Only Two People

Years ago I was on retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani when I was approached by a Cistercian Monk named Brother Renee in the hallway. When a monk has taken a vow of silence and when you find yourself in a space that has “Silence spoken here” and “Please be silent” written at every turn, it is odd to be approached for casual conversation by a old monk with a cane. It must have been important.

“Amanda?” Brother Renee asked.

“Yes, you are correct, my name is Amanda. Good to see you Brother Renee.”

“Amanda,” he said. “What would Jesus say, if I took this cane and hit you on the head?”

“I honestly have no idea,” I replied.

“He would ask me, why did you just hit ME on the head? Dear Amanda, on the day I entered this abbey, the abbot told me I would only find two people here. Myself, and Jesus. To this day, I have never met anyone else.”

And with that, Brother Renee returned to silence and continued his walk. Leaving me with the profound thought - in life we only meet two people, ourselves, and God in our midst.

At Saint Andrew’s we are celebrating fifty days of Easter, the days between Easter Sunday and the fiftieth day after Easter, Pentecost. During this time our community is reading stories about how the Risen Lord shows up. On Wednesday, we read Mark’s version. In Mark 16, Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene as she was grieving, then to two disciples as they were walking on the road, then to the apostles as they sat down to dinner. All of these are mundanely ordinary experiences. While we often expect the Risen Christ to show up on mountain tops, church camps, fancy retreats, religious pilgrimages, and in splendid Cathedrals, this passage of Mark reminds us Jesus shows up in the overtly normal things we do every day. While we are in grief, while we walk, while we eat, while we talk amongst friends, Jesus shows up.

Jesus shows up when two or three gather in his name. Each Wednesday and Sunday, our community gathers to give thanks and to take in the body and blood of Christ. As we meet at the altar of the Lord, we consume all of Christ’s goodness, mercy, and grace in the form of a small wafer, the bread of heaven. As such, each of us are filled up with a little bit of the Risen Lord, each of us become more and more filled with the power of Christ.

That means, that when we return to our seats, we hold Christ within us. We hold Christ within us, and the neighbor sitting next to us holds Christ within them. If we open ourselves up to them by introducing ourselves, by inviting them to tell us their story, by being brave enough to listen, by dining with them, by sharing our grief with them, by simply living the normal everyday life stuff with them, the Risen Christ becomes present.

Brother Renee was right, in church and in the world, we only find two people - ourselves and Christ.

After Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. She went out and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Later he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were sitting at the table; and he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation." And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it. - Mark 16: 9-15, 20

May we see Christ. May we proclaim boldly the good news everywhere, while the Lord works with us daily to confirm the message of grace and love.