Saturday, April 18, 2015

April 19 - Homily for Today

Today is the third Sunday bearing the name of Easter! We continue to bask in the glory of the risen Lord! In the gospel passage today Jesus, with the new powers of his risen body, just appears in the midst of some of his disciples and he says to them: Peace be with you! They are a bit startled and think they are seeing a ghost: but he says to them: why are you troubled, why do you have such questions in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, it’s me – touch me and see, a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.

They are now incredulous for sheer joy – not knowing what to do next: and so Jesus playfully says to them: hey, you got anything to eat? They say: Fish! And they all sat down to a nice fish breakfast – no doubt the disciples eyeing Jesus very incredulously and admiringly at every bite!

While they were eating, Jesus took the opportunity to relate to them everything in the scriptures: the Law of Moses and the writings of the Prophets that referred to himself. And then he opened their mind to the understanding of the scriptures: and they understood that  he, Jesus – the long awaited Messiah - would indeed suffer, and that he would rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name, to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem! And their hearts were burning within them: for two reasons: they knew he was telling them the truth; and they knew that they just could not wait to go out and tell as many people as they could about him!

This indeed is the gospel proclamation that we read in the Acts of the Apostles of the first reading today: where Peter: who knew this truth about Jesus, stands up and proclaims very boldly to his own Jewish brothers and sisters: that: “He is the One” Jesus is the one they have been waiting for all these centuries – and when he finally comes: what do we do? we kill him? but his Father raises him up and now he is alive and he is in us, by the coming of the Spirit - and he can be in you too – to make all the difference in your lives! REPENT AND BELIEVE and BE BAPTIZED EVERY ONE OF YOU! And three thousand were baptized that very day!

We, who share in the exact same baptism, ought to be able to listen to all these words from the readings and homily and shout out – if we have been given the gift of understanding the scriptures – YES, THIS IS THE TRUTH! Jesus is Lord! Jesus is King! Jesus is Savior of the world! and not only that but he is MY Lord, and MY King and Savior of ME!; and then, we ought to feel compelled to go forth from this and every Mass and profess what we have celebrated, by living a true and authentic Christian life; and by telling the Jesus-story anew each and every day to all we meet!

If, however, there are some who cannot make this bold affirmation because God has not yet graced them with deep understanding of the Scriptures: we can pray that he does, and not blame or argue with them because he hasn’t done it yet! We can simply be patient and pray for God to turn the light on for them!


Lord Jesus, never stop opening the Scriptures to your people and making our hearts burn while you speak to us – all of us! 

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