Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
FaMa AliwI
Thursday, April 19, 2001
The making and unmaking
of Easter witnesses
All contents copyright©2001 byCNS
By Father Richard Rice, SJ
Catholic News Service
Jt^or the disciples in the Upper
Room, Mary Magdalene does exactly
what a witness does in a courtroom,
namely, testifies to her personal
knowledge of the resurrection. “I have
seen the Lord,” she says (John 20:18).
Today, witnessing for Jesus is ev
erywhere. From football players point
ing heavenward to adolescents with
their WWJD bracelets, from adults
o one recognizes the
risen Jesus at first because
none fully believes in
resurrection — until he
stands in our midst and
cooks our breakfast or
reveals his wounds.”
with expensive gold crosses on neck
laces to people evangelizing house-to-
house, everyone either is witnessing
or receiving witnesses.
What is a witness? What kind of
witnessing is truly graced and benefi
cial?
As I read and pray with the Easter
Scriptures, I keep realizing that the
criteria for witnessing are the same
now as they were for Mary Magdalene
and for the two disciples journeying to
Emmaus.
—First, one can only genuinely
witness to what one has known per
sonally. All witnessing was summa
rized by the two now running back to
the disciples: “They told what had
happened on the road [to Emmaus],
and how [the Lord] had been made
known to them in the breaking of the
bread” (Luke 24:35).
—Second, there is always a note of
reversal of expectations for one who
becomes a witness. We expect the
dead to stay dead. No one recognizes
the risen Jesus at first because none
fully believes in resurrection — until
he stands in our midst and cooks our
breakfast or reveals his wounds.
—Third, there is always a moment
of “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28)
for one who becomes a witness. The
witness has been brought to his knees
in realizing the divinity manifest in
the risen humanity of Jesus.
—Fourth, there is for the witness a
deeper understanding of the cycles of
life — in other words, the realization
that Easter comes only on the heels of
Good Friday and after an often
lengthy, empty Holy Saturday.
—Finally, on fire with the personal
experience, humbled by slowness to
believe, on bended knee in adoration
and filled with compassionate under
standing of others (gentle in procla
mation), the witness stands to testify
to the truth of Jesus risen in our
midst, burning with the inner fire of
the Spirit.
■ ■ ■
Good as that sounds, we Catholics
need to acknowledge that we are still
uncomfortable with the notion of wit
nessing.
In the Second Vatican Council our
bishops spoke and wrote often of evan
gelization, by which they meant the
proclamation of Christianity to those
who do not yet believe in Christ.
Pope Paul VI went a step further in
his well-known apostolic exhortation
on evangelization (Evangelii
Nuntiandii). In that document he
wrote:
“The church exists in order to evan
gelize, that is to say, in order to
preach and teach, to be the channel of
the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners
with God and perpetuate Christ’s sac
rifice in the Mass.”
Pope John Paul II went two steps
further with his encyclical on mis
sionary activity (Redemptoris
Missio). There he writes of the “new
evangelization” required in formerly
Christian areas. He writes that “the
witness of a* Christian life is the first
and irreplaceable form of mission.” He
announces that all true witnessing
must be from the inside out, rather
than the outside in.
To families he writes, “The new
evangelization is not a matter of pass
ing on doctrine but rather of a per
sonal and profound meeting with the
Savior.”
Yet many of us Catholics remain
hesitant to openly witness. Further
more, we are repulsed if we feel that
some seem to be witnessing more to
themselves than to the Lord.
I heard an obviously serious Chris
tian deliver a eulogy for a friend. The
speaker told how he had shared Scrip
ture passages with the deceased, how
he had encouraged him to meditate on
them, how he had encouraged him to
keep a journal of his prayer life. As the
speaker rotated around the perpen
dicular pronoun, he was telling us
much more about himself than about
the deceased or about our God, and he
never seemed to know it.
In this regard I have found a help
ful distinction in the 11th tradition of
Alcoholics Anonymous. The tradition
begins: “Our public relations policy is
based on attraction rather than on
promotion; we need always maintain
personal anonymity.”
These words acknowledge the pos
sibility of ego-gratification in the very
act of witnessing. They also provide a
graced way of proceeding. They urge
us to live our lives as serious disciples
of Jesus; then the witnessing will
largely take care of itself, much as
Clare Boothe Luce and others said: “I
cannot hear what you are saying, for
who you are is speaking so loudly to
me.”
The great example of the power of
such a witness is St. Francis. Few
in our tradition evangelized quite as
he did, yet his whole life can be
summarized in one sentence:
“Preach the Gospel and, if neces
sary, use words.”
What a blessing it would be if that
summarized our lives and our witness
as well.
(Jesuit Father Rice is a spiritual
director with Loyola, a spiritual re
newal resource in St. Paul, Minn.)
F00DF0RTH0UGHT
Presumably, people who come to believe that Jesus is alive will want
to tell others about it. They’ll be enthusiastic and want to share this — to
be witnesses.
That’s part of the truth about Easter.
But is enthusiasm enough? To put it another way, what does it take to
be credible witnesses of Christian faith?
Most people seem to agree that Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a
credible faith witness. Why?
First, there was no doubt that she did in fact believe; no one was left to
wonder if her faith had been lost along the way.
Second, she expressed her faith in more than words. She worked hard
over a long time serving the sick and destitute. Self-sacrifice was
characteristic of her.
Third, 1 think we can conclude that Mother Teresa’s words and actions
matched — another way of saying she had integrity, which in my book
counts for much in terms of achieving credibility.
Finally, Mother Teresa’s respect for others was clear. She focused not
on any honor they had in being served by her, but the honor she had of
serving them.
15 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!