Catholics aren't perfect; they are forgiven.

 

Third Sunday of Easter  B  2021

 

The New Testament contains many accounts describing for us the experience of the original disciples of Jesus as they found faith through their encounter with their Risen Lord.  The writers of the New Testament pass on these stories in order to share the wonder of finding faith and new purpose through an encounter with the Risen Lord.

Last Sunday we heard the Resurrection appearances of the Risen Lord as it was recalled by the community of John’s Gospel.  Today, we hear Luke’s account of the disciples’ meeting with the Risen Savior.

What is common to all of these stories is the coherent description of how the disciples came to a deeper faith in the Risen Lord:  First, the disciples are confused and frightened; when Jesus comes in their midst, finding faith in him is not easy and immediate; his greeting, however, and his loving acceptance of them into his abiding friendship brings them a great joy, and they find full faith in him; he instructs – all that has taken place is according to the designs of God set forth in the Scriptures; he charges them with the mission of bringing to the whole world the good news of their Resurrection faith and the forgiveness of sins it brings; he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Picking up on the beginning of today’s Gospel, I invite all of us to see our spiritual journey as our Road to Emmaus.  In the challenges and the fears and the hopes of our lives on this day, the Risen Savior is present as he was with those first disciples on their Road to Emmaus.

Our challenge is to recognize how Jesus is present in the challenges and the relationships of our lives.

My question for your prayer is:  Who are the strangers in your midst?  What startles and terrifies you recently?  Why are you troubled?  As you wrestle with these questions, perhaps you too will discover the presence of the Risen Christ.

In the Gospel account, Jesus showed his disciples his hands and his wounded side and said: “Touch Me.”  As with the apostle Thomas, Jesus showed his hands and his side.  For Thomas, he did not understand the meaning of resurrection faith until he touched the wounds of Christ.  I would suggest we are more like Thomas than we might think.  For us to come to an in-depth intimacy with the Risen Lord in our hearts and in our spirit, we must first touch the wounds of Christ. How do we do that?  Simply look to our life experiences.  The wounds of Christ can be found in our dealing with this pandemic crisis, in the instability of our economy, un  the violence we live with in our society,  in our broken hearts when we haven’t experienced mutuality in the love  we have given, in the illnesses in our lives, and in the experience of death in our family life.

 

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.

Nancy Veronesi in today’s bulletin calls this experience our sharing in the paschal mystery of the dying and rising of Jesus.  Strange, as it seems, we need to die before we die.  We need to die to our sinfulness, our demons, all that is within that does not witness to the love of Jesus for one and all.

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?

This is a bit of challenge at times because the Church can be compared to the New York City subway.  It’s uncomfortable at times; it’s too crowded at times; it’s often broke; but it gets where you want to go

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.