As preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Church
Glory
be to Jesus Christ!
When we recite the Creed, which we will
do again this morning, we may be so habituated to saying it that we can let the
text just slide over us without really penetrating our consciousness. For
example it opens saying God is the "maker of heaven and earth and of all
things visible and invisible." One might also say "all things seen
and unseen." We have no trouble comprehending the concept "all things
visible." Since the Enlightenment, we in the West especially, put our
trust in the reality of the physical world. But "all things
invisible" is another matter.
Something unseen can be right in front of
us, but we don't see it. This can happen when we are looking for something we
have misplaced and we walk right by it in our frantic search for it and do not
see it. But another way of looking at something and not seeing it is when we
are looking at someone and we see them, their physical presence, but we do not
see into their heart. A person's inner world is not visible to us. Although the
aura of that inner world might be visible or at least sensed.
But unseen can cover many other
phenomena. In scripture unseen or invisible often refers to angels and other
"bodiless" powers. Many things that were once in the category of
invisible may now be detected by scientific methods. Sound waves, wind, and
electricity, for example. But what about love?
Today's gospel reading about the risen
Jesus joining Cleopas and his companion as they dejectedly walk on the road
away from Jerusalem is not about mistaken identity, it's about love. The two
disciples didn't see him, even though they saw the person walking with them. Of
course, this story is given to us along with many others, to witness to
Christ's resurrection.
Why did Jesus come to them? They were in
despair. He knew this. He came to rekindle their faith. But the faith Jesus
represents is something beyond what they expected. "We thought he was the
one to liberate Israel." It is so
human to project our needs or preconceived notions onto Jesus or God. "We
thought he was the one to save our dying daughter." "We thought he
was the one to end all wars." "We thought he was the one to eliminate
all evil in the world." We can all add to this list.
Being with a loved one who is dying is
love. The outcome doesn't change, the love that animates that act also doesn't
change.
God is love. We can't see God because we
can't see love. We experience it. To enter into God is to enter into the all
embracing love that is God. Our journey on this earth is a prelude to that
final destination. Cleopas and his companion's hopes for this life seemed to
have died on the cross. They didn't see the larger reality. Christ had to
restore their faith. He had to show them in a physical reality that they could
understand--and see--in order to open their eyes to the reality beyond the
physical. Then he disappeared--but he was not gone. He remained with all his
disciples on their journeys to spread the good news.
I just finished reading a biography of
Archimandrite Roman Braga. [1] I suspect that
someday our church will recognize him as a saint. Near the end of his life, Fr.
Roman, in guiding a young priest monk [heiromonk] to see the need for balance
between formal theological education and the practical experience of the
Christian life, said: "The Last Judgment will not be a theology test; it
will be about what you did." In critiquing his own ascetic practice Fr
Roman said to his disciple, only one prostration is needed. Smiling, he
continued, it takes a thousand prostrations before you get to that one wherein
you truly die as your head touches the ground and come back to full life upon
rising.
And what is that full life we rise to? It
is the love of God. Jesus walked with Cleopas and his companion to reorient
them once again toward the salvation to which he is calling all of us. The love
that holds us through and beyond all joys and sorrows of this life.
Christ is in our midst!
[1] Journey to
Simplicity : The Life and Wisdom of Archimandrite Roman Braga. Daniel B.
Hinshaw. Yonkers NY: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2023, pp. 517-18.
