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3 Easter
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Third Sunday of Easter - Cycle B - Luke 24:35-48
"Read it three times." The advice came from novelist
William Faulkner to readers who could not understand his book. He might
also include the Easter Gospels in that advice.
The Sioux Indians have left us a clever line:
"The first
question people ask after death is, 'Why was I so frightened?'"
The Sioux braves would not have been as
surprised as we were by the findings on life after death discovered by
psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross in 1969. They were revealed in
her blockbuster book On Death and Dying. The book was based on
interviews with people who were judged clinically dead and then
revived. Hundreds of thousands of copies are in circulation.
Dr Kubler-Ross has had many followers. Their
research method and hers were the same. Interviews were held with the
apparently dead shortly after their revival. When the doctors pooled
the results of their interviews across the US, they were amazingly
similar. People recalled their soul outside their body. They testified
to feelings of peace and contentment and meeting dead family members
and a religious person whom some call Jesus.
Dr Kubler-Ross writes this remarkable line.
"The most common denominator of all these people is that when they come
back, many of them resented our desperate attempts to bring them back
to life. None of the patients who had a death experience and
returned are ever afraid to die again."
With Kubler-Ross as a backdrop, let us check
out the Easter Gospels. Perhaps they can add to our information on life
after death. Perhaps we can discover why Catholics, who have paid their
dues this side of the river, would choose not to return after death.
Indeed they would be outraged.
But why outraged? The Easter Gospels suggest
that they have begun to party. They are living life in the fast lane -
whatever language you like. Theirs is the wisdom of the monk who said
death is nothing more than God's manner of recycling.
Check the resurrected Jesus of today's Gospel.
He is a flesh and blood person. He speaks. He is even hungry. Why else
would He eagerly ask, "What's for supper?"
We do not know what kind of a body we will
have. But there is a strong hint in St Paul's letter to Philemon 3:21.
"The Lord will transform our lowly bodies into copies of his own body."
It does sound like we are going to go first class. Besides, most of us
are unhappy with our bodies. Have you noticed that there are very few
Audrey Hepburns and Cary Grants born? We have nowhere to go but up.
Let us tackle the big sleep problem.
College students say
to me, "Got to party now, Father! We'll do all our sleeping in
the cemetery." Forget about that eternal sleep. The resurrected
Christ is constantly on the go - Jerusalem, Emmaus, and then a three
day walk up to Galilee. His trips sound exhausting.
It is not surprising though. Jesus never said,
"I am the
resurrection and the rest." Rather He kept insisting, "I am
the resurrection and the life." You can look it up in John 11.
Heaven then is not a place where we go to collect
bed sores. You will not need your pajamas. Get your sleep while alive.
Hold onto your seats, for the best is yet to
come. This is all verbatim from the Easter Gospels. Death does not mean
we go into solitary confinement. The resurrected Christ is constantly
surrounded by people. Today's Gospel is proof of that. But also look up
John 20 and 21. He is forever eating or cooking. Perhaps you should be
buried with your recipes and good Burgundy.
What is He telling us? "I know you need human
companionship. You will meet your families again. Everyone but
your mother will be surprised you made it into heaven."
Also, as Donald Senior has pointed out, the
resurrected Christ speaks no angry words, shows no tension, and has no enemies.
This is a night and day difference from the pre-resurrected Christ.
Think of Him driving those bandits from the Temple! His Easter message
is that we can leave all our tranquilizers and prescriptions behind us.
There is no need for a pharmacy or health plan in heaven.
The shadows of death may be long and dark, but
the Easter Gospels tell us they are not forever.
After our respective deaths down the road, I
believe we us will say with the Sioux Indians, "Why was I so
frightened?"
The savant tells us that those of us who are
prepared to die are prepared to live.
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3 Easter
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Third Easter: Emmaus and the Mass
On
the evening of the first Easter two disciples walked down a road, seven
miles from Jerusalem. They were upset. The One in whom they had
placed their hopes had died. The finest person they had ever met had
ever met was gone. All the beautiful things that he said about
the future, the kingdom of God, were they to be just pleasant memories,
but not realities. They were crushed. Yes, they had heard a
rumor that he had risen, but that didn't seem reasonable. They
didn't know it was true.
And then the Lord appeared to them. Now, you would think that
when the Lord appeared to them, they would have recognized him
immediately. But he didn't want it that way--he transformed his
appearance so that they wouldn't recognize him just with their
eyes--they would recognize him by what he would say and do that
evening.
First he explained the Scripture to them. He gave them a sermon about
the Messiah. They heard what he had to say and felt such a burning
within themselves that they didn't want him to leave them. They begged
him to stay for supper, so he entered their house and their
lives. He performed the same ritual he had performed the Thursday
before. He broke bread, blessed it and gave it to them to eat. He gave
them the Eucharist. It was at this point that they fully recognized his
presence. It was at this point that he disappeared. He
disappeared, but he didn't leave them. They had received the Lord.
They
hurried off to tell the disciples in Jerusalem about their experience
of the resurrected Lord. As they were still speaking the Lord
appeared again. At first the disciples thought the were seeing a
ghost, but then Jesus let them touch him, ate something, did the things
only a person with a body could do. Then we hear that wonderful
expression: the were incredulous for sheer joy and wonder. We
would put it this way: it was all just too good to be true.
Again, as he had done for the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus
explained the Scriptures. Finally he tells them and us this: you
are to be witnesses of this.
We
are called to be witnesses of the Lord through Word and
Eucharist. We are called to preach penance of the remission of
sins. Penance for the remission of sins? What is this
about? We are called to join Jesus in seeking forgiveness and
healing for a hurting world, even if this means taking the pains of the
world upon ourselves. We are called to continue the presence of the
Lord by joining his healing ministry, not just as doctors and nurses,
but as forgiving and caring people. We are called to encourage people
to join us in bringing our burdens to the Lord. Seek forgiveness,
receive healing, and live in peace.
Let's return to those disciples on the road to Emmaus. Jesus wanted
them to experience his presence the same way he invites us to
experience his presence, through Word and Eucharist. He spoke on
the scriptures and shared the Eucharist--these disciples celebrated
what we have since named the Mass. We have continued meeting the Lord
in this same way, every time we attend Mass.
Years back we used to use an expression"to hear Mass". Thank God that
expression and the reality it conveyed are long gone. Why,
because we are all an integral part of the Mass, we're not just
observers. We come together not just to hear the Mass but to pray the
Mass. We come together to meet Christ in the Scripture and the
Eucharist just like the disciples at Emmaus did.
The
Mass is an experience of the Resurrected Lord. Back when the Mass
was in Latin, many of us followed the Latin very closely with our
missals so we could know exactly what was happening. And that was good.
Now we are not just concerned with what is happening during the Mass,
we are concerned with how we are a part of the meeting with the Risen
Lord. And that's even better.
That is why we come together on Sundays--to meet Christ in the
Scripture and the Eucharist. We come to tell him our fears, to thank
him for our accomplishments. We come because, basically, we enjoy being
in his presence--just as the disciples at Emmaus enjoyed his presence.
When we leave here, we leave
with the commission to take our experience of the Risen Lord with us to
the world. The whole meaning of the term Mass is taken from the
Latin missa, or sending. We are to take what we receive here and
here out there. We are sent.
Last Thursday, April
16th, I celebrated my thirty-second anniversary as a
priest. I have been given the opportunity to serve in many
different ministries as a Diocesan priest. Every diocesan priest
wears many hats every day. Every day is different. Every
priest is different. Yet we all have one thing in common: we all
celebrate the Lord's presence in Word and Eucharist for his people.
This nourishes us in our ministry as we participate in God's nourishing
his people to continue his ministry.
You have gone to many
different Churches in your lives. Perhaps you have traveled and
attended Mass in languages that you could hardly understand.
There has been one constant though: the ministry of the Lord in Word
and Eucharist. You have spent a brief amount of time considering
the scriptures. You have taken the Lord within you.
Perhaps, many times you may
not feel the joy and enthusiasm of the disciples in that room, but you
have always experienced his presence and his grace. It is this presence
and grace, the Lord in Word and Eucharist that gives us the power to
proclaim his life, his words, his way to the world we live in.
Today we join the apostles
in the joy of the Resurrected Lord. And we pray that we might
bring his presence to a world that seeks him.
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* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
3 Easter
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3 Easter
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April 26th 2009 A.D.
Third Sunday of Easter. LK 24/35-48
Background:
These words were written not only for the Apostles but for all
Christians even up to our own time, especially for those who are
nervous or who worry or who think that the Holy Spirit is about to
abandon the church. It is a message of hope for those who think the
situation is hopeless – which, as Gilbert Chesterton observed is the
only time that hope is a virtue. Jesus is risen indeed as the Orthodox
Easter greeting says. And He is still with us. And he will always take
care of us and protect us no matter how many idiot things we may do.
Story:
There was this young army reservist who had attended college on
a military program. After the served his term in the army, he was put
on inactive reserve. He had fallen in love and married a wonderful
woman. They had lovely, if contentious twins, and he was moving ahead
rapidly in his job – financial services, what else? Then he was
mobilized and with little training and inadequate equipment he was
deployed to Iraq. He was a good officer and protected his men as best
he could, though often he had no idea what to do He was wounded twice
but returned to duty. Then his unit was redeployed back to America with
assurance that he would never have to return to Iraq.The twins were
bigger, more attractive, and more contentious. Someone had replaced him
the fast tract in his company. Then, when it was almost time for him to
leave the reserved and, despite all promises, he was deployed to Iraq
again. When that deployment was almost over, he was badly
wounded. After months in a hospital and then in a rehabilitation
center, he finally went home. The twins, now well behaved young persons
celebrated. I guess God didn’t take good care of you, one of his
friends said. Hey, the young man replied, I’m still alive!
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
3 Easter
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Apr, 26, 2009
Luke 24: 35-48
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.
Third Sunday of Easter
Gospel Summary
On that first Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection, two disciples
return to Jerusalem from their journey to Emmaus and recount to their
friends how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
Suddenly, Jesus appears in their midst and says, "Peace be with you."
They are terrified and think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus says to
them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your
hearts?" He then asks them to look at him and to touch him. After
assuring them that he is the same person they knew before his
crucifixion, he eats some baked fish with them.
Jesus then explains how the Scriptures reveal that the Messiah would
suffer and rise from the dead; and that repentance for the forgiveness
of sins would be preached in his name to all nations, beginning in
Jerusalem. He then adds, "You are witnesses to these things."
Luke concludes his gospel with this Easter Sunday appearance of Jesus
to his disciples as the threshold to its climax and also to its meaning
for us. After telling his disciples that they are "witnesses to these
things," Jesus declares: "And behold I am sending the promise of my
Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power
from on high." The first reading of this Sunday's Mass from the Acts of
the Apostles (also written by Luke) tells us the good news that Jesus
kept his promise by sending his Spirit, the promise of his Father. The
age of the Church has begun: Peter with the power of the Spirit and in
the name of Jesus proclaims those things the disciples had witnessed.
Life Implications
Luke first wants to assure us that though faith in the Risen Lord is a
divine gift and a decision of acceptance beyond reason, nevertheless
its basis is the solid ground of reason. The Christ of faith is not the
creation of the disciples; he is the one they knew during his earthly
life. The same words that are used to describe everyday realities are
used to describe the reality of Jesus. Yet, here as in other New
Testament appearance accounts, it is clear that the new, transformed
reality is not subject to the laws of chemistry or physics. This is to
assure us that Jesus does not possess a body revived from the dead. He
exists in a divine mode of existence; he is able to appear suddenly, no
longer bound by the laws of space, time, and matter.
Luke's gospel together with his Acts of the Apostles may well be called
the good news of the Holy Spirit. Its background is the bad news that
all humanity is in a state of alienation from God and alienation within
itself. The divine action of merciful forgiveness and reconciliation
began with presence of the Spirit guiding the chosen people, Israel
(Acts 28:25). It is the same Spirit who from beginning to end enabled
Jesus to advance the divine plan to its next stage. "Jesus returned to
Galilee in the power of the Spirit... The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me..." (Lk 4:4-21).
Now in the final climactic appearance to his disciples, the Risen Lord
authorizes them to begin the end stage in fulfillment of the divine
plan. It is the age of the Spirit's action in the Church whereby
Christ's mission to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins is
extended to all nations. Jesus knew that without his Spirit the
disciples and those who would follow them would be totally incapable of
fulfilling his mandate.
Each Sunday we listen to readings from Scripture in order to learn how
the Spirit was with Jesus, and how the Spirit wishes to inspire us.
Thus, in the first reading of this Sunday's Mass from Acts, we see a
new Peter speaking through the power of the Spirit. Now he and the
other disciples are no longer paralyzed by fear. They speak, often in
hostile situations, with the confident, joyful candor and boldness of
Christ himself. (This is the "parrhesia" of Acts 2:29; 4:13,29,31;
28:31.) It is the Spirit who enables us to know Christ and to live as
he lived. In the second reading, John tells us we can be sure that our
knowledge of Christ is true faith if we keep his commandments —
essentially to love others as he has loved us.
The Spirit also enables us to share in the Easter joy of Christ. The
complete joy of the Spirit's presence is anticipated in the disciples'
experience of the Risen Lord: "They did him homage and then they
returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (Lk 24:52). Today in our breaking
of bread with the Lord, we pray for the grace to accept the gift of the
Spirit, the promise of his Father, with all our heart so that we might
live and act as Christians without fear Ñ in freedom, in truth,
in love, in joy.
Campion P. Gavaler, OSB
Hear this week's homily as an audio file:
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
3 Easter
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Third
Sunday
Acts 3, 13-15. 17-19; Psalm 4; 1 John 2, 1-5; Luke 24, 35-48
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
At Emmaus Jesus gave his Body and Blood as he celebrated the Eucharist.
There the disciples encountered the Easter Christ: "they had come to
know Jesus in the breaking of bread." (Lk 24, 25) "The Breaking of the
bread" is an ancient name for the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the Mass and
recorded in Scripture. Each of us relives the wonder and awe of Emmaus
at every Mass. We "know Jesus the Lord" in the most perfect way outside
of heaven itself as the priest, acting in the person of Christ, offers
the Mass. In this way we encounter the Resurrection as an historical
and transcendent event. Earth and heaven come together in Jesus the
God-Man as he appears before us on the altar of sacrifice. Thus,
the place in which this event takes place becomes ”house of God and
gate of heaven”.
“The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with
manifestations that were historically verified, as the New Testament
bears witness. In about a.d. 56, St. Paul could already write to the
Corinthians: ‘I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then
to the Twelve...’ (1 Cor 15:3-4) The Apostle speaks here of the living
tradition of the Resurrection which he had learned after his conversion
at the gates of Damascus. (Cf. Acts 9:3-18)" (CCC 639)
The Gospel records the appearances of the risen Christ and tells of the
panic and fright, the joy and wonder of the women and the Apostles who
first saw him. This is put down in writing so that we may know, even as
we experience the same lack of belief as they surely did, that Christ
really and truly rose from the dead. We must through God's grace
overcome our lack of belief and embrace the virtue of faith more and
more. "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." Without faith we cannot
freely choose to love God as he commands us to do. It is through the
virtue of love, freely chosen, of Jesus the risen Lord, encountered in
faith, that we hope to share in the Resurrection of the Lord. Even the
beautiful accounts of Jesus in the Gospel are only fully understood and
accepted by faith. The Easter gift of the Eucharist is the fount of
these and all the gifts of grace.
"Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the
body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began
on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen
One. (Mk 16:1; Lk 24:1; Jn 19:31, 42) Thus the women were the first
messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. (Cf.
Lk 24:9-10; Mt 28:9-10; Jn 20:11-18) They were the next to whom Jesus
appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to
strengthen the faith of his brothers, (Cf. 1 Cor 15:5; Lk 22:31-32) and
so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of his testimony
that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and has
appeared to Simon!" (Lk 24:34, 36)" (CCC 641)
Mary Magdelene and the other first witnesses of the empty tomb and the
risen Christ, spread the joyful news with tears and smiles of heavenly
joy. We, too, are messengers of the Resurrection; we live the
glory of Easter through the transcendent gifts of faith, hope and love
in action.
Mother Elvira, the foundress of Comunita Cenacolo, a “school of life”
for drug addicts and other young people at risk, calls us to be
“missionaries of the smile”. We evangelize, spread the truth with
a smile, transmitting to others the serene joy which is the fruit of
faith that has placed hope in the resurrection of Divine Love Incarnate.
(Publish with permission.) Find more reflections at:
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
3 Easter
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Third Sunday of Easter, Year B—2003 Homily
It can’t have been very easy for the disciples after the resurrection.
They must have been very confused. It is one thing to talk about the
resurrection in theory, but to actually experience someone rising from
the dead must have been very bewildering.
However, Jesus appears to them in different situations and explains
what has happened in very simple terms, just as he does in today’s
extract from St Luke’s Gospel.
The disciples are undergoing a learning process. And in any learning
process confusion is an essential element.
Just look at how any small child learns something new. The child
performs all kinds of experiments and is often very confused until,
after repeated attempts and explanations by the parent, it all suddenly
dawns on the child who in a moment of insight suddenly makes complete
sense of the task at hand.
One of my brothers received the gift of a unicycle for his 40th
birthday. He has always been very fit and agile and I thought it would
be easy for him, but he told me that this has been the most difficult
thing he has ever had to learn.
He said that you have to forget everything you ever learnt about riding
a bicycle before you can make any progress with a unicycle. He can now
go about 50 yards in a straight line but turning is something else
altogether! I can only imagine how many times he fell off!
Actually, as we grow older we learn less and less. Sadly we lose the
skills of learning and we often avoid situations where we might be on
unfamiliar territory. We frequently chose to avoid learning something
new. By doing this we can close off whole areas of new experiences.
Such an attitude can also make coping with the necessary adjustments of
retirement or physical decline quite difficult.
The disciples were just like us, they were slow learners, and they
found Jesus’ new ideas difficult to cope with—even while he was still
with them. But then they went through the awful circumstances of his
death and must have been cast into in the depths of depression. And as
part of the shock of all this I’m sure everything that he ever taught
them went right out of their heads.
For Jesus then to keep popping up here and there must have been
extraordinarily confusing at first. He didn’t appear in his risen body
and stay with them and allow them to get used to the fact. No, he
appeared here and there and then eight days later somewhere else. And
these appearances were very brief; there was no time to come to terms
with what was happening.
But each time Jesus explained things to them in very simple terms just
as he did in today’s text: This is what I meant when I said, when I was
still with you, that everything written about me in the scriptures has
to be fulfilled.
By eating the piece of fish Jesus reassures the disciples of the
reality of his bodily presence. No ghost can eat and by eating he
demonstrated the simple fact of his bodily resurrection.
In these ways Jesus led them by the hand through the confusing stages
of this great learning process. And on the Day of Pentecost the
disciples experienced their ‘Eureka moment’ and rush out into the
street explaining to everyone else what had happened. And as witnesses
they had remarkable success.
We too are slow learners. Actually, many of us are Catholics out of
habit rather than out of conviction. We come to mass, we say our
prayers, we act in a moral way and we do our best to pass these values
on to our children. But we go no further.
Yet the final words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are intended for us just
as much as they were intended for the disciples: You are witnesses to
this.
Each one of us has to make the transition from being what you might
call a passive Catholic to becoming an active Catholic. We have to move
beyond habit and become witnesses.
The witness has seen and heard and experienced the events to which he
gives testimony. The witness speaks with authority and he speaks the
truth. And as a result the witness is believable—that’s surely why the
apostles were so effective on the Day of Pentecost.
We might be slow learners but this is no complicated unicycle that we
have to master. What we have to do is simply realise that God has
chosen us for this particular task—to be his witnesses. Then we have to
give testimony.
And you might say: What do I know? How can I give witness? I know
nothing? But you would be wrong. You know a great deal.
You know about Jesus. You know his life story. And more importantly,
you know that he died and rose again. And you know why he did this: In
order to free us from our sins and open up for us the way to
everlasting life. He did it out of love.
And you know what we must do. We must love one another and we must stop
sinning so that, in the words of St John, God’s love comes to
perfection in us.
These things are not complicated; we know them already. The lesson has
been learned and we are no longer confused. Now we understand that we
really are his witnesses and that our task is to bring Christ’s message
to all we meet.
But this does not mean that we have to go round knocking on doors or
standing on the street corner blasting the Gospel at those who pass by.
I don’t think so.
St Francis of Assisi had it right when he said: Preach the gospel all
the time; use words only if necessary.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
3 Easter |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
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