However, unfortunately many people think that the phrase "WWJD" means "What Would Jesus Do If He Were Here?" as if Jesus IS no longer here. People who think this way may say to themselves:
"Look, I'm on my own, I've got to take responsibility for getting something right, and I've somehow got to work out what Jesus would do if he were here, which he isn't, and then push myself into doing it." (James Alison, in "Jesus, the Forgiving Victim")
The truth is both comforting and challenging. The historical Jesus is not here. But the Risen Lord, the Cosmic Christ, is! The Risen Lord exists everywhere at all Times, and is active in all situations. "From this perspective, the question is not "What Would Jesus Do?" but "What is Jesus Doing?" which is of course both a much more difficult, and a much more interesting question to answer." (Alison)
Perhaps a better question to ask ourselves is "What is it like to live according to the Spirit which Jesus is breathing into us?" We never on our own could imagine the person whom Jesus empowers us to become. We never on our own could imagine the places Jesus calls us to go to and the people whom Jesus calls us to make our friends and to minister to as Other Christs. Rather, we need to be alive to the Holy Spirit falling on us, as the Spirit fell in flames on Jesus' followers at Pentecost. The Spirit lives within us, reminding us not only of what Jesus did in the past, but of what Jesus is doing in our present lives. Because, wherever we go, whatever we do, the Holy Spirit fills us with divine life so we can be the Presence of Jesus.
In the Eucharist, Jesus gives us His Body so that we can become what we eat, as St. Augustine says - become a unique Presence of the Risen Christ.
"Just as he continues to give me his body, entrusting me to take it where I will, to make of it what I will, so I can give my body to him, to carry on doing what he is doing. In doing this, I'm being drawn into a flexible imitation of him. I'm not imitating him mechanically. Rather I'm imitating him creatively: 'Oh, yes, I can see that this is what he's doing now, and I'm getting to be on the inside of it. It's just like what he was doing in the past, but in very changed circumstances....I am indeed, to use Jesus' own language, his friend, rather than his servant.'" (Alison)
Kelly Donnelly never imagined that one day she'd enter a year-long volunteer program with the Franciscan Volunteer Ministry, and get asked to tutor women prisoners in adult basic education and creative writing. She never dreamed that the Risen Lord would lead her to prison because she was scared of inmates! She wondered how she could look beyond the surface, look beyond the fact that the group of women she'd be meeting and working with at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution were imprisoned for a variety of crimes, even murder, and that she wouldn't know what those crimes were! But once she began working with them, her fear was replaced by a deep desire to understand them, to know who they were, deep-down. She says, in "The Women of Baylor," ("America" magazine, Nov. 7, 2016 issue)
"The women of Baylor wanted to learn, move forward and create a positive life for themselves and their children. Some wanted to get their G.E.D. certificate, a better job, higher education, culinary certification or money management skills. Others sought a more personally transformative goal: learning how to form a healthy romantic relationship or how to be confidently single...all hoped their own children would never be in prison."
Many of these women had difficult backgrounds that directly led to their being incarcerated. Some were born in prison. In many cases the educational system had failed them. Many came from family environments that perpetuated unhealthy attitudes. "During a nutrition lesson, one woman raised her hand to ask for clarification: 'So. You're saying that it's not good for kids to eat Cap'n Crunch for three meals a day? That's what my Mom did for us, and we loved it. That's what I do for my kids, and they love it. You're telling me I shouldn't have done that?'"
Eventually in her students' minds, Kelly evolved from being "someone you should watch out for" to being that "sweet white girl with the curly hair who will help you." She talked with these women about everything from explaining what it was like to go through airport security to explaining what calamari is. Gradually she realized that these women had become precious to her. Even the three women who had confided in her that they had murdered someone.
"When people, strangers and friends alike, asked where I was working, I continued to be surprised and a bit defensive toward their reactions.'God bless you.' 'Prisoners! What's wrong with teaching kids?' 'I hope you have a security guard with you at all times.' These well-intentioned responses made clear the chasm between our worlds. I could guarantee that the speakers weren't imagining the women I knew, women who sang along to John Denver or got excited about marshmallow fluff. Yet, as much as it frustrated me that others would have such a negative view of 'my women,' I had been in a similar place just weeks earlier. There was an inherent sense of fear of an unknown group. Ironically, my women left our final creative writing class in tears, saying. 'You be careful next year, when you're teaching teenagers.'"
Kelly had stepped outside her comfort zone, allowing an active, present, risen Lord to open her to being his Presence among a group of lonely, misunderstood, abused people. His Holy Spirit had helped her recognize that these women were the same kind of people whom the historical Jesus had listened to, healed, and loved two thousand years ago.
It's good to remember the Jesus of the Gospels - fearless, compassionate, dedicated to doing his Father's will. It's good to, remembering Jesus, ask ourselves "What Would Jesus Do" right now, in my time, my life? But it's also good to remember that Jesus is alive and active right now: IN Us. Every day we can ask ourselves "What is Jesus Doing Today - in me? Where is he calling me to go? What kind of person is he asking me to be? How can I Be the Presence of Jesus today?"
It's a much more challenging, creative, downright interesting question!