Fear is among the most debilitating emotions we may have. When an animal senses a threat, they simply run away, keep their distance or if directly confronted will fight back in defense. They simply respond instinctively unmoved by any moral or rational understanding. However, we humans have a deeper sense of danger and ways to sensibly protect ourselves from threat, especially in the face of fear.
In the Gospel passage this Sunday Luke continues the story of the road to Emmaus. The two amazed disciples return hastily to Jerusalem to share their encounter. They wondered: "Were not our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us." The encounter with the risen Christ moved their faith from knowledge to a deep experience of the heart. As he broke bread with them, they recognized him and then he vanished from their sight. As one parishioner said to me, "he went into the bread." Yes, how true for there we "see" him.
As the risen Lord now appears among the Apostles once
again, we hear: “. . . they were startled
and terrified . . .” Superstition aside, it’s clear that these men
experienced what I would expect would be a common response to such a strange and
initially frightening presence. Jesus’
question to them, “Why are you troubled?,” seems somewhat dismissive of the
human experience. Why would we not be
troubled and afraid at such a vision that appears out of nowhere? But our Lord’s implication goes beyond just
this moment to the larger question of doubt.
Jesus’ message to them of peace and his showing of the
marks of his passion, along with the very human act of eating, verified the
fact that this apparition was far more than a hallucination. Jesus had indeed risen in his now transformed
body never to die again yet more than what he was, he now becomes our Lord and
Savior as body and soul are joined in a new reality.
Certainly once he had assured them that this person is
the same Jesus they had walked, conversed, broken bread with and who had died
brutally on the cross, now they see him as the glorified Savior of
humanity. Their initial fear and
confusion was transformed into uncontrollable joy. Not only a physical presence
but now the Jesus of faith calls them to a life transformed and prepared for
mission.
The point is this: we all need to move our faith from the
head to the heart. In Jesus’ resurrection experiences we hear him inviting his
disciples to go beyond what they see and now know: “Touch me and see . . .” make
a personal connection with me. He greets
them not with resentment or scolding for their abandonment at the time of his
suffering but rather he offers them a blessing:
“Peace be with you” (Shalom). That blessing is meant to draw them in to
his life; to touch their hearts with a lived experience of the faith and to
witness its power of transformation. Now, in light of their encounter, to begin seeing all things through the lens of faith, which has the power to clarify and make sense of what may seem broken and lost in life, such as the purpose of suffering and self-sacrifice.
Our first reading from Luke’s great story of the early
Church, Acts of the Apostles, sees Peter courageously preaching in the Temple
area after the healing of a crippled man. He now has a captive audience and he
informs them that it was by the power of the God which they knew well, the “God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of your fathers,” sent Jesus who was
killed but is now raised. He explains to
them that it was by this suffering and rising that God has fulfilled all he
promised to them. So, now is the time to
move that faith from your head to your heart: “Repent, and be converted, that
your sins may be wiped away.” It is the essential Christian message, the
"Kerygma," that Peter boldly preaches here and that we all live by.
We hear these words but must commit them to our heart, our souls. Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ
raised from the dead.
This is the essential Christian message we all preach and
live by: That Christ died and rose and remains eternally alive as God’s Son
thereby setting a new course of salvation for all humanity which invites all to
repentance and the forgiveness of sins for “all the nations.” These chosen men
have seen it, heard it, and pray are convicted of it, as we hear in the first reading
from Acts. So we never see the resurrection as a past event but a living truth
that continues to be present in the Church and the hearts of all believers.
Today, he continues to heal, forgive, feed us for this
journey, unite us, and is present to us alive again. Our sacramental life, our
prayer, our worship, our fellowship, and caring for one another all make his
presence more than just words but an encounter. It all creates a communion
between us and provides a new relationship that is beyond a simple gathering as
Christ abides with us.
So, does that excite you? How deep has that message touched your
life? The danger of any of us, including
myself as priest who deals everyday with such a message in varied ways, is to
simply hear the words but react to them with about the same level of enthusiasm
as we do a traffic light changing from red to green.
Today’s disinterest, apathy, and open rejection of the
Gospel message is deeply concerning.
Many live as if there is no God or if there is rarely give thought to
his existence. Our culture has moved God
outside his central place and taken on politics, technology or science as the
new secular religion. In the end, every search for meaning, purpose, and deeper
connection is a journey towards God. He
is not content with remaining distant but wants to pitch his tent among us.
This, I feel, is why Jesus was so persistent in proving he was alive again,
changed in some mysterious way, yet the same as they knew him. That new way is where we must walk and it
will happen if we move faith from our head to our heart.
May the risen Lord be always our hope and a reason why
our hearts now find him.
For, with the old order destroyed,
a universe cast down is renewed,
and integrity of life is restored to us in Christ.
(Preface IV for Easter)
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