Easter-III-B:  Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; 1 Jn 2:1-5; Lk 24:35-48

This apparition of Jesus took place on Easter evening, after Jesus had appeared to the two disciples of Emmaus who immediately hurried back to Jerusalem to report the glad news: they had met Jesus, alive! He had seemed to be stranger who had explained to them the Sacred Scriptures, but when he “broke the bread” they had recognized Jesus.  The Emmaus disciples discovered that the apostles were already convinced of the resurrection of Jesus because Simon had seen him as well.  While they were discussing these things in the still-locked Upper Room, Jesus appeared in their midst, shocking and terrifying them.  Refuting the rumor that Jesus had not actually died on the cross but had been taken down and hidden by his friends, Luke shows that the risen Jesus could now suddenly and wondrously appear in their midst (v. 36).This story was told and retold and recorded by Luke for at least three reasons: (1) Jesus’ death and Resurrection fit God’s purpose as revealed in Scripture; (2) the risen Jesus is present in the breaking of bread; and (3) the risen Jesus is also physically absent from the disciples.

The Risen lord became a reality experienced by his disciples. Our daily lives should be the means of experiencing and sharing the risen Lord with others. Just as the disciples experienced the risen Lord in their community we should be able to feel the presence of Jesus in our own homes, our parish and our community.

In his preaching Peter says: God raised Jesus from the dead; of this we are witnesses." When he said this he was certainly thinking of those times, when Jesus appeared to them, letting them see and touch his wounds, proving that he was no ghost or illusion stemming from wishful thinking.

 

Jesus wanted his disciples to be authentic witnesses to the reality of his life as their risen Lord with his glorified soul and body. He wanted them to go out into the world with the offer of forgiveness. Accepting the command of Jesus they reached the ends of the then known world. Peter and Paul went all the way to Rome. Thomas went as far as India. If the United States was existing at that time one of them would have been here too. Today, Jesus needs us as witnesses to continue his mission. Jesus needs Spirit-filled followers to be his eyes, ears and hands and to bear witness to his love, mercy and forgiveness. The church badly needs dedicated witnesses. The essence of bearing witness is to testify by our lives that the power of the risen Jesus has touched and transformed us. In other words, Jesus is to speak to other people through us. In Calcutta, a dying old woman with her head in the lap of Mother Teresa, looked at her, and, in a feeble voice, asked: "Are you the God Jesus who loves the poor and the sick"?

There is a story of a group of salesmen who went to a regional sales convention. But the convention overran the time and they rushed to the airport and to the boarding gate. With boarding passes and briefcases and other stuff, one of the men accidently knocked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane just in time … all but one.

That man paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his colleagues to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. 

Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor. The girl selling the apples was blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as people rushed around her. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. 

As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take this money for the damage we did. As the salesman started to walk away, the blind girl called out to him, “Sir ….”  “Are you Jesus?” He stopped in mid-stride … and he wondered. He went back and said, “No, I am nothing like Jesus – He is good, kind, caring, loving and would never have bumped into your display in the first place.”

The girl gently nodded: “I only asked because I prayed for Jesus to help me gather the apples. He sent you to help me, so you are like Him – only He knows who will do His will. Thank you for hearing His call, Sir.”

Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight, with that question burning and bouncing about in his heart: “Are you Jesus?”

We witness to Jesus by being Jesus to others. We make Jesus real for others in the ordinary acts of kindness, compassion, generosity, patience and understanding. 

Let us ponder on that question and we will experience the Risen Lord for ourselves.

 

 

 

 

EASTER II [B] (Acts 4:32-35, I John 5:1-6, John 20:19-31)

After the death of Jesus, for fear of the Jews the Apostles confined themselves to a closed room. They received the news of the resurrection of Jesus from many sources. He was seen by the women who visited the tomb. Peter saw the empty tomb. He appeared to the apostles themselves. But these testimonies did not give them enough courage to come out and proclaim the reality of resurrection. They remained behind the closed doors. Again Jesus appeared to them and shows his wounds to the disciples and says, “Peace be with you.” They’d all abandoned him when he needed them. Showing those wounds could have been to shame them, but Jesus wanted to communicate a message of mercy, not condemnation.

Sometimes we forget that we’ve been forgiven. Jesus in showing his wounds today says, in a sense, “what happened, happened, but be at peace; I forgive you.”

Every sin we commit wounds Our Lord, and if we don’t realize that, obviously we’re not going to be asking mercy from anyone, and not showing much mercy when others hurt us. Sin destroys the peace and joy of every man.

If Our Lord were merely dead and gone or ascended straight away without appearing to his disciples, we’d never truly know if he’d have forgiven us. He returned, Risen, and his first words were words of peace and a desire to share that peace with others.

 

Jesus was aware that sin destroys the peace of man. So when he wished them "peace" he also granted them the power to destroy sin. To destroy a powerful enemy we need a powerful weapon. Jesus put this weapon in the hands of the church when communicating to his Apostles the power to forgive sins through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus said to the apostles "Those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven: Those whose sins you retain, they are retained."

 

Jesus knew well that the disobedience of man, the excessive desire of man for wealth, the selfishness of man, the hatred that brews up in the heart of man, causes separation from God. And this separation destroys the peace of man. Isaiah warned the Israelites, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God."(Is 59:2) And this separation from God is unbearable. David, the chosen king of Israel, experienced it when he broke the command of the Lord and he Lamented, "Do not withhold your tender mercies from me, O Lord" (Ps 40:1). God commanded Adam and Eve, "Do not eat the fruit of this tree." But when they disobeyed him they were estranged from God and they wanted to hide. This separation was miserable. And they lost their peace.

 

As sin destroys internal peace Jesus strictly commanded his disciples to love their enemies, and to return good for evil (Mt 5:44). Jesus ratified his teaching with his own example as he hung on the cross. He prayed, "Father forgive them" (Lk 23:24).

 

The estrangement that happened because of sin is bridged by Jesus (Eph 2:14) and Jesus gave the power to his Apostles to forgive sins and re-establish peace. St Paul wrote to the Romans affirming this message that God has called us to peace. God expects us to keep His commandment, and in return He gives us his peace. Proverbs tells us "When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Prov.16:7)

 For peace and joy to prevail in the Christian community, unity should be maintained. That is the message of the First Reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostles taught the early Christians that three things are necessary to foster unity.

 

So they gathered regularly in the Portico of Solomon. The early Christians came together regularly under the leadership of the apostles. And today we should gather in the church, the house of God regularly. And this communion will certainly give us power and strength to remain united, forgetting all the differences.

 

Secondly, they listened to the teaching of the Apostles. We, too, must listen to the word of God and reflect over it. It will give us courage to fight our ego.

 When the early Christians remained united under the leadership of the Apostles they worked wonders. The sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping mats, in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across.

 

Today the risen Lord stands in our midst and greets us too, "Peace be with you." Let's translate this message into action and pass on to our brothers and sisters. When we take initiative in patching up an estranged relationship with our friend, when we forgive a dishonest act of our friend, when we show kindness to someone, when we appease the anger of our friend, when we find time to re-establish a broken relationship, when we persuade someone to give up some evil habits we are giving the message, "Peace be with you". And the peace that we radiate will come back to us manifold.

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday. Let’s show our appreciation for divine mercy this week by asking someone we’ve hurt or wronged for forgiveness.

 

 

 

EASTER SUNDAY: Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-9

When we buy a product we want to make sure that we can count on it and trust it to work the way it is supposed to work. When you go and buy a car you are looking for reliability, a car that you know will carry you and your family safely for years to come. The car company tries to earn your trust by giving you a warranty. The warranty tells you how long and to what extent you can trust them and their product. But the problem with these warranties is they eventually run out. You can trust them but only for a period of time. Our relationship with others is the same way. When looking for a husband or wife we look for someone who is trustworthy, someone we can trust, someone we know is going to be faithful to us over the course of a lifetime. I believe that it is in the heart of every person and is every person’s deepest longing to be able to completely trust someone — someone who won’t lie to us, someone who won’t let us down. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then we cannot trust him with our lives and we certainly cannot trust him with our eternity.  But fortunately for us, Jesus did rise from the dead. Easter does exist, it’s real not fake, it’s true, not a lie! We can trust Him with our lives and live in Him and for Him.

 

 Albert L. Roper was a prominent Virginia attorney, a graduate of the University of Virginia and its law school, who eventually became mayor of the city of Norfolk. He once began a thorough legal investigation into the evidence for the Resurrection of Christ, asking himself the question: “Can any intelligent person accept the Resurrection story?” After examining the evidence at length, he came away asking a different question: “Can any intelligent person deny the weight of this evidence?” — Even those who traveled for three years with Jesus experienced disbelief over His Resurrection, but Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs. We don’t base our Faith on legends, myths, or fairy tales. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is well-documented, and many critics have been silenced (and even converted) when they’ve carefully investigated the evidence.

The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Faith, for it proves that Jesus is God.  Undoubtedly Easter is the most important day in the Church’s year and unquestionably the most important event in human history. That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain.  The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, all bishops, priests, and Christian ministers should go home and get honest jobs, and all the Christian faithful should leave their churches immediately. It comes down finally to this: if Jesus was not raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke. But if he did rise from death, then Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the absolute center of our lives. There is no third option.

All the basic doctrines of Christianity are founded on the truth of the Resurrection.  Easter is the guarantee of our own resurrection. The open tomb is our door to eternal life. Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he die” (Jn 11:25-26).  Christ will raise us up on the last day, but it is also true, in a sense, that we have already risen with Christ.  By virtue of the Holy Spirit, our Christian life is already a participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ (CCC #1002, #1003).

How does Christ’s resurrection bring this change in the world? Well we can draw an analogy between the effects of Christ’s resurrection and what happens when a stone is dropped into a lake. Just as a stone dropped into a lake causes ripples to radiate across the lake, so also Christ’s resurrection causes divine power to radiate across creation into all times and places.

These are some of the reasons why we believe in the Resurrection of Jesus. (1) Jesus himself testified to his Resurrection from the dead (Mk 8:31; Mat 17:22; Lk 9:22). During the ministry Jesus did frequently inform His disciples about His death and resurrection. In fact Jesus made the comparison between His resurrection and the life of Jonah in the belly of the fish (Matt 12:40).

 (2) The tomb was empty on Easter Sunday (Lk 24:3). Although the guards claimed (Mat 28:13) that the disciples of Jesus had stolen the body, every sensible Jew knew that it was impossible for the terrified disciples to steal the body of Jesus from a tomb guarded by a 16-member team of armed Roman soldiers. (3) The initial disbelief of Jesus’ own disciples in his Resurrection, in spite of his repeated apparitions.  This serves as a strong proof of his Resurrection. It explains why the apostles started preaching the resurrected Christ only after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. (4) The Jews and the Romans could not disprove Jesus’ Resurrection by presenting the dead body of Jesus. (5).The apostles and early Christians would not have faced martyrdom if they were not absolutely sure of Jesus’ Resurrection. (6) The Apostle Paul’s conversion from a persecutor of Christians into a zealous apostle, preaching the Good News of Jesus throughout much of the Gentile world, supports the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection (Gal 1:11-17, Acts 9:1; 26:15-18). (7) The sheer existence of a thriving, Empire-conquering early Christian Church, bravely facing three centuries of persecution, (Unlike Islam which grew only on the edge of sword), supports the truth of the Resurrection claim.  So there are undefeatable proofs for the resurrection of Jesus. But he appeared only to those who believed in him, nor did he take up the challenge of the enemies to come down from the cross. Nor did he appear to those who tortured him, imprisoned him or executed him. Jesus didn’t immediately start appearing to the disciples, although eventually, he appeared to over five hundred of them.

 

We spent Lent praying at the foot of the Cross; now, like Mary Magdalene, we can pray at his empty tomb. He will reveal himself, just as he did to Mary, in his time, but we have to believe in him, even when we don’t understand fully.

 

Jesus appeared to his followers and, in each case, they had the opportunity to “touch and believe.” We may not be able to see him in flesh and blood, but we can see his sacramental body in the Eucharist, just like the disciples of Emmaus did. If this Easter makes any difference in my life, how am I going to share that story to others to make a difference in their lives. Let’s think about it a few moments.

 

 Good Friday

 Is 52:13-53:12; Hb 4:14-16, 5:7-9; Jn 18:1-19:42

After parading a scourged Jesus in royal purple with a crown of thorns before the crowd, Pilot asks, as part of the paschal pardon, whom the they wants released to them, Jesus or Barabbas. 

Today when we did the passion reading those of us in this congregation playing the role of the crowd shouted release Barabbas for us and crucify Jesus. We did not want to do that but we read the script as playing a part in the story.  

Barabbas was a notorious prisoner (Mat 27:16), revolutionary (Jn 18:40) and murderer (Mk 15:7).

How could anyone have shockingly barked for Barabbas and hollered for Jesus’ death? Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in his powerful meditations on the Way of the Cross, helps us all to see how in every moral decision we are faced with a similarly momentous choice. 

“How would I have answered [Pilate’s] question, had I been in the courtyard that Good Friday morning,” Sheen asked. “I cannot escape answering by saying that the question belongs only to the past, for it is as actual now as ever. My conscience is the tribunal of Pilate. Daily, hourly, and every minute of the day, Christ comes before that tribunal, as virtue, honesty, and purity; Barabbas comes as vice, dishonesty, and uncleanness. As often as I choose to speak the uncharitable word, do the dishonest action, or consent to the evil thought, I say in so many words, ‘Release unto me Barabbas,’ and to choose Barabbas means to crucify Christ.

Every choice between good and evil, Sheen stressed, is between Christ and Barabbas-in-disguise. If Christ was crucified to take away the sins of the world, every sin, to some degree, is a choice for him to die. 

We obviously don’t like to think about sin this way. We’d prefer to think about our sins, at most, as peccadillos, as a failure in spiritual manners, rather than a betrayal like that to which Judas, Peter and the other apostles succumbed on Holy Thursday, or like that to which the crowds, five days after hailing Jesus with palm branches, yielded on Good Friday. We may be urged on by popular opinion — like those in the courtyard were swept up by the instigation of those, including religious leaders, who wanted Jesus executed in the most sadistic manner possible — but we cannot evade personal responsibility for the connection between our sins and Jesus’ suffering and death. 

On Good Friday, Pilate asks, “Whom do you want me to release to you?” Christ and Barabbas stand before us. To choose Christ means to deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him, metaphorically chopping off our hands and feet and plucking out our eyes if they lead us to sin and embracing his call to virtue and holiness. To choose Christ means to reject sin.

 

For the wrong choices we already made against Jesus he prays on the Cross: Father forgive them for they do not know what they do. Let this good Friday help us to embrace Jesus’ forgiveness and gain the courage to reject Barabbas and choose Christ.