3rd Sunday of Easter: From head to heart

 

Jesus appears to his disciples after the resurrection

Artist: Imre Morocz

"Touch me and see"

John 24: 35-48

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041424.cfm

May your people exult for ever, O God, 

in renewed youthfulness of spirit, 

so that, rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption,

we may look forward in confident hope

to the rejoicing of the day of resurrection.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 

God, forever and ever. 

(Collect of Mass)

In our second reading this Sunday of Easter, we hear St John tell us: “The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments . . . whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected n him.” John is essentially advising the early Christians, who did not know Jesus or encounter him after the resurrection, how to be an Easter people; how we can make known the risen Lord in our lives and to witness to this in the world: to keep his commandments. To be a missionary disciple is to witness to the resurrection of Jesus and the profound truth that changes our lives. We are in the same environment as the early Christians and as countless millions before us.  As Jesus said to Thomas, “blessed are those who have not seen and still believe.” 

Faith is indeed a gift given from God as we see each year in our Easter Vigil when we welcome new Catholic Christians into the Church.  It is a time of singular joy for those who have journeyed for months learning, praying and discerning this new way from the Lord.  As they are baptized, confirmed, welcomed into the faith community and feed on Christ in the Eucharist, the joy is contagious, the Spirit very much alive and present in their hearts.  Our very transformation through grace, although we have not seen him, testifies to the truth that all that Jesus said and did was true.

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.” In this way they respond on an interior level of conversion to all that God has done in sending his Son to us. It is the essential Christian message, the "Kerygma," that Peter boldly preaches here and that we all live by.  Salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ raised from the dead.

This Sunday, Luke continues the story of the road to Emmaus in the Gospel.  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.

So, they return to share this with the brothers in hiding and as they are speaking, Jesus suddenly appears before them. He well knew these men did not fully comprehend who he was and the ultimate meaning of his mission.  Yet, they needed proof; not just rumors or speculation but conversion of heart and a new direction for their lives – which is the same for all of us who place our faith in this Christ when we see our faith as not just a set of doctrines and theological opinions but as an invitation to live differently and walk a new road.

The point is this: we all need to move our faith from 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. So, he comes alive again but invites them to more than just knowledge. He speaks to them, he sits with them, eats with them.  So, he does the same in the Holy Eucharist where he becomes that very food as we gather.

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, and now they spread this Good News everywhere.

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.  In the end, every search for meaning, purpose, and deeper connection is a journey towards God. 

The disciples went from fear, trembling, confusion, shame, ignorance, to wonder, awe, courage, and contagious conviction as God’s Spirit planted in their hearts.  So, we too in this Easter season are invited to ask the same.  Let us move from grace to conversion.

May the risen Lord be always our hope and a reason why our hearts now find him.