I recently read the following quote: „Revelation does not come from outside. It is containted within man himself. Finding oneself by finding God, and finding God by finding oneself, that is the unfolding idea of religion. The wellsprings of the depths reveal themselves in one’s own heart. It is all a growth from within, striving towards perfection.“
Alfred Delp, a Jesuit who was beheaded by the Nazis, presents the passage just quoted from an ideological Nazi monthly magazine („Deutscher Glaube“ = „German Faith“) of his times. Delp wanted to show how abysmal the rift is between the above quote and the Christian faith. However, I don’t know how many Christians today, upon hearing this quote, would not nod their heads in agreement rather than noting the abyssal depth of a neo-pagan religion. „Find yourself. All the potential is already within you, you just have to discover it. Believe in yourself and everything will be possible for you. Become the best version of yourself. Realize yourself and your potential.“ I always cringe a little when I hear words like that, especially when they come from the mouth of a Christian. Even our idea here in the John Paul II. Center, so often brought up in the Center: „We want to help people become the best version of themselves“ must be understood very well in its reference to God in order not to fall into self-redemptive atheistic spirituality.
Delp wanted to point out with this quote how deep the conversion from a neo-pagan self-centeredness must be for the Christian if he wants to live paschally, truly as a person resurrected with Christ. And that means breaking out of the self. First of all, breaking out upwards, towards God, receiving oneself from him. Then breaking out to the „other“ and towards the community. But both breakouts are extremely difficult for us, us modern Christians, who are so children of our Age, not left unscathed by the deification of the „I“.
„This willingness to serve, to devote oneself (to the individual) is actually a characteristic, even more, a law of all being.“ (Delp) And yet, the „old man“ of sin and self-centeredness is diametrically opposed to God’s original plan. Delp points out that this inner willing readiness is not so easy. And he says that it is doubly difficult today (i.e. in Germany in the climate of the 1930s). And this is because even when people come together in groups, communities etc., they are not looking for something greater than themselves, but see the group as a means of realizing their own interests. But exactly the same thing can happen to us as a church community, almost unconsciously. We could come together, not to serve together and surrender our lives („For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.“ (Mark 10:45)), not to put ourselves at the service of the greater good, but rather because the community helps us to pursue our own interests.
Agape, Christian charity, is the counter-cultural, radically different alternative to this promethean glorification of the self. Jesus tries to draw the Emmaus disciples out of their self-centered sadness. He wants to bring them back from their flight from the anxious fear for themselves, so that we can encounter them courageously back in Jerusalem in this upcoming Sunday’s Gospel. The apostles appear in the temple with astonishing boldness because they are animated by a love that does not seek itself. And they are not afraid to challenge their fellow countrymen, to take them out of their comfort zone, in which these had armored themselves, in order to call them to conversion: „The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses“ (Acts 3:15) Shortly afterwards, they ended up in prison. But the number of disciples rose to 5,000. And the agape love burning within them, giving itself away and willing to surrender, bore copious fruit.
„Agape – the soul of missionary community“ – this is the title of the new sermon series starting this weekend at the JP2 Center. Throughout the Easter season, i.e. until Pentecost, the Sunday readings will focus on the accounts from the Acts of the Apostles, supplemented by the readings from the letters of John and the Gospels. I hope that during this Easter season we can be open to the gift of Divine Charity, which is given to us with full force at Pentecost.
I would like to close with a prayer: Lord Jesus Christ. Give me agape. True love, your love. A love that makes me willing not only to sit down in our pews, but also to get up out of them. To declare myself ready: here I am, send me. Wherever you want. Let your love permeate me in such a way that it urges me to be ready, to devote myself and to serve. Help me to emigrate from all isolation and self-centeredness. Give me a true agape for people. And give me the light to recognize which doors of readiness of my life, our life as a family or our life as a congregation and community are to be opened, and give us your willing and courageous love to really open these doors and to walk through them. Amen.
God bless!
Fr. George
