7th Sunday of Easter

We’ve often heard the claim that we all have a twin somewhere in the world. Somewhere, a person doesn’t only resemble us in our physical features but they also have such similar mannerisms and thought patterns that make them appear to be our twin. Well, for me, it must be a triplet. 

Last week I was on retreat in Gloucester up on Massachusetts’ other cape, Cape Ann. Many people envision a retreat as a relaxing prayer time, and it is, but it is also work. A good retreat requires expending spiritual energy. So, when the retreat was over on Tuesday morning, I decided to decompress a bit, and I took time for a relaxing ride along the coast. 

At noon I stopped for lunch at a local restaurant. The hostess showed me to my table, and I settled in. When I looked up, I noticed a man across the room looking at me. From the look on his face, I could tell he thought he recognized me. I thought to myself, “Uh-oh, am I supposed to know this man?” Actually, being an identical twin, I run into this from time to time. Someone who knows my brother but I don’t know will mistake me for him, but I didn’t think that could be the case so far from home.

When I looked up, the man said, “It was a good productive meeting yesterday morning.” I had no idea what he was talking about. The previous morning I’d still been on retreat. I knew I couldn’t possibly be the person he thought I was. I had to say to him, “I’m sorry, I think you have me confused with someone else.” He apologized and returned to his conversation with the others at his table. I thought to myself, “Well, at least he associated me with something good and not bad.”

As Christians, we believe Jesus became incarnate to reveal God the Father to us completely. In His life on earth, Jesus revealed He had such a close relationship with God the Father that He was God’s twin. When Jesus was healing the sick and suffering and reaching out to sinners, He showed God’s mercy. When Jesus was preaching to the crowds, He spoke of the Father’s love for every person. When Jesus confronted injustice, He was expressing the Father’s righteousness. Everything that Jesus did and said on earth was the expression of the reality of God. Everything Jesus did showed the world He had an exceptionally close relationship with God the Father. In every way, Jesus was revealing God to the world because Jesus was just like God. He was God’s twin.

Throughout his public ministry, Jesus tried to encourage His disciples to develop the same kind of relationship with God. According to the gospels, Jesus spent most of His time during His public ministry instructing His disciples. He helped them enter into a relationship with Him and with God the Father that was so close that they would be mistaken for His twin. His journeys around Galilee, Judea, Samaria, and up to Tyre and Sidon were not a preaching tour or campaign. His intention wasn’t to become so popular that He would have many followers. Jesus didn’t spend most of His time preaching to crowds. He spent most of His time walking along, instructing the Apostles and disciples on how to develop a close relationship with God. Jesus taught them how they could imitate Him so people would see the disciples were like Him and consequently like God. Jesus spent His time helping the disciples to become His twins. 

Today’s gospel reading comes from the end of the Gospel of John. It is part of what is known as Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer. It is the prayer he recited at the Last Supper. In the prayer, Jesus is anticipating His coming passion and death, and He is praying He has accomplished the mission God gave Him on earth.

Jesus is praying for His followers unity with God the Father in the same kind of relationship Jesus has with the Father. Jesus is praying for the Apostles and disciples and for the people whose lives they will touch to have the same close relationship with Him. He prays they all will be mistaken for his twin.

Jesus is praying for us, folks. Jesus is praying that even we who live two thousand years later can have a similar relationship with Him and God as His disciples who personally knew Him and were taught by Him. Jesus is praying we will be mistaken forH Him. In His prayer, Jesus prays everyone who brings healing to our sick, broken world, shows mercy to those who sin, lives in love, and works for justice will be mistaken for His twin.  

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard how St. Stephen, the first martyr, did just that. Stephen was among the Greek-speaking disciples who were the first group of deacons. According to the Book of Acts, Stephen was just like Jesus. Grace and power filled him. He was open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and imitated Jesus in every way. In so many ways, Stephen repeats Jesus’ life patterns. Stephen reminded the religious authorities who had put Jesus to death so much of Jesus that they became angry with him the same way they hated Jesus. Stephen appeared to be so much like Jesus that the religious authorities recognized Jesus’ presence in him and killed him too. 

According to today’s passage from Acts, Stephen repeats Jesus’ acceptance of death for the love of others. Like Jesus, Stephen prays for his persecutors as they stoned him to death. Stephen asks God to forgive them because he claims they don’t understand what they are doing. As he faces death, Stephen commends his soul to Jesus just as Jesus had offered His soul to God the Father.

Jesus calls each of us to be His twin through our baptism. In our baptism, God gives us His presence to develop a relationship with Jesus that is so close we will be mistaken for Jesus in our own lives. We will be people who bring healing to the hurt and sick, offer mercy to those who sin, love those who feel abandoned, and work for justice in our world. Through our baptism, we will allow God’s grace to mold us into disciples who, while maybe not identical to Jesus, will be signs of everlasting life to our world. We will be signs of the joy of having a close relationship with Jesus. 

How do we go about that? How do we form our lives so that we will be mistaken for the presence of Jesus Christ in our world? We do it by being people who live out the commandments and the beatitudes in our lives. We will develop our likeness to Jesus by being people who make our relationship with God the very center of our lives. We will strive to show our love of God by being faithful to Him every day. We nurture our likeness to Jesus by being people who love our neighbor as ourselves. We will show respect for our neighbors even if they don’t look like us, speak the same language we do, or worship in the same way. 

Our desire to grow in a loving relationship with Jesus develops through a life of prayer. We will never be mistaken for Jesus unless we are in communication with Him. Our daily contact with Jesus comes through our prayer life. Even if it only starts with a few minutes a day, having a prayer life with Jesus is essential for a loving relationship with Him. Slowly, as you become more accustomed to prayer and devote more time to it, we will begin to resemble Christ more closely. 

We grow in our relationship with Jesus through the study of scripture. Over the Easter Season, I have been encouraging you, maybe even hounding you, to consider starting your study of the Bible with the book called the Acts of the Apostles. It is an excellent place to begin Bible study because it is the part of the Bible where we see how the early Church learned to imitate Jesus and become Jesus’ presence in the world. Start with just a few minutes a day. Read just a few verses and give them some thought and reflection. Ask yourself how a particular passage shows you how the early disciples imitated Jesus and how you can act like Jesus too.

Next Sunday is Pentecost. It is the day the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles for the first time. This week pray for the Holy Spirit to descend on you so you can live a life that resembles Jesus’ more faithfully. At the back of the church are copies of a Novena to the Holy Spirit. A novena is nine days of prayer to become receptive to the renewal of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in each of us. Join in that prayer, asking God to renew the Holy Spirit in you so that you might be mistaken for Jesus’ twin. 

Shortly, we will begin the celebration of the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, Jesus comes to be present to us; body, blood, soul, and divinity. He comes to strengthen us with grace so we will have the courage to act like Jesus and maybe be mistaken for His twin. We need that grace. That is why it is crucial to make sure we center our plans each weekend around our participation in Mass. Today rejoice that you are here to participate in the Eucharist. Invite your family and friends to join you. Join with all of us to receive the grace; we all need to be mistaken for Jesus’ twin.