Jesus and Gandhi

Jesus and Gandhi.  What’s does believing in Jesus have to do with Gandhi?  That’s a great question.  This is what I say when someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer.  I’ve been asked this question several times by parishioners and visitors over the course of my 13 years here as a parishioner.  The truthful answer is I’m not sure who invited Gandhi into Corpus Christi and why they invited him to be here with us.   I don’t remember anyone ever preaching on Gandhi, so today, I am preaching to myself and people like me who want to know what to say when others ask “Who invited Gandhi to Church and why did they invite him?” 

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear the most famous verse of the Bible from John 3:16, which captures the essence of our Christian faith: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”    

A Christian missionary once asked the human rights activist, Mahatma Gandhi, what is the most effective way of preaching the Gospel of Jesus?  Gandhi responded saying, “To live the Gospel is the most effective way.  …  But you quote instead John 3:16 and ask them to believe it.  That has no appeal to me and I am sure people will not understand it.”  You see, Gandhi was tired of hearing people just talk about what they believe.  He knew that the tough part, the important part, is living what we say we believe.  He wanted to see the difference Christ is making in each of us. 

This frail man in white cotton clothes once agreed to meet with a group of Catholics who explained to him our belief about Jesus in the Eucharist. Gandhi sat and listened patiently as they set forth for him what we believe. At the end of their presentation, Gandhi said: “I would like to believe what you Catholics believe about Jesus in the Eucharist. But I am unable to do so, because I don’t think you Catholics really believe what you say you believe; because if I really believed that my Lord and my God were truly present in the tabernacle as you say He is, I would crawl on my belly to church every day to worship and adore Him.” 

While it’s strange for the one delivering this message to be a Hindu, I think Gandhi is reminding us that we need to become better Catholics.  You see, the non-believing Gandhi’s in our lives need us to draw near to Jesus with more than just our words.  The non-believing Gandhi’s in our lives need us to honor Jesus with more than just our lips alone.  The non-believing Gandhi’s in our lives need our hearts to draw closer to Jesus.  The non-believing Gandhi’s in our lives need our reverence for Jesus in the Eucharist to be more than just routine observance.  Their eternal life may just depend on us doing so.  Because becoming a better Catholic and living what we believe is not just about each of us and our own salvation.  Becoming a better Catholic and living what we believe is also about that person like Gandhi we encounter who is waiting on us to live what we believe before they also come to believe in Jesus.

As Catholics, we believe not only that the Son of God became man to save us from our sins, but that He remains with us, always, in the Eucharist. We believe that Our Lord is really present in the substance of His Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus wants each of us to believe in Him and to receive His Body & Blood.    

When we invite Jesus into our lives like this, the way we live what we believe becomes an attractive invitation to the non-believing Gandhi’s we encounter so that they may come to believe also.  There is joy that comes from there being a harmony in our lives.  A harmony between believing in Jesus, speaking about Jesus and having everything that we do come from Jesus living in us and through us.  Changing the world for ourselves and for others starts from the inside.  In a few moments, when we receive the body and blood of Jesus inside our bodies, let us ask Jesus to be the change he wishes to see in the world, by living in us and through us.

When we receive the Eucharist, is there evidence that we’ve been changed?  The eyes of Gandhi are up there looking down at each of us.  Will there be any visible sign for him to see that we are living what we believe?        

The next time someone asks you who invited Gandhi to Church and why Gandhi was invited, you can tell them, “I invited Gandhi to Church.  He reminds us to live what we believe so that a non-believer like Gandhi may also come to believe in Jesus.”