To protest or not to protest? Martin Sheen and discernment

In church circles, you’ll find a kind of division over the passages from John’s Gospel that predominate in the readings after Easter Sunday. I’m not speaking about the resurrection stories like the risen Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene or the risen One preparing breakfast for the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, but something else. Many of the daily Gospel readings are taken from what is called Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse,” the extended speech that Jesus gives to the disciples in the Upper Room after the Last Supper, on the night before his Crucifixion.

Some people find these passages hard to understand or appreciate. This coming Thursday, at daily Mass, we will read Jesus praying: “And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me.” Some people find that beautiful and poetic; others find it difficult to link Jesus, the teller of earthy parables, to a person who speaks in that kind of high-flown theological language.

It is important to remember that while each of the Gospel writers was writing about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, they are four different people writing for four different communities with varying needs, at varying times and in varying places. Imagine that a friend dies and you go to the wake and hear eulogies from the deceased’s daughter, co-worker, best friend and neighbor: They would naturally stress certain things, tell stories in different ways and leave some things out. And you might say of one person’s eulogy, “Oh, that really captured her!” And about another: “Wow. I never looked at her that way before.”

In this past Sunday’s Gospel, we encounter the Jesus of John’s Gospel, who speaks almost as if he has already been resurrected. In John, Jesus is always in control. But again, this should not distance us from Jesus. It’s the same Jesus we know from Matthew, Mark and Luke. Here, though, Jesus is telling the disciples one main thing: He has accomplished the mission for which he was sent. His whole life has been focused on this one task, which is to make God known. Jesus has revealed the Father, in himself and in his words and his deeds. To know Jesus is to know the Father. To know God, a God of love, mercy, peace, forgiveness and compassion.

One of my favorite ways of looking at this is to think of Jesus as both the revealer and the revealed. In his life, he reveals the Father, and that revelation is himself. The revealer and the revealed.

What does that somewhat high Christology have to do with us? Well, besides believing in Jesus as the revelation of the Father, it poses a question to us: How will we reveal him? 

A few days ago, for America Media’s “The Spiritual Life” podcast, I interviewed Martin Sheen, perhaps best known for his role as President Jed Bartlet in “The West Wing.” He is also a devout Catholic who is deeply involved in anti-war, environmental, labor and other social justice protest movements and has been arrested numerous times. 

Our conversation raised some interesting points. Does everyone have to protest? What if being jailed is a danger to your livelihood or your family or your children? Martin Sheen responded, “Well, what kind of world are you leaving your kids if you don’t protest?”

The key here is discernment. The ways you reveal Jesus’ love, mercy and compassion may depend on your circumstances. For some, it is marching on behalf of those who need a voice. For others, it is even being jailed for a righteous cause. For others, it is visiting the sick, housing the unhoused, feeding the hungry; for others, it is spending time at the bedside of a sick child or a dying parent. All of us are called to reveal Jesus Christ, and thus reveal the Father’s love, in our own ways. 

But I would also say this: Push yourself. It is not simply about doing what lies in our comfort zone. That’s not what discernment means. It means doing what you can do in your own situation, often with boldness and fearlessness. Jesus didn’t simply do what was comfortable; he did what was needed. And thus, he was, as John said, glorified.

Jesus revealed the Father through his words and deeds. Through his life, death and resurrection. Our revelation of Jesus will come by doing what we can—but also what is needed.