Don’t Be Afraid, I’ll Meet You On The Way

I remember being out in Portland, OR, visiting my brother and his family a few years back. I had gone for a run and came upon an incredibly gorgeous display of roses in a place called Peninsula Park (not too far from their house). It was stunning. So stunning, in fact, that I  needed to go back the next day just to try to take it all in.

I liken Easter Monday to be pretty similar. The reality of what we have just experienced on Easter Sunday requires a whole other day just to take it in!

As I have mentioned in other blog posts, many Catholics around the world celebrate Easter Monday as a holiday. While many may not officially celebrate it any more, I love the idea of adding one more day to the calendar where we pause and ask, “Do we realize what just happened?” I think it helps us to savor the profound meaning of the resurrection event and invites us to reflect on what it might look like to live everyday life as ‘Easter people.’

The first reading from Acts 2 today sees Peter in public speaking openly about Jesus and how he is now fully recognized as Christ through his resurrection. Peter says that Jesus was, in fact, the Anointed One of God and that his resurrection makes this known in a whole new way.

While I am sure that Peter’s testimony was compelling, as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, I am guessing that it was the courage and passion of the disciples that also really inspired and attracted people. As the old saying goes, “faith is caught, not taught.”

Their newfound fire and zeal must have been contagious, let alone their concrete witness of feeding people, sharing things in common, selling possessions, etc. Peter’s words were compelling because they were backed up by actions that emerged from what the disciples had experienced.

Richard Rohr, OFM, says that so often in life, “it’s not so much about what comes at you; it’s what you do with it.” Far too often organized religion has tended to tell people “what to see instead of teaching them how to see.’ The post-resurrection disciples are trying to teach people HOW to see in this new paradigm which will change everything about how people understand reality and live.

Rohr goes on to say that once you have had an experience of authentic fullness (like that which was experienced through the resurrection), “you don’t need to keep seeking ‘that which does not satisfy’ (Isaiah 55:2). Authentic God experience always leads you toward service, toward the depths, the edge, the outsider, the lower, the suffering, and the simple.” 

And people can feel it because “your motivation foundationally changes from security, status, and sabotage to generosity, humility, and cooperation.”

Of course this is a tall order for any of us, but the gospel reading from Matthew 28 is such a comfort for me. We’re told that “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way…”

What I love about this reading is that Jesus does not require them to go the distance themselves – they are met “on the way.” 

And what are his first words to them? “Do not be afraid!”

I am not sure that I could find a more comforting and hopeful sequence of events.

What this means to me is that today, on Easter Monday, Jesus is coming to meet us on the way – in the ordinary circumstances and encounters of our lives. With all of their highs and all of their lows. With all of our joy and all of our fear. This is where he meets us. Moreover, he will be coming to meet us on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and every day after that as well! And his first words to us in the everyday encounter will be, “Do not be afraid!”

Don’t be afraid to trust what is coming up in you.
Don’t be afraid to take risks for the gospel.
Don’t be afraid to pour yourself out in service.
Don’t be afraid when the world feels like it’s against you.
Don’t be afraid of your body or your intuition.
Don’t be afraid to go deep or make a move towards the poor or the outsider.
Don’t be afraid when you lose your way or feel discouraged.

Don’t be afraid anymore because I am with you. 
Don’t be afraid anymore because I am with you.
(repeat as many times as is necessary!)

I close out our Lenten reflections with one of my favorite poems that I return to again and again. The advice of Wendell Berry in his poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front captures the energy of today’s scriptures and, I think, offers us concrete acts that fit into this new paradigm of living.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion — put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Thanks for letting me be along with you on this journey as we all go forward and practice resurrection, together!