THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
APRIL 15 2018
When
we meet the disciples in today’s Gospel, they are listening to the two
disciples who had just returned from Emmaus.
These two disciples had told the gathered community what had happened to
them. They had been running away from
Jerusalem on that first day of the week, because they were devastated by the
public execution of the one whom they had thought was the messiah. Since they could not imagine God’s messiah
being treated in such a horrible way, they had given up all hope and were
leaving town. The risen Christ joined
them, even though they did not recognize him.
He listened to their pain and began to apply the familiar words of
Scripture to what happened to him. Those
words caused their hearts to burn within them.
When he accepted their invitation to stay with them, they recognized him
in the breaking of bread. Then, they
returned to Jerusalem convinced of the power of the resurrection.
As they are
speaking, the risen Christ appears again and greets them with the words, “Peace
be with you.” We would expect them to be
overjoyed. But instead, they are
startled and terrified. Those two
reactions are important for an understanding of our own Easter faith. Part of their reaction comes from their sense
of guilt. They had not been faithful to
Jesus when he was betrayed and executed.
Instead, they ran away in fear.
Despite the consistent greeting of the risen Christ, “Peace be with
you,” they must have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the Lord to
chide them for their infidelity.
But another
huge part of their reaction has to do with their terrifying experience. Despite Jesus speaking continually of his
role as a suffering servant, they could not let go of their expectations that a
messiah should be a conquering hero. So
jarred by their experience of his horrendous dying, they still had trouble
embracing this entirely new concept of rising.
That is why
the risen Christ has to assure them that he is truly raised from the dead. He shows them his wounds, not to make them
feel guiltier, but to allow them to see the real effects of sin. Instead of feeding them, as he did at the
Last Supper, they feed him with a piece of baked fish, proving that he is not a
ghost. Then he opens their minds to the
words of Scripture, just as he had done for the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus. Filled with a deeper
understanding of the Paschal Mystery and with joy, they accept his commission to
spread the good news.
During this
Season of Easter, the risen Lord speaks to us at every Mass, just as surely as
he spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and to the gathered
community in today’s Gospel. He feeds us
with his Body and Blood at every Mass, just as surely as he shared these meals
with the original witnesses. But like
those disciples, we too can become startled and terrified when we are
confronted with those elements of the Paschal Mystery that involved suffering. When we are faced with the death of a loved
one, or when we suddenly have a very heavy cross placed on our shoulders, we
react in the same way as those disciples did.
Like those disciples, we too make some bad choices and are faced with
the guilt and weight of our sins. But
like those disciples, we can turn to the Lord and receive his peace and divine
mercy.
Not only
does the risen Christ reveal himself to us here in Word and Sacrament, but he
also reveals himself in the graced encounters with other people. In his speech in the Acts of the Apostles,
Peter explains that he and John had healed a crippled man, not by their own
power, but by the power of the risen Christ.
The Easter Season invites us to consider the advice of the First Letter
of John and grow in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When that happens, we begin to understand the
intimate connection between loving him and loving others. Then, we too can experience the joy and
amazement of the presence of the risen Lord in our broken world.
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