Am I really a Christian? What does an authentic Christian look like in 2016? What does it look like in me? From time to time I chew for days on these questions. This past month has been one of those times when such questions have come to mind and stayed. Today’ scriptures, chosen to celebrate the lives of apostles and saints Philip and James, give some guidance in answering them. Between the reading from I Corinthians and the Gospel of John, we have the essential keryma. Kerygma is a Greek word that means “proclamation” or “preaching” of the Gospel message. It is the word for what is core in Christianity.
From the Gospel of John, we hear Jesus say, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” At the core of the kerygma is the person, example, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great act of God to reach out to us. His life shows us the way: His example shows us what to do. His teachings show us how to think. His personal relationship shows us how to love Him.
An authentic Christian follows the way of Jesus. He or she imitates Him and finds the Father through Him.
Jesus is also the great truth of how, in our human and sinful nature, we are formed in the image of God, but we do not live in that image. As we see Jesus’ practice of way, truth, and lived life, we see the difference between Him and us. We become aware that we are sinners, separated from God and each other, and struggling. By looking at Jesus, we get a clearer picture of ourselves.
But then, we see in Jesus the truth of HOW MUCH God is willing to do for us. As St. Paul says today, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than…”
Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” As a Christian today, “the life” is of critical importance. This Easter season I have thought more than ever before about what “the life” means. This Easter, I have come to see “the life” as being about living in a perpetual life of joyful conversion because of the resurrection.
Jesus was God incarnate. He proclaimed the Kingdom. He suffered and died. THEN HE AROSE. Because He arose, I, too, can arise, will arise.
In our semi-Christian culture we can take eternal life with God in heaven for granted. I go to funerals of people who don’t believe, but people there talk about “the joy” of being “up there” with friends and family. Interesting. Not the joy of being “up there” with God. They do not know the kerygma, and their hopes may well be in vain.
As Christians the kerygma teaches us that “up there” means just what Jesus says today, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and Father is in me?” Eternal life is being in a city where God is the center—as we heard in Sunday’s reading from Revelation. Eternal life is entering into the life of the Trinity—the intimate life of God.
And that is not limited to AFTER DEATH. The heart of the kerygma is that we have some aspects of eternal life NOW. Jesus goes on to say, “ The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.”
We know we are Christians by the works we do, as we know that Jesus is the Christ because of the works He did. Some people call the works we do “Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. (CCC 1832)
Our Church also calls our Christian works “The Works of Mercy”: Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. Clothe the naked. Shelter the homeless. Visit the sick and those imprisoned. Bury the dead. Admonish the sinner. Teach the ignorant. Counsel the doubtful. Comfort the sorrowful. Bear wrongs patiently. Forgive wrongs easily. Pray for the living and the dead.
As Catholics, we see those “works” as evidence that we are Christians. It isn’t that we have to earn our way in heaven. We are saved by faith. By faith we commit our entire selves freely to God. For this reason we seek to know and DO God’s will. (CCC 1814) As we do, we are “being saved” through a process of conversions, as Paul tells the Corinthians today, “I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
By doing the works of God, following Jesus as the way and the truth and the life, we live out the commitments which faith asks of us. We live our faith. Gradually it transforms us, converts us, until our way and truth and life matches the footsteps of Jesus.
Martin Luther, in his struggles to determine “what is an authentic Christian” in 1517 came to the conclusion that it was a matter of faith, and that faith had the meaning of belief and subsequent trust that Christ had paid the price for us. If he believed and trusted, that was enough. Works were good, but were not part of the process of conversion. While today Catholics and Lutherans have an accord of agreement that we are indeed saved by Christ’s action, today we as Catholics remain seeing works as an important part of salvation.
Today’s Scriptures teach us that following Jesus as “the way, the truth and the life” means that we are “being saved” by “holding fast” to the faith. As the Catechism says, “The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it. But faith apart from works is dead: when it is deprived of hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living member of His body. (CCC 1815)
AND, this is a wonderful thing! For living in that faith is living in the Resurrection through the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit we enter into the life of God, the love which is the Trinity. We can measure ourselves by Fruits of the Spirit or Works of Mercy or perhaps some other list of traits within Scripture.
By doing such works with the joy inherent in being saved by God for God, we are authentic Christians. We are Christians who proclaim the kerygma—whether we are home wiping noses, nursing babies, and cooking meals—or working with integrity at jobs—or deliberately doing ministry. What we do doesn’t matter (so long as it is within God’s will for us). What matters is that we follow Jesus’ WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. As we do, we are being saved as our daily activities gradually transform us more and more into the image of Christ. As that happens, we are also doing the great work of the kerygma to invite for God others into this Way. For, as the Gospel concludes today, “And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”
Prayer:
Lord, thank you for the kerygma. It is such good news to me! I went so many years being a cultural Christian and not realizing its power. Thank You for calling me to Yourself. Thank You for Your invitation to live life in the heart of Your Love, the Love inherent in the Trinity. As we approach Pentecost this year, Lord, I ask You for as much of the Holy Spirit as I can hold. Let it fill me. Let it motivate and guide me as I do Your works, works that can lead others to Your life and Love and give me the joy of Your resurrection, even now. In Jesus name. Amen.
