This Is Not That

“Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.”

John 21:3

Whiplash of Easter

I am incredibly thankful that the Church gives us adequate time to spend in the Easter season, wrestling with the Resurrection arc of “what now?”

You see this in the initial despair of Peter, essentially saying, “I guess I’ll go back to fishing,” the confusion and curiosity at the tomb, and even the discouragement of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

In all three of those cases, there is an immediate course correction -- a kind of whiplash in the arc.

Peter sees Jesus while he is fishing, receives forgiveness, and is eventually sent on mission. The women at the tomb rush back to bring the rest of the disciples to see what they have witnessed. And the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, even after acknowledging that it is getting too dark to continue, ignore their own advice and immediately journey back to Jerusalem in haste.

All three involve an immediate and drastic change in direction and the common cause is an encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. But it also is a realization that something greater is at hand -- that their lives are no longer moving in the same direction as before.

Invitation, not Evangelization

“The Church imposes nothing; she only proposes.”

Redemptoris Missio

These past couple of weeks, I have been working on the ability for AskMyParish to ingest parish newsletters from places like Flocknote, Constant Contact, and the like and pull the content into the same chat interface I am using for bulletins. The ability for pastors to reach out to their parishioners throughout the week is both incredibly important and a powerful tool.

But what is the purpose of any of this? What is the purpose of Flocknote, or a bulletin, or a website, or AskMyParish in general?

A few years ago, I might have called this “digital evangelization.” In fact, I did call it that. But in reality, evangelization -- as Peter, the women at the tomb, or Cleopas experienced it -- was something different. It was a personal encounter with Christ that was too real, too important to keep to themselves. It had to be shared. “The very stones would cry out,” as Jesus said.

AskMyParish does not pretend to be evangelization. That is your role, and mine, faithful reader. Instead, it is best described as a tool of invitation.

It is John saying to Peter on the boat, “It is the Lord.” It is Mary Magdalene saying to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” It is Cleopas saying to the eleven, “The Lord has risen.”

It is an invitation to something greater, but it is not the greater thing itself. That requires relationship, witness, and catechesis. This is not that.

Let us all pray deeply for the Lord to show us our purpose and to live it out with excitement, humility, and convinction.

Love,