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)