Friends
Peace be with you.
A few years ago, I was fascinated by the television show Lost. At the time, I was Associate Pastor at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames and this undergrad named Jeff Dole, who’s now a priest, told me I needed to watch it because it had strong philosophical themes. There was some good and some not so good things about the show but what amazed me was that they waited until the middle of the second season to introduce a major character in the show. Since then, I’ve seen a few shows do this but this was the first time I watched a show that seemed to make the deliberate decision not to introduce all the major characters in the first few episodes. The Chosen is a more recent example of this. Each season we are introduced to more of Jesus’ followers including each of the 12 Apostles but that seems more natural to the way the Gospel tells the story.
Today’s Gospel comes from the very end of St. Matthew’s Gospel in what is commonly referred to as the Great Commission. It’s a fascinating passage for several reasons. First, it says that the disciples went to Galilee, the northern part of Israel. We know that Jesus appeared to them in the central part of Israel, in Jerusalem, on Easter Sunday and the week after so, presumably, this happens after that. We also know that forty days after Easter, Jesus ascended into heaven and the apostles were, again, in Jerusalem for that. So this must have taken place sometime after the week after Easter but before the Ascension. That’s what makes the beginning so confusing. They clearly have gone to Galilee, to a particular mountain, maybe the Mount of the Beatitudes, where they had encountered Jesus before, to meet him. But, St. Matthew started this passage by saying that the eleven disciples “…worshiped but they doubted.” So it’s not just Thomas who is the doubter. Even after Jesus ate with them and showed them his hands and his side, they doubted. What would make them do this?
On Thursdays, for Coffee Klatch, we’re watching a show on Formed.org, the Catholic streaming service you can access for free, called the Wild Goose. This past Thursday, Fr. Dave Pivonka, the shows’ main presenter, said something that seemed rather…heretical. He said that Jesus isn’t enough. He acknowledged that it sounded bad but he said he talked to some theologians and they agreed with him after he explained what he meant. Think about the number of times Jesus says something like this to the apostles. On Easter Sunday, the eleven apostles are locked in the upper room out of fear and Jesus comes and gives them the power to forgive sins. A week later, they’re still locked in the upper room out of fear and Jesus proves he’s real. He appears several other times and sends them out but, forty days later, they’re still gathered together fearfully in the upper room. What’s stopping them from spreading the gospel? It’s not until the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost that they go forth, able to speak the language of the people around them. Even though they’re given the great commission here somewhere in Galilee before Pentecost, it won’t be activated until the Holy Spirit comes upon them at Pentecost.
It’s not that there’s something insufficient in Jesus himself but in our relationship with God if we don’t have a relationship with all three persons of the Trinity. It’s true to say that Jesus alone died on the cross and rose from the dead but this was part of God the Father’s plan to rescue us from sin and invite us into the life of grace. And we live in the life of grace, not because of our merits or even our intention, but entirely because of the Holy Spirit given to us in the Sacraments and in our personal prayer. We need that relationship with all three people, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to activate our faith and make us able to spread the gospel.
Do we have a relationship with Our heavenly Father who loved us into being and sent his Son to forgive us so we can forgive each other? Do we have a relationship to Jesus, his Son, who gave his life for us and sent us his Holy Spirit to give us grace? Do we have a relationship with the Holy Spirit who inspires us with his gifts for building up the Body of Christ, the Church and makes us sons and daughters of the Father? Which of these three do we most need to get to know?
