THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
19 APRIL 2015
Throughout
his Gospel, Saint Luke tells us that Jesus often shared meals with people. His biggest meal involved feeding thousands
of people with five loaves and two fish.
He would eat with sinners and tax collectors, offering them God's
fellowship and scandalizing the pious Pharisees. At the Last Supper, he took bread, blessed,
broke, and gave it to those who would soon abandon him, making sure that he
would be present in a real way to his disciples through the ages in the form of
bread and wine. On the day of the
resurrection, he walked with two disciples running away from Jerusalem. Even though they did not recognize him, he
opened their hearts and minds to the Scriptures that the Christ would suffer
and die for them. At Emmaus, he joined
them for a meal, taking bread, blessing, breaking, and giving it to them. They recognized him in the breaking of bread.
Today,
those same two disciples are back in Jerusalem, back in the same place where
their leader had been so cruelly executed, back to the fear from which they had
been fleeing. At a meal, the risen Lord
appears. Again, they do not recognize
him, because he has been transformed through the Resurrection. Again, he gives them his peace, his mercy,
his forgiveness for their abandoning him and not believing in him. He invites them to touch his hands and
feet. He asks for a piece of fish to eat,
showing that he is real, that he is not a ghost or a strong reminder of his
former presence among them. In the
resurrection, he has redeemed everything that is so wrong with the world,
including the betrayal by Judas, the judgment of Pontius Pilate, the hatred of
the Sanhedrin, and their own abandoning of him.
We
celebrate Easter for fifty days, because it takes that long to sort out the
implications of this greatest of our Christian Mysteries. In gathering at this Eucharistic Meal, we
hear him speak to us in his Word, inviting us to open our hearts and minds to
the ways that our sufferings and pain have redemptive significance because of
his suffering and pain. He invites us to
face death with the same courage and hope that he did. Then, we recognize his true presence when we
take bread, bless the Father for the sacrifice of Jesus made present as we
remember, break, and give. Then, he
sends us to witness to the power of the resurrection in our world.
When Saint
Peter boldly proclaims the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, he does
not mince any words. He tells it like it
is. YOU did not recognize the author of
life, he tells the people in the Temple.
YOU denied him in front of Pontius Pilate, released a murderer instead,
and put him to death. Peter does not say
these things out of arrogant condemnation, but out of a realization of his own
sins and failures. Like him, they did
not know what they were doing, and God's mercy is theirs. He tells them to change their hearts and
recognize the truth.
The risen
Lord invites us to have this same attitude.
In the light of the resurrection, he invites us to look at our
behavior. If we really believe in the
resurrection, then we need to keep the commandments to love God and
neighbor. In the spirit of true
repentance, we can address honestly what is wrong and sinful in our own lives
and in our world. But, we do so with the
spirit of mercy and compassion, the mercy and compassion that comes from the transforming
power of the resurrection. We do not
gather here to recall the spirit of a great man who taught beautiful lessons
and did wonderful things. We gather here
to celebrate his real presence in the resurrection, and learn how to be
converted, to turn more completely to the One who has the power to save us.
No comments:
Post a Comment