Encounter with Christ
messageofhope | Reflection | Sunday May 16 2010Integrating Faith and Sports
Gospel: Jn 17:20-26
Week of 5/16/10
In this past week’s Gospel, we are written a “love letter.”
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “Holy Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” Jn 17: 20-26
“The Encounter” leads us to Our Encounters in Grace
The prayer of Christ to the Father seen in this gospel struck me with its intense want and love He has for us who are following Him. I read that this prayer is sometimes compared to a “love letter” which outlines his deep want for us to become one, like He is one with the Father. A “love letter” that invites us to experience the depths of Christ, filled with the highs and lows, sufferings and resurrections, of our daily lives, so we may begin to experience each other in Christ, more deeply.
In the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 7: 55-60), we hear about the stoning death of the first martyr of this new Christian way, Stephen. The tremendous parallels of the death of Stephen to that of Christ made me really consider the “love letter” that Christ offers to us in this gospel which encourages us to love the way He loves, live the way He lives, and forgive the way He forgives.
Stephen has an encounter with Christ, standing at the right hand of the Father, which sets the context for his graceful words and actions in his death.
But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:55-60)
How does one being stoned to death for believing in Christ, continue to be able to live out the two greatest commandments, (calling on God to receive his spirit, while loving and forgiving those who are killing him)? Was it “The Encounter” with Christ that led him to have this tremendous grace in his encounter with the accusers and killers?
How does our daily “Encounter” with Christ alter the way we react, deal, and see those in our lives who anger us, betray us, hurt us, or use power over us? More so, in this culture of sports, where an eye for an eye is encouraged and taught, what are we to take away from this tremendous act of grace?
“Grace is nothing else but a certain beginning of glory within us.” St. Thomas Aquinas
I know for me, this call for grace, challenges every ounce of my human being. How often in my own life, on and off of the athletic fields, my addiction to self, my wants, my needs, my righteousness stands in the way of grace, forgiveness, and “living, moving , and having my being in Christ.” Yet deep down in my “true self,” that place where “my desires and cravings” are still and silent, this call for grace seems to be right. In other words, this call for grace gives me a peace that can’t come from culture, friends, or family. “When you happen to be entirely unoccupied with created things so that you seem to be thinking of nothing and desiring nothing, you should know that then your soul in unconsciously occupied with God and in God.” Father de Caussade It is only when I allow myself to be fully exposed and broken in my “Encounter” in Christ, I find myself open to grace, and one with God and others.
Let us be conscious of our daily “Encounter” with Christ so that He may shape our encounters with our players, teammates, friends, parents, spouses, children and co-workers. Let us not pray that we be shielded from suffering, which can be losing a big game or striking out with the game on the line, but we do so with grace, dignity, forgiveness, and humility in and through Christ.
“The greatest tragedy in life is not suffering. The greatest tragedy in life is wasted suffering.” Cardinal John O’Connor
