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Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B
March 22, 2015
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Chestnut Hill MA
Joseph M. O’Keefe, S.J.
“Am I an admirer of Jesus or am I a follower of Jesus?” A most appropriate
question for us on the last Sunday of Lent, as we ponder the invitation to follow
Jesus to Jerusalem and, eventually, to the cross. The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard
articulated the difference between admirers and followers:
Admirers keep themselves personally detached. They fail to see that what is
admired involves a claim upon them, and thus they fail to be or strive to be
what they admire. Admirers never make any true sacrifices. They always play
it safe. Though in words, phrases, songs, they are inexhaustible about how
highly they prize Christ, they renounce nothing, give up nothing, will not
reconstruct their life, will not be what they admire, and will not let their life
express what it is they supposedly admire. Not so for followers. Followers
aspire with all their strength and with all their will to be what the person
they admire.
To what extent do you and I aspire with all our strength and with all our will
to be the person we admire?
Several years ago I had the good fortune to do my annual retreat in a spiritual
center run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart in San Diego. Several days into the
retreat, my director asked me, "Have you ever spent any time with Nicodemus?"
Though I spent many retreat hours over the years pondering the gospels in the
second week of the Spiritual Exercises, I had never reflected on this particular
character. Nicodemus, as you will recall, was a Pharisee and a member of the
Sanhedrin. Clearly he was an admirer of Jesus. When he is mentioned for the first
time in John's Gospel he goes to meet Jesus, but under the cover of night, unable or
unwilling to compromise his security and status if the encounter were made public.
Kierkegaard imagines Nicodemus saying to Jesus, “If we are able to reach a
compromise, you and I, then I will accept your teaching in eternity. But here in this
world, no, that I cannot bring myself to do. Could you not make an exception for me?
Could it not be enough if once in a while, at great risk to myself, I come to you during
the night, but during the day to say “I do not know you?”
Nicodemus the admirer: attracted to Jesus but distant, cautious, measured,
and controlled. When Nicodemus appears the second time in John's Gospel, he risks
a bit more; he is a cautious advocate for Jesus before the Sanhedrin, reminding his
colleagues that the law requires that a person be heard before being judged. He
was still an admirer. When he appears in the gospel for the third time, something
had happened to him. After the Crucifixion, he provided the customary embalming
spices, and assisted Joseph of Arimathea in preparing the body of Jesus for burial. By
this act, Nicodemus put himself at great risk because the followers of Jesus were
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likely to suffer the fate of Jesus. Nicodemus, it seems, had gone from being an
admirer to being a follower. According to tradition, Nicodemus died a martyr for
Christ.
In recent days our attention has been brought to a more contemporary
Nicodemus. Last week we learned that Oscar Romero will be beatified this coming
May 23. During his early years of priesthood, and when he was appointed auxiliary
bishop, the oligarchs who maintained the unjust social structures of El Salvador
were delighted. Romero was cautious and conservative, skeptical of anything that
would disrupt the status quo. We know what happened to him. Romero, it seems,
had gone from being an admirer to being a follower, a follower who had fallen in
love and, as is the case for lovers, was willing to pay any price for the sake of the
beloved. In response to the violence, terror and hatred around him, he did not
choose the easy path. Rather, he put himself in harm’s way as an advocate of God’s
beloved poor. On March 24, 1980, thirty-five years ago this coming Tuesday, as a
follower and imitator of Christ, he put his life on the line. Minutes before he was
murdered at the altar, he preached on today’s gospel text. He said, “You have just
heard in Christ’s Gospel that one must not love oneself to avoid getting involved in
the risks of life that history demands of us, and that those who try to fend off the
danger will lose their lives, while those who, out of love for Christ give themselves to
the service of others will live, live like the grain of wheat that dies, but only
apparently. If it did not die, it would remain alone.” He concluded, “The harvest
comes about only because it dies, allowing itself to be sacrificed in the earth and
destroyed. Only by undoing itself does it produce the harvest.”
Christ does not ask us to be admirers. He asks us to be followers and
sometimes followers fall. Christ’s path can be steep and rocky, but we can be
assured that He is with us on the way. When the cross becomes too heavy to bear
He sends us modern-day Simon of Cyrenes to lighten our load and bear our burden.
When we feel abandoned and alone, he sends modern-day Veronicas to comfort us.
Christ does not chide us for falling short. Remember his lament ,“I am troubled now.
Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’?” He understands our fear
and reluctance –He asks only that, when we fall, we pick ourselves up and continue
on the path that leads through death to life.
Christ does not ask us to be admirers, devotees who venerate Him from a
safe distance. He asks us to be followers and followers fall in love. And lovers are
willing to pay any price for the sake of the beloved, and to do so gladly.
During these waning days of Lent, as we prepare to prepare to follow Jesus to
Jerusalem and Calvary, I invite us to follow the advice that the wise RSCJ gave to me
many years ago: Reflect on the character of Nicodemus, admirer turned follower. I
would imagine that, like myself, many of you can see yourselves in him. And on this
coming Tuesday, the 35th anniversary of Romero’s assassination, l invite us to pray
that, by his example and by his intercession, we may fall in love with the Lord and,
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casting caution to the wind, lay down our lives for Christ’s sake so as to rise with
Him to new and eternal life.
An admirer of Jesus or a follower of Jesus – which one are you? An admirer
of Jesus or a follower of Jesus – which one do you want to be?