.

          Throughout the gospel people strike different poses to Jesus, these poses are especially pronounced in the gospel of John. Today’s gospel pericope shows adults who see Jesus as either friend or foe. The gospel begins by saying, “The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.” Those Jews felt like Richard Dawkins and saw Jesus like “the small-pox virus” and in need of eradication. The gospel, however, concludes with the line, “Many [Jews] came to him and said, ‘John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.’ And many there began to believe in him.” Their faith life was “going super,” and faith was fun. But that faith would soon be tested and tried on Good Friday. I saw a bumpersticker once that asked the provocative question: “Do you feel far from God?  Well, who moved?” You can almost plot, like points on a graph, where people are on their journey to Jesus; how we’re moving closer or farther from him.

          Every day I try to remind our church staff that our job at this parish, from priest to PRE teacher, from secretary to sacristan, is to “bring people closer to Christ.” The key word there is “closer,” meaning just get people to take the next step on the journey to Jesus, not necessarily get them to the end of the journey, the last step. For instance, my job in preaching at Mass is just to get people to want to come back next Sunday to Mass, not to make them Mother Teresa. Just come back next Sunday and hear a little more. It may help parents to remember this as well and be more patient with your children. The pose your child strikes today – whether he thinks Jesus is a rockstar or not – will change, evolve, wax and wane over time, so just help them take the next step, not the last step. This may even help you be more patient with your own spiritual life, understanding that the fluctuations in our own faith life, and not to become too discouraged, but persevere. Just take the next step, not the last step.

          If you ever want to read a magnificent poem about these “poses” we strike, read Francis Thompson’s “Hound of Heaven.” It begins with these lines, “I fled him, down the nights and down the days; I fled him, down the arches of the years…” Like a teenager, Thompson didn’t have time for Jesus. And the poem ends with Jesus speaking to him: “All which I took from thee I did but take, not for thy harms, But just that thou might’st seek it in my arms. All which they child’s mistake fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home. Rise, clasp my hand and come!” Someday we will stop striking poses in our journey with Jesus, and no longer draw closer to Christ, because we become one with him, we’ve taken the last step.

          Praised be Jesus Christ!