Third Sunday of Easter

Easter 3B.12; Acts 3:13-19; 1John 2:1-5; Luke 24:35-48,
We have celebrated.  We have prayed.
Yet, do we know what to do with Easter? … with life after the Resurrection?
Here’s a little story from a child’s perspective ….
A Sunday School teacher asked her class on the Sunday before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter & why it was so important.  One little girl spoke up saying: "Easter is when the whole family gets together, & you eat turkey & sing about the pilgrims and all that." "No, that’s not it," said the teacher. "I know what Easter is," a 2nd student responded. "Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs."                         "No, that’s not it either," replied the teacher. Finally a 3rd student spoke up, "Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb & left for three days."
          "Ah, thank goodness somebody knows" the teacher thought to herself. But then the student went on: "Then everybody gathers at the tomb & waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter."  (eSermons.com)
Humorous, but has our outlook on life changed?
Resurrection not only promises us a life after death but it also affirms the goodness of God’s creation. God is both good & faithful. And the physical world is the place for God’s love to be expressed. This implies an active role in our world for us because God cares about us both physically & spiritually.

The Gospel says that, the two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.   This act is the key to our future ….
These two disciples who were on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Jesus walking beside them. They were all wound up in their own disappointment.  They were focused on themselves.   Even when the teacher explained the Scriptures for them, they did not grasp his identity.  Nor did they accept the women’s witness to the  resurrection.  It was only in the sharing of a meal, in the breaking of the bread, that they finally shed their disbelief, and finally engaged the world.

Like those disciples, we, too, live in the post Resurrection-event.   As one preacher said, "If we don't know WHAT is beyond the grave,
we do know WHO is beyond the grave." William Sloane Coffin
And this calls for something … from us.
2   After…he showed them his hands and feet….he asked, “Have you anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.”
This is no ghost!   Remember that ghosts do not eat, but Jesus asked for something to eat.  Perhaps he was hungry?  Probably not.  It was a way of saying that he was alive, since only the living can eat. For the 2nd time, he is recognized when he ate, because this is such a human act & a gesture that is so Jesus: taking the bread, giving thanks, blessing, breaking it…
It is in the Eucharist where we come to know Jesus in every way.
We do not deal with ghosts.
We encounter the Risen Lord in … those around us.
We encounter real people with real physical, emotional, & spiritual needs.     
They are hungry.   They are Jesus.  They are right in front of us.
Jesus did not command the whole world to go to church.
Jesus commanded his church to go to the whole world.

And as the 1st Letter of John tells us, if we know him we will be like him, whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in them.
To love as Jesus loves is no easy task.  As Fyodor Dostoyevsky famously articulated in The Brother’s Karamazov, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.”  Real love is hard work and dedicated to making this world a better place for everyone. Real love requires crucified hands, crucified feet, and maybe an open wound in our sides, too.   Real love is who we really are.  Can we do less?
Eucharist is what we celebrate and, equally important,
it is how we live our lives outside this building in the world today.
We are called to DO, the “breaking of the bread.”
Witnesses are more than passive bystanders. We who hear the story of Christ’s suffering and resurrection become witnesses to these things, too.
At this Liturgy of our future in the Risen Christ,
let us remember that God is love (1John 4:8);
let us remember that Jesus is the living God among us and within us;
let us remember that we are called by Jesus this very day…
You are to be witnesses of these things.
What things ?....
to be the living love of God, to touch and transform the pain & suffering,
to share the joy & peace of God to all around us because…
As it was then, it is now, in the breaking of the bread of our lives,
they too will know their God and our God.  

(Some ideas: America 4/16/12; Nuestra Parroquia, Marzo, 2012; Living With Christ, 4/2012)

Second Sunday of Easter

Easter 2B.12; Acts 4:32-35; 1John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31
It was Saturday, the day before Easter, & Joanne Hinch of Woodland Hills, California was sitting at the kitchen table coloring eggs with her three-year-old son Dan and her two-year-old daughter Debbie. She told her kids about the meaning of Easter and taught them the traditional Easter morning greeting and response, "He is risen...He is risen indeed!" The children planned to surprise their Dad, a minister, with that greeting as soon as he awoke the next morning. Easter arrived, little Danny heard his father stirring about in his bedroom, so the boy got up quickly, dashed down the hall and shouted the good news: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, God's back!"
                               (eSermons.com/God's Back/Leininger, "Laugh, Thomas, Laugh!")
Do you believe in the physical Resurrection?
We have only the word of these witnesses … no physical evidence.
Do you trust this gospel?
When we have plenty of trust in people, we believe whatever they tell us, no matter how outlandish it may sound.  But many of us would not believe that someone has been resurrected, no matter who told us.  Often we think of Thomas as a doubter, but I suspect, the majority of us would probably have done the same thing.  Death is death & no one returns as if nothing had happened. At best, we would think it was a ghost. For us, as it was for Thomas, it is not easy to believe in resurrection.  Furthermore, it’s difficult to believe because it happens to be good news & we are as so accustomed to receiving bad new!  
“If he is alive, however, everything changes. It is no longer a matter of our questioning an historical record, but a matter of our being put in question by one who has broken every rule of ordinary human existence. If Jesus lives, then it must be as life-giver. Jesus is not simply a figure of the past in that case, but a person in the present; not merely a memory we can analyze and manipulate, but an agent who can confront & instruct us. What we can learn about him must therefore include what we continue to learn from him.”
(Source: Luke Timothy Johnson)
Belief in the resurrection forces us to change our concept of life.
To believe in the resurrection means to already live the permanent hope, to be thrilled & longing FOR the future.
Belief in the resurrection implies fighting with all our strength to make it a reality from now on, to the extent possible, what we will live in the future.  Many consider that the people who believe in all of this, live in an unreal world.  When Jesus appeared to Thomas, he makes a confession of faith that goes beyond the recognition of Jesus & confesses the divinity of Christ.
(Adapted; Nuestra Parroquia, March 2012)
Blessed are those who believe with out having seen, Jesus said.
2    Yes, but look how Jesus came back….
Jesus tells Thomas… “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Jesus tells us to do the same.
Thomas did something we would all like to do.  It would be so much easier to believe if we could touch & see the wounds of Christ.  Yet, the wounds of Christ are present every day in many different ways.  South
African civil rights proponent Alaln Boesak once said that, “at the pearly gates, Jesus won’t ask us about how well we carried out our religious obligations. He’ll only ask us to show our wounds, the wounds that are the outward sign that we’ve spent our lives imitating him.”   
(Source: Celebration, 4/14/12)
We can still touch them; perhaps we just fail to see them.
We are all wounded.  Some of us carry wounds that are deeper & more intense than others.  These wounds can be physical or spiritual, recent or long-standing.  An injection or a pill isn’t enough to heal these wounds.  Healing is an internal process that puts things right, & to do this we need to face our wounds.

Jesus carries our wounds.  In the gospel, Jesus invites Thomas to touch the wounds in his hands & side.  In so doing, Jesus is also inviting Thomas to come face to face with his very own wounds, which Jesus is carrying.  It is only by facing his own wounds that Thomas can be healed and then say, “My Lord and my God.” (Source:Living With Christ, 4/12)

We, like Thomas, are invited to face our wounds, which Jesus carries for us.  Like Thomas, we are invited to heal whatever it is that threatens life within us.  And we are invited to go one step farther: Blessed are those who see the wounds of Jesus in the suffering of their brothers & sisters and lend themselves to serve them.  

In this Liturgy of Christ Wounds,  
may we find the strength to say, “My Lord and my God,”
and may we reach out to touch Christ’s wounds in this world with love today.
 

Mass of Easter Sunday

Easter 1B.12; Acts 10:34a-43; Col 3:1-4/1Cor 5:6b-8; Luke 24:13-35 (Emmaus)
Today a stranger asked, “What are you discussing as you walk along?”
Indeed …
Somewhere or other I heard of a Sunday School teacher who had just finished telling her 3rd graders about how Jesus was crucified & placed in a tomb with a great stone sealing off the only way in or out. Then, wanting to share the excitement of the resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning, she asked: "And what do you think were Jesus' first words when he came bursting out of that tomb alive." A hand shot up into the air from the rear of the classroom. It belonged to a most excited little girl. Leaping out of her chair she shouted out excitedly, "I know, I know, I know."  … "Good," said the teacher, "Tell us."
          Extending her arms high in the air she sang out: "TA - DA!"                                  (Source: esermons.comThe Magic in Easter, Leininger)

Easter is Resurrection.
Easter is a Time of Hope

There still is fear, there still is a painful awareness of sinfulness, but there also is light breaking through.  Something new is happening, something that goes beyond the changing moods of our life.  We can be joyful or sad, optimistic or pessimistic, tranquil or angry, but the solid stream of God’s Presence moves deeper than the small waves of our minds & hearts.  
Easter brings the awareness that God is present even when the divine presence is not directly noticed.
Easter brings the good news that, although things seem to get worse in the world, the evil has already been overcome. Easter allows us to affirm that although God seems very distant & although we remain preoccupied with many little things, our Jesus walks with us on the road & keeps explaining the Scriptures to us.  
Thus there are many rays of hope casting the light on our way through life.
From time to time people ask me if the resurrection of Jesus can be proved. It can't. What's more, Jesus himself has never wanted it proved.
He has always wanted followers, not detectives.
Listen to this true story ….
A new pastor was visiting one of his church members who was in the hospital. The pastor was a young man, fresh out of seminary & still wet behind the ears as a minister. He was visiting this elderly man named Joe, & Joe was extremely ill. He wanted to talk to his pastor about his funeral
2  service & the pastor wanted to talk about anything else – the weather, football, politics, or anything else he could think of.   Finally, the pastor asked, "Joe, doesn't it bother you? Aren't you frightened?" Joe smiled and said, "Preacher, I know I'm not going to make it, but I'm not afraid. I have a confession to make. I've taken a peek at the back of the book."
                        "What do you mean?" the minister asked.Joe said, "You didn't know me 10 years ago when I had my first heart attack. They called it cardiac arrest. I can remember the medical team thinking I was dead. I can also remember the tremendous feeling of being surrounded by God's love. I was revived by the doctors, but ever since that day I have been unafraid to die. I've been there & it doesn't frighten me. I know that one day soon I am going to go to sleep & I believe that when I awaken, I will, once again, be surrounded by God's love."
                          (Source: esermons.com/I’ve Peeked at the Back of the Book)This is the message of the first Easter.
This is the message of this Easter.
The tomb is empty.
Christ is risen.
Jesus is alive.
And because of this, we too, shall live!
We, like those disciples walking to Emmaus before us,
know the burning in our hearts as we gather to break the bread.
Feel the presence.
Jesus still walks with us.  
Jesus still asks us to return to Jerusalem to tell the others.

Is Resurrection real?  
You decide, but remember at this Liturgical celebration of New Life
… how, as Peter said, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power.
ALLELUIA!
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