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From the Pastor's Desk: April 18, 2021
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The Third Sunday of Easter highlights the power of the Resurrection. St. Luke tells us that the disciples were “incredulous for joy and amazed” of seeing Jesus, risen from the dead, walk through the closed doors of the Upper Room to greet them with the most powerful greeting , “Peace be with you.” That encounter brings forth the truth of our faith in the Risen Lord…“That everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
This Upper Room experience is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching of His disciples- sending them out to preach in His name, to cure the sick, to raise the dead, the example of service, washing their feet in the Upper Room three days earlier and instructing them to go and do the same. He had already ordained them priests on the same night and given them the ability to bring down His Body and Blood to the altars. He had already given them the ability to forgive and retain sins on Easter Sunday evening, as we pondered last Sunday. He had already shown them the example of His whole life as a model to follow, living for God and dying out of love for God and for others. In today’s Gospel, we see how He finishes His preparations so that they might become His witnesses to all nations.
“You are witnesses of these things” (Lk. 24:48). The Apostles, who saw with their own eyes the Risen Christ, could not keep silent about their extraordinary experience. He had revealed himself to them so that the truth of His Resurrection could reach everyone through their witness. And the Church has the duty to prolong this mission, every baptized person is called to give witness, with their words and with their lives, that Jesus is risen, that He is alive and present among us. We all are called to give witness that Jesus is alive! “Who is the witness?” What do we need to do to become the witnesses Jesus wants and needs? The witness is one who has seen, who remembers, and who recounts. To see, to remember, and to tell are the three verbs that describe the identity and mission of the witness.
“The witness is one who has seen with objective eyes, he has seen a reality, but not with indifferent eyes; he has seen and involves himself in the event. In other words, the witness is not a dispassionate, “objective,” observer but someone who has entered into the event with passion. That is why he remembers, not only because he knows how to precisely reconstruct the events, but also because those facts have spoken and he has grasped their profound meaning.” And because he recognizes that meaning, while intensely personal, is not meant merely for him, he seeks to help others have a similar experience. Then the witness recounts, not in a cold and detached way, but as one who has questioned himself, and from that the day has changed his life. The witness is someone who has had his life changed. The content of a Christian witness is not a theory, an ideology or a complex system of precepts and prohibitions, or even a moralism. But rather a message of salvation, a concrete event, indeed a Person: it is Christ Risen, living and sole Savior of all.” (Pope Francis, Regina Caeli 2015)
Today we reflect upon our faith in Jesus who is “not a ghost” but rather real and alive in His glorified body. Christ is very much like us, in everything except sin, including wounds and scars and struggles. For some of us, it is a difficult concept of truth to accept – within our human experience that reality is easier said than to make a part of our daily life. Yet, by the gift of His Death and Resurrection our minds are open “to understand the Scriptures” and we need to respond with a joy that compels us to be “witnesses of these things.” This Gospel challenges us to be indeed the witnesses of the Risen Lord, to move the Resurrection beyond a theological concept to a life to be experienced by us here and now.
In our commitment to do something beautiful for God with our lives this Easter season, we are reminded, “The poor give us much more than we give them. They are such strong people, living day to day with no food. We do not have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.”
Have a blessed week!
With prayers,
Fr. Andy
