A long time ago, probably when I was still in the Navy, I had a pair of posters on my wall. I wish I had framed them and kept them, but that’s not today’s point. The first one, said in the middle, in white letters, I AM, and it was surrounded by the various names that Jesus is referred to in scripture. It starts with, And Thou shalt call his name Jesus… and then come all of the various names, like mighty God, Prince of Peace, Chief cornerstone, lamb of God… you get the idea. I used to read that poster and think about those names, and which ones resonated with me. I would be willing to bet you also have names and ideas about who Jesus is to you as well, and probably those names have changed at various times in your life. I know that’s true for me. When I was a chaplain, I was drawn to Jesus the Good Shepherd, at other times, I have been drawn to the King of Peace, the resurrected Christ, the healer…
The other day, I was listening to James Martin, a Jesuit priest talk about this reading. He asked his listeners who Jesus was to them. Lots of great answers, things like, Jesus is brother, friend, teacher, Lord…lots of great answers. But then, Fr. Martin told a story about Fr, Pedro Arupe, former Superior General of the Jesuits. When he was asked who Jesus was to him, he responded, “Jesus is my everything”
Jesus is my everything. What would it mean for that to be true for each of us? None of the titles that we give Jesus can really describe who he is; and it can be difficult for us to describe Jesus to someone else… Jesus is my everything, reminds me of a simple prayer of St. Francis that would be a wonderful prayer for meditation… Francis proclaims “my God and my All” as he meditates on who God is. Is Jesus everything to us? Is he our God and our all? Do we invite Jesus into every aspect of our life, into the good places as well as the bad? A hint: he is there anyway, whether we invite him or not. Realizing that he IS there, makes all the difference; at least it should… How might our behavior change if we lived as if that were true? Might we treat people differently? Perhaps when we passed by someone who was hungry, we might not pass by; perhaps when we went into the voting booth we might let Jesus our everything help us decide what boxes we check; maybe when we decide what businesses to use, Jesus might help us decide if that is the best choice for the kingdom… Life is complicated, to be sure… and I think sometimes we get so bogged down in what’s happening around us, that we forget that our Lord and our God is there in everything we do, in every moment that we experience… and those moments could be, should be, influenced by our faith in Jesus; not simply because he is the model or template for our behavior, but because he is our everything… our very being resides in him… and through his Holy Spirit, part of his being resides in us… when Jesus is our everything, we know that everyone we see is a reflection of him… the beggar on the street, the angry protester, the grocery store clerk, the person who looks and speaks differently than we do… because Jesus is our everything, all that we do should be a reflection of him, so that the kingdom can come here on earth as it is in heaven…
So, remember that I said that I had a pair of posters? Well, the second poster visually looked like the other; same colors, same type. But in the middle instead of I AM, it says, YOU ARE… and at the top, it says, “as believers you are… and it lists how we are known is scripture; clothed with Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit, salt of the earth, the body of Christ… all of the wonderful names that we are known by God in scripture… As I continued to listen to Father Martin speak about our gospel passage today, he said he was on a retreat once where this passage figured prominently. His spiritual director for the retreat said something to him like, “so we have spoken about who Jesus is, who we say that he is… the next question is, who does Jesus say that YOU are”? As I thought about it in light of Jesus being our everything… I thought of all the incredible ways we are known by Jesus in scripture, and I thought… we are Jesus’ everything.