Faith-Resurrection-Disciples going to Emmaus

HOMILY WEDNESDAY of EASTER WEEK

The Resurrection: Believe, Experience and Share

(Acts 3:1-10; Ps 105; Lk 24:13-35)

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After the celebration of a Triduum and participating in an addictions awareness workshop, a participant shared she had become aware for the first time that Jesus was truly alive and present in her life. He was now someone she felt she truly knew, and not just a remote figure in Church somewhere she knew about.

In a similar manner, the readings on this Easter Wednesday invite us to deepen our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ; to experience it more fully in our lives, and to go out and share that Good News.

Regarding belief in the resurrection, Luke is careful to note it is the first day of the week. That comment in the gospels always means a new creation, a dawning of a new era for humanity because of the resurrection of Jesus. He notes it has been three days since all these things happened – a reference to the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, by which he redeemed the world. The first reading also notes Peter and John go to the Temple at three o’clock – the precise time Jesus died upon the cross. All these details underline the reality of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus as a historical reality.

We then focus on how we can experience the resurrection more fully in our lives. Every appearance of Jesus to his disciples was an experience of forgiveness. They had betrayed him, denied him and abandoned him, yet when he appeared to them, there was only peace and joy – in short, forgiveness and unconditional love.

But there is more – healing. Peter and John heal a lame man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He stands up and walks, praising God. The resurrection of Jesus means we can now not only receive forgiveness, but also experience healing of our defects of character, painful emotions and negative attitudes that make us sin in the first place. Healing and resurrection are meant to go hand in hand.

We know the apostles were also transformed from a fearful band of disciples hiding behind closed doors, to a fearless body of believers who were ready to tell the whole world about the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, and what that meant for all of humanity. Our transformation into holiness and Christ-likeness, and the courage to share our experience with others, also goes hand in hand with the resurrection.

Jesus himself in the gospel account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is a perfect example of sharing our faith in the resurrection. He first joins them, walks with them, meets them where they are at, gets to know them, and listens to them. Then he explains all the prophecies about him in the scriptures to them, beginning with Moses, connecting scripture with their lives. Then they pray and break bread together. In short, Jesus wove together the themes of the sacred banquet and the sacrifice that made the banquet possible, summing up the story of Israel that he had narrated on the road. And at that moment, when the Scriptures and the meal and the sacrifice came together as a coherent whole, they recognized him; he became really present to them. In that moment they are transformed, turn around and return to the Jerusalem from which they were escaping.

This is what we can do – get to know other people, enter into their lives, develop friendships with them, learn about their issues and problems, and slowly start to connect them with the scriptures that respond to those issues and problems, as Jesus did.  We can then invite them to become more involved in the worshipping faith community, and support them as they do so. In this way, we become the missionary disciples Pope Francis wants us to be.

One a flight to India some years ago, I sat next to a Hindu computer programmer. Our conversation became essentially an inter-religious dialogue. I asked him what kind of relationship he had with his gods. His answer was they go to the temple, offer money to the priests for sacrifice, then more or less hope the gods are satisfied and go about their business as usual. There did not seem to be any close relationship. I then shared with him my intimate prayerful relationship with out Trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and how in contemplative prayer I feel I am in their presence and they are in my presence. I am not sure what impact our conversation might have had on his life, but I felt filled with joy about our sharing – perhaps the same joy the disciples felt in sharing the good news of the resurrection.

The Eucharist is our own Emmaus experience with the Risen Lord. He listens to us in the Penitential Rite, and then explains the scriptures to us in the liturgy of the Word and the homily. We also recognize him in the breaking of the bread, and hopefully, our hearts are also burning within us as we are sent out, forgiven, healed and transformed into the Body of Christ, to spread the Good News of this new creation through the resurrection of Christ.

So, as we ponder the Word of God today, let us deepen our faith in the resurrection; open ourselves up to experiencing its effects more fully, and become the missionary disciples we are called to be.