Third Sunday
of Easter B 2024
Year after
year, Easter Sunday celebrates the reality of Jesus’ resurrection as the
foundation of our Christian identity. As
St. Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, they vain is our preaching, and vain
is your faith.”
And yet, in
the resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples, failure to recognize
Jesus is a hallmark of his resurrection appearances. So rather than Jesus they see a ghost, and
rather than joy they experience fear.
The evangelist Luke says: “the disciples were startled and terrified
and thought they were seeing a ghost.
Before the disciples were going to become fearless evangelizers, they
needed a deep spiritual learning curve.
The meaning of resurrection faith was that Jesus was going to change the
disciples “slowness of heart” and fearful misunderstanding into “opened minds”
and joyful recognition.
Fast forward
to our lives and our failures to recognize the presence of the Risen Christ in
our midst, the question for us is how will Jesus appear to us in this day and
age? Will we be any better able to
recognize him than those first disciples?
Jesus showed his first disciples his wounded hands and feet and spoke
“peace” to them. Could it be that Jesus
is showing us his wounded body in the sick and the homeless who need our care,
in the immigrants or prisoners who need to be rekindled by our Easter zeal?
In the
Gospel account, Jesus stood in their midst and said to them: “Peace be with you.” As Jesus noticed the disciples the disciples
were startled and terrified, he asked:
“Why are you troubled?”
In wishing
us peace, Jesus also asks us why are we anxious, why are we fearful, why is
your life shaped by our worries in our economy, why are we dominated by the
possessions of our life, why do we give to another person so much power over
our lives when it is not life-giving?
The question
why are you troubled is often asked in the Gospel of Luke. Recall the annunciation when the angel
Gabriel announced to Mary she was going to be the mother of the savior, and
Mary was confused as to what this meant.
Then the angel asked Mary: Why
are you troubled? Be assured the Lord
goes with you.
These words
are spoken to us as well in the midst of the questions and fears of our
lives: “Why are you fearful?” The Lord is with you and the Lord’s gift to
you is an inner peace and joy that no one nor any situation can take from you.
As we know,
what often keeps us from a resurrection faith and hope in the presence of the
Risen Lord are the struggles and the messiness of life. The questions of life often lead to more
questions than faith. Sometimes, we do
not experience inner peace as we wrestle with the struggles of brokenness in
relationship, with our health, and the disillusionment we experience with
failed leadership in the Church, on Wall Street, and in our nation’s leaders.
Yet, the
mystery of the faith journey of each of us is that we need to look at the
messiness and the questions and the disappointments of life; we need to look at
this life experiences with faith-filled eyes.
Yes. God accompanies in the struggles of life. For us to encounter the joy of the Risen
Lord, we first need to encounter the crucified Lord in the struggles.
It is the
law of spiritual gravity that we need to experience and to trust in Jesus in
the wounds of our life so that we may be reborn in trusting and hoping in new
life that is God’s Easter promise to us.
Yes, we all
struggle in one way or another. All of
us are confronted with touching the wounds of Christ in the struggles of our
lives. In the midst of these struggles,
the Risen Jesus speaks these words to us: “Peace be with you.” Can we experience the love of the Risen Lord
in the midst of the struggles of life?
Will we be
any better able to recognize him than those first disciples? Jesus showed his first disciples his wounded
hands and feet and spoke “peace” to them.
Could it be that Jesus is showing us his wounded body in the sick and
the homeless who need our care, in the immigrants or prisoners who need to be
rekindled by our Easter zeal?
As we
reflect on the Gospel, I would highlight two other components of the Gospel
story that are also two movements in our spiritual journey.
1.
We
are a Eucharistic people. “While they
were still incredulous, Jesus asked them: “have you anything here to eat?” As for those first disciples, and so too for
us, our own privileged encounter with the Risen Jesus is at table on the Lord’s
day, in the context of the community’s meal.
As it was
true for the disciples on the way to Emmaus, the Risen Lord is made known in
the breaking of the bread. And so, we
gather for the Eucharistic Breaking of the Bread. We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God
for what God has done for us. We gather
to give thanks for the longing that is within us to experience the presence of
the Risen Lord in the Eucharist and in the people of our lives
2.
The
first disciples were to be a missionary people.
Jesus commissioned them “to be witnesses of these things.” Jesus sends forth the disciples to bear
witness. How often Pope Francis reminds
us that we “touch the flesh of Christ” in the wounds of our suffering brothers
and sisters to whom we are sent forth from every Eucharist as witnesses of
Jesus’ self-sacrificing love.
We seek the grace to be a Eucharistic people who glorify the
Lord by the way we witness to God’s love in all that we say and do in the
service of one another.
Have a Blessed Day.
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