How many times have we heard these sayings? “Put your money
where your mouth is.” “It’s not enough to talk the talk. You got to walk the walk.”
“Practice what your preach”?
In today’s Gospel, we encounter Luke’s version of the risen
Jesus meeting the apostles. They had just been astounded by the news of the two
disciples who met Jesus on the way to Emmaus, and now after having received the
news, Jesus appears in their midst. He shows them his hands and feet to prove
to them that he is who he says he is. He eats some fish to prove to them he is
not a ghost. And then, he teaches them one last time, opening their minds to
the scriptures and that they must go and give witness to what they have seen and
experienced, preaching in his name. In other words, they have to go out and
practice what they preach.
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear
Peter doing exactly that which he was instructed to do by Jesus. He gives
witness to the risen Jesus and continues to preach the mission of Jesus to all
who will hear. In the first letter of John, John is also giving witness and
instructing his community of faith about Jesus and how they must give witness
to the risen Lord in their lives.
Peter, John and the other twelve apostles have long since
passed away, but the mission that Jesus gave the apostles has not passed away,
rather it has been passed on from generation to generation. To practice what we
preach is basically giving witness to the risen Lord in our daily lives, but
that is not quite as easy as it sounds.
As one person observed a long time ago, “If preaching were as hard as
practicing, there wouldn't be much preaching either.” Or, as another person observed, “Some people
would have to work overtime if they practice half of what they preach.” It is
not easy to do what Jesus has commanded us to do. Yet we, as disciples of
Jesus, have been given exactly that mission, to proclaim God’s tremendous love
and mercy for all creation, and to ask forgiveness for those actions that
separate us from the love of God and the love of our neighbor.
How do we prepare ourselves to go forth to preach and give
witness to Jesus? We just can’t go out cold turkey and begin to give witness to
Jesus. Jesus opened the minds of the apostles to scripture so that they could
understand how what they experienced coincided with that which was written in
scripture. So, we need first to ask Jesus to open our minds in such a way that
we may know him. It is not enough to know
about Jesus but to know Jesus personally, to be in relationship
with Jesus. We must ask Jesus to open our minds so that we can come to know him
in our personal prayer and in our prayer as a community at Mass. We must ask
Jesus to open our minds, as he did the apostles, in our study of scripture and
our faith. As importantly, we must ask
Jesus to open our minds as we reflect on our experience of God’s personal touch
in our lives in our past, in the present, and throughout each day. Throughout
this ongoing cycle of prayer, study, and awareness, we, too, can come to the
knowledge and understanding of God in our lives.
There is another saying out that goes, “Actions speak louder
than words.” This is an especially important saying for all of us who are
disciples of Jesus. What we do, how we live our lives, how we live our faith
speaks volumes more than all the words we can put together. For those of us who
are parents and grandparents we have to clearly understand that we are, first
and foremost, the most important teachers of the faith to our children and
grandchildren. Any of us who have had small children, know how closely they
watch and mimic what we as parents and grandparents say and do, both the good
and the bad. All the lectures we give our kids are merely a waste of words and
breath, if we do not back up those words by how we live our lives. It is
necessary for us to not just talk the talk, but, as the saying says, to walk the walk.
I was very much blessed as a kid to have a mom and a dad who
said and taught more by the way they lived their faith, then by the words they
said. My Dad was a man of great faith and integrity up to the moment he
died. My mom, now close to her
mid-nineties remains true to her faith and faithfully lives what she believes.
Jesus words to his apostles to give witness and preach the
good news equally applies to adolescents and kids, as much as they do to adults.
In the way that is unique to your age, you are to go forth and give witness to
the power of God’s love and mercy in your lives, by what you say and by how you
live out those words.
Today’s gospel reminds us that Jesus words were not just
isolated to one group of people at one time in history. Jesus words are
directed at all of us gathered here today, to go forth and give witness to the
living God not just by our words but by how we live out those words. It is time
to put our money where our mouth is. It is time to not just talk the talk but
to walk the walk. It is time to practice what we preach. It is time.
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