Finding One's Truest Identity in the Crucified-Risen Savior

 

Looking intently at the brokenness in myself and in my neighbor and finding my truest identity in the Crucified-Risen Savior

An Easter Reflection

by

Fr. Maximilian Buonocore, OSB

An important theme in Acts 3:1-10 is “looking intently.” Peter and John looked intently at the man lame from birth and the lame man looked intently at them. After the miraculous cure the crowd looked intently at Peter and John. The man born lame looked intently at Peter and John with the expectation of receiving money, but Peter said to him, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” Peter looked intently at him, recognizing his identity. I feel certain that Peter performed the miraculous healing of the man lame from birth, not primarily as a demonstration of the power of the Spirit of Christ working through him, but as a recognition of a shared identity. I believe that Peter’s words and the miraculous healing flowed from Peter’s identifying in faith with the identity of the Crucified-Risen Lord, whose identity is revealed most intimately in that suffering man lame from birth; in the same way that Jesus’ healings, when he was on earth, flowed from his own intimate identification with the suffering person with himself. It is to Jesus also that Peter later directs the attention of the crowd in Solomon’s Portico. The crowd looked intently at Peter and John with the amazement of having seen power go forth from them. But Peter redirects their attention away from himself and John to the one who is the source of the healing spirit: the Crucified-Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, saying, “. . .why do you look so intently at us as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety?” It is to Jesus as the Crucified-Risen Lord and source of the Spirit of healing that Peter draws the attention of the crowd, and thereby draws their attention to the identity that is theirs in the Crucified-Risen Lord through faith. We hear about the identity of the Crucified-Risen Lord in the Book of Revelation which says, “Then I saw standing in the midst of the throne . . . a Lamb that seemed to have been slain.” In his glorified state, the wounds of crucifixion shine forth to proclaim his identity. When the Risen Lord appeared to his Apostles, his identity was confirmed by the presence of the wounds of crucifixion: “. . . he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced . . .” And to Thomas: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” It was precisely his wounds which identified the risen Lord as their Lord of mercy and God of love. When Peter offered the healing Spirit of Christ to the man lame from birth, he was offering to that man, not what was his own, but what he already shared in common with that man: their mutual identity in the Crucified-Risen Lord. The healing, as miraculous as it was, was not the essence of what was taking place at that moment. The true miracle that was taking place at that moment is the miracle of redemptive suffering endowed with resurrection life. It is the manifestation of the Passion of the Crucified-Risen One as strong as death, and the longing of the love of a Creator-Redeemer as fierce as Sheol. “Its arrows are arrows of fire, flames of the divine. Deep waters cannot quench love, nor rivers sweep it away.” (Song of Solomon 8:6-7) The Passion and Death of Christ manifests a love stronger than death, and bestows resurrectional life, even in the here and now. Faith in Jesus is not just a consent to a belief in the power of Jesus to save. Faith in Jesus Christ as Messiah and Son of God is not just a belief system, but is a sharing in a Passion as strong as death and a Spirit of Love as unquenchable as Sheol, because such a faith is a sharing in the very identity and life of the Crucified-Risen Savior. So it is that our faith should never be reduced to just a belief system, but should become ever increasingly a most intimate and personal identity: a most intimate and personal identification with the Crucified-Risen Lord, not only in our moments of heartfelt joy, but especially through our earthly sufferings which fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.” (Colossians 1:24) Faith is a shared identity, shared in the Body of Christ. Faith recognizes this identity even in brokenness. Faith recognizes the identity of the Crucified-Risen Lord in our broken/wounded neighbor and in our own personal brokenness. And as we hear in the Gospel reading (Luke 24:13-35), faith recognizes the identity of the Crucified-Risen Lord also in the broken/opened Scriptures, and in the broken/Eucharistic bread. Just as faith allowed Peter to encounter Christ through the broken/suffering man lame from birth, so faith inflamed the hearts of the disciples as Jesus broke open the Scriptures to them on the way, and faith recognized the identity of the Crucified-Risen Lord in the breaking of the bread.

This is the way we encounter the Crucified-Risen Jesus in our daily lives: in our broken/wounded neighbor, in the broken/opened Scriptures, and in the broken/Eucharistic bread. If I am truly living a life of mercy and charity, I touch the wounds of the Crucified-Risen Lord with the finger of self-sacrificial love toward those who are most in need. If I am truly living a life of mercy and charity, I am penetrating the wound in the side of Christ with my hand of loving service to the poor. If I am truly living a life of mercy and charity, I am living a resurrectional life in the here and now, because I am living, in the here and now, the life of the Crucified-Risen Lord. If we are truly living a life of mercy and charity, we are living a resurrectional life, and, living a resurrectional life, we will not die. We will not die in the sense that the life we live in Christ now, continues beyond death. “Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” When we live as Jesus calls us, there is a continuity between this life and the next, because the next life is, in fact, present in us in the here and now, with the loving presence of Christ present in us by his Spirit dwelling in us - our heart dwelling in heaven even as our mind and body remain in the world; and we continually encounter the Crucified-Risen Lord in the brokenness of this world: in our own broken/wounded self and in our broken/suffering brothers and sisters, in the breaking open of the Scriptures, and in the breaking of the bread. 

A Personal Note: I have previously recounted the episode at the 1964-65 World's Fair in Flushing, NY, when I was with my family at the Vatican Exhibit. I was seven year’s old at the time. As I was standing before Michelangelo’s Pietà, feeling very sick. I was looking so intently at that statue for a long time. I was so mesmerized. I was too young to interpret the sense of what I was experiencing at that moment. But, reflecting on the healing that took place, and what my father said to me afterward, “You are Pietà,” and, hearing my father, for the rest of his life, calling me by the name, Pietà, rather than the name, Peter, given to me at birth, has served to confirm that it was in that moment that I was gazing for the first time at that which was my truest and deepest identity in the Crucified-Risen Christ: Pietà. At that moment, I came to know my most intimate identity in the Crucified-Risen Jesus, embraced by my most loving and compassionate Mother, Mary. My deepest identity in the Crucified-Risen Lord is to be Pietà: to be able to look intently at my own brokenness and at my broken/suffering brothers and sisters and encounter the Crucified-Risen Jesus, and to be moved by the compassion which is stronger than death that flows from the Crucified-Risen Lord, and, wounded by the arrows of loving concern for my brothers and sisters in need, dedicate myself daily to loving service of those around me.

So, as we journey along with the Lord Jesus and relive His post-resurrection encounters with his disciples, may we be touched by the love that is stronger than death which flows from Him, let it’s arrows wound us with loving concern for our brothers and sisters in need, and may the undying flames of divine love be so kindled in us that we dedicate ourselves untiringly to loving service of those around us. Amen

Spreading the Infection of the Joy of the Gospel

 

Contagious Laughter, Infectious Joy, Resurrection Life

An Easter Reflection

by 

Fr. Maximilian Buonocore, OSB

The last three days we have been re-telling, re-enacting, and re-living the Gospel mysteries of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. But, if we are truly living a Christian life, every day of our life will be an “Easter Triduum” in which we re-tell, re-enact, and re-live the events of these Gospel mysteries through the daily events of our life, especially those events which bring the most challenges and stresses our way. Let me share a couple of personal examples. In 2020, I had to deal with an acute episode related to the congenital condition called Tarsal Coalition in my feet, as well as a bout with Lyme disease. At that time, my meditations tended to focus on the solitude of suffering. I recognized that, even though others can be with me when I am suffering, as the wonderful monks here are, they cannot do my suffering for me. I have to do my suffering. But I also came to the insight that suffering is solitude because it is the occasion of a most profound encounter with God, a loving Father, who makes his deepest encounter with me in the passion of Jesus. But this most profound encounter can only occur in solitude – in the solitude of my suffering. It is in the context of suffering that, stripped of the distraction of the worldly pleasures of the senses of the flesh, my spiritual senses can then be freed to perceive and contemplate the Father’s eternal embrace of divine mercy. But recently, as I was suffering with COVID-19, a different kind of encounter with the loving Father emerged: the encounter with God as a laughing Father whose laughter and joy are contagious. Laughter became a theme in my recent suffering. I know that sounds strange. Contrary to what happened in 2020, when I would frequently awaken from sleep with a startle response from something scary happening in my dream, during the last four weeks, I have frequently awakened from sleep laughing because something funny happened in my dream. I think that the recent experience of having a fever and developing bronchitis brought me back to my childhood. I think that this is a good thing. When I was a child, I was prone to get high fevers, and would sometimes develop bronchitis. My mother would be fearful because of her experience of me having high fevers when I was an infant and my going into convulsions. My mother would make me stay in bed and I would feel very bad because I would think about my brothers playing and enjoying themselves and I couldn’t be with them. When my father would come home from work he would come to my room to visit me. When he would see that I was feeling sad he would sit on the bed near me and tell a joke or a funny story to try to cheer me up. If the joke or story didn’t help to cheer me up, he would just start laughing, and I couldn’t help but start laughing too. His laughter was contagious. His joy was contagious. The same thing would happen with guests. My father loved to entertain guests and loved to tell stories, and would often tell a joke or funny story. If nobody started laughing at a joke or a story that he himself thought was funny, he would just start laughing, and then everyone else would start laughing. His laughter was contagious. You couldn’t help laughing with him. But most importantly, his joyfulness was contagious. I have always felt that when it comes to joy, I hope that I am infected and become contagious. I won’t mask up for that! While it is true that God the loving Father makes his deepest encounter with me in the passion and suffering of Jesus experienced in my own suffering, that same loving Father channels resurrection life and resurrection joy through the same human passion of Jesus; and I would say that the laughter of my loving earthly father was and is now an echo of the resurrection life and joy that the heavenly Father communicates to me through the human passion of his Son. I do not experience resurrection life directly in this life, but the joy of resurrection life constantly resonates in and through me by means of my daily spiritual encounter with the crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ who constantly conveys to me the joy of the Gospel. Laughter is an echo of that joy.

Spreading the contagion of the Joy of the Gospel

Evangelii Gaudium, the Joy of the Gospel - the papal exhortation by Pope Francis - has increasingly become the central theme of my vocation. Joy is an infection I want to get. I want to be contagious. I want to be contagious and spread the infection: I want to spread the joy of the Gospel. That is my vocation. That is the kind of contagion that we should, as a community, both individually and collectively, be spreading. We need to go forth unmasked: shedding the mask of grievances, grudges, and bitterness; shedding the mask of self-righteous rationality, and judgmentalism; and let the breath of joy of loving encounter with Jesus flow forth. We are now very conscious about spreading contagions. We mask up a lot, as a result. The contagion that we should not mask up for, and should spread unhesitatingly, is the contagion of joy - the joy of the Gospel. As Pope Francis exhorts us: “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day . . . The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew . . . I wish to encourage [all] the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy.” And let this joy be infectious. When I think about what gifts I have to use in the loving service of other people - intellectual ability in math and science, ability to help special needs students, ability to listen and establish a therapeutic relationship with a client so as to be an effective counselor, capacity for work in general - I consider none of these as important as the capacity for joy and laughter. This is the gift that I hope that I can use in loving service for others. This is the gift that I pray that this community continues to foster: the gift of joy - the joy of the Gospel, the joy of resurrection life - that we can spread infectiously. This is the contagion that I pray that this community be infected with and spread to all those served by this community.

Let us all become infected today with that contagion and not masked by fear, self-pity, selfish interest, petty grievances, or anger, let us spread the infection of resurrection joy to all around us.