In Other Words

Imitating Jesus as the one we admire most

05/26/2020

Acts of the Apostles 20:17-27 From Miletus Paul had the presbyters of the Church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace. “But now I know that none of you to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels will ever see my face again. And so I solemnly declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”

It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. When you really admire and love someone you take on their way of speaking and acting: you imitate them. I’ve noticed this in my preaching style. I would say my preaching is a combination of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, C. S. Lewis, Bishop Robert Barron, G. K. Chesterton and Scott Hahn. These are the speakers and scholars I deeply admire and their words have become my words and even their mannerisms have become my mannerisms.

For example, Fulton Sheen thundered in the pulpit and so I raise my voice when I preach and sometimes scare small children. C. S. Lewis gave countless examples when he wrote, so I give examples in my homilies. Chesterton had an amazing aptitude for alliteration, and so I love to alliterate. Bishop Barron loves to say “Up and down the centuries,” and I’ve used that phrase often. Scott Hahn waves his hands for effect in his presentations, so I wave my hands like I’m trying to land an airplane in my homilies. And he frequently uses the phrase “In other words.” Have you noticed how I do too? We imitate those we admire and play a sort of “imitation game” that has been played “up and down the centuries.”

The two readings today demonstrate this imitation game being played between Jesus and Paul. What Jesus does in John 17 in the midst of his high priestly prayer, Paul imitates in Acts 20, his own farewell discourse during his third and last great missionary journey. Let me give you some examples (like Lewis). Jesus gathers his apostles, the first presbyters of the Church, to address them. Paul calls together the presbyters of the church in Ephesus to encourage them. Jesus knows he is about to face his trial, torture and death soon, and so Paul knows he is headed to Jerusalem when he will be put on trial, then sent to Rome and finally executed.

The apostles would remember these last words of Jesus and Paul would share the words of Jesus not even recorded in the gospel tradition. He says in Acts 20:35, “Keep in mind the words of the Lord Jesus, who himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’.” Did you know those words are not found anywhere else in the New Testament, but rather in Sirach 4:31, which reads: “Do not let your hand be open to receive but clenched when it is time to give”? In other words, Paul knows Jesus so well, he can quote him outside of the New Testament. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.

The question for us today is: whom do we imitate? Whose words have become your words? Whose actions and mannerisms have you adopted as your own mannerisms? If we are not careful, we imitate people without even knowing it. While Barak Obama was president, I noticed I imitated some of his mannerisms and speaking style. People even commented: “Fr. John, you sound just like Barak Obama!” But far better than modern politicians and mesmerizing preachers, we should imitate Jesus. And we come to know him through the scriptures and the saints.

                Get involved in a bible study, especially on one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, where you find the words and wisdom, the mind and the mannerisms of Christ. Read the lives of the saints like St. Peter and St. Paul recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and St. Philip Neri, who founded the Oratorians who are outstanding orators. The saints are the imitators of Jesus who have made him alive in every age, “up and down the centuries.” In other words, we all play the imitation game all the time, whether we know it or not. We are all imitating someone. The only question is: who?

Praised be Jesus Christ!