Fake It Til You Make It!

 

Deacon Dave · Fake It Til You Make It!

Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, May 1, 2022. Gospel – John 21:1-19. Theme: Fake It Til You Make It! 

 In today’s Gospel we see seven of the apostles trying to process the traumatizing events that happened over the first Easter weekend. Confused and depressed by the Passion of Christ, they try to go back to how they lived their lives before they had been deeply touched and changed by Him. They were probably just trying to forget and defaulted to trying to find comfort and security in what they knew to be “life as normal”, But inside each one of them I think there was a nagging suspicion that things would never, could never, ever be the same again. 

 So often we can be just like them. We have positive religious experiences, moments of uplifting spiritual awareness, which fan our faith in Christ and increase our devotion. But then we also have times of spiritual difficulty or confusion especially when suffering enters our lives and the Lord seems so far away. And like those apostles we try to make sense of it all. We may even wonder if our faith ever really mattered or question if it really made a significant difference in our lives.  And so, like Simon-Peter and his companions, we might be tempted to go back to how we were before Christ changed our hearts and lives. 

 However, also like those Apostles there persists deep down within us a nagging feeling and the recurring thought that things can never ever be the same again. We just can’t let go of Jesus. Even when what is happening within us or around us is troubling, we can’t stop thinking about Him. We’ve been deeply touched and something keeps calling us back. Even in the shadows of doubt we want to reach out for the light of faith and find a way to return to where we were in the happier days of our walk with Jesus. 

 Well, just as Christ knew the spiritual and emotional struggle that was going within the apostles, so he also knows what might be going on within some of us. Moved by His compassionate love, He comes to us just as He came to them and holds out to us a way to move forward, just as He did for them. He offers us a pathway out of our predicament and assures us that joyful hope can again be ours after passing through the challenges of faith. One way to describe this difficult spiritual and emotional journey in traditional religious terms is to say that the Cross always leads to the Resurrection. Another way of saying this comes from the experiences of those in 12-Step Recovery who have made it through the deep dark gloom of suffering and struggles. They tell us to “fake it til you make it”. T

his means that we do what we know ought to be done, even if we don’t feel very much like doing it. We turn to those vital aspects of a healthy spiritual life that will bring us back to where we want to be with Jesus. We can learn what these are from the experiences of the saints. Like us they had ups and downs in their relationship with Christ and they came out on the other side whole and happy. And they all tell us that when our faith falters and our devotion grows cold we need to do our best to reclaim our initial attraction to Jesus. We need to remember - and not run away from -the difference He made to our lives. And in doing so we need to consciously renew our commitment to trust in Him even if we don’t much feel like doing so at the time. We might have to just “fake it til we make it” in doing these things, but we can see from the testimony of their lived experiences that this simple but challenging advice works! 

 We see this dynamic of faith-renewal at work in the interaction between Jesus and Simon-Peter in today’s Gospel. The first thing Jesus does to help Simon is to bring him back to how they were when they first met. You might recall that when Jesus first called him to be a disciple, Simon was having a bad fishing day so Jesus arranged a miraculous catch of fish for him. And He did the exact same thing for him now. He renews within Simon his initial attraction to Jesus after that original miraculous catch of fish and he reignites within him the devotion that compelled him to throw himself at the feet of Christ saying, “Depart from my Lord for I am a sinful man.” (Lk 5:8) The memory of that unforgettable day opened Peter’s eyes, healed his wounded heart, and caused him to jump into the sea to swim as fast as he could to his Risen Lord! 

 After reclaiming this reacquainting experience Peter and Jesus sit around a charcoal fire. This scene should make us recall that the last time they were together near a charcoal fire was during the Passion when Simon denied knowing Jesus three times. He must've been searching for words to apologize for his triple denial but Jesus speaks before Peter has the chance to do so. Christ gives him an opportunity to make amends and allows Simon to express his love three times. He then renews Peter’s office as leader of the Christian community and confirms him in his role as the earthly shepherd of the Church. See how thoughtful, how gentle and tender the mercy of Jesus is! 

 Like Peter and his fishing companions, we too can encounter the Risen Christ who will reach out to us to reaffirm our relationship with Him and reignite our faith. He makes Himself known to us today in many ways, but most especially by His Gospel and Abiding Real Presence in the Eucharist. Through our encounters with Him in Word and Sacrament our faith can be strengthened, our trust in him can be deepened, and our love for him can grow. Yeah, we might need to “fake it til we make it” but Jesus will bless our efforts and our perseverance. He will enable us to see through any foggy confusion in our lives and bring us into the safe harbor of a renewed faith with increased devotion.