In
our busy modern world, most of us have so many things to do pulling us in so
many different directions; it seems like we finish one thing and we're already
doing the next thing on our to do list. During
the 40 days of Lent in preparation for Easter, we've endured a long period of
fasting, prayer, and penance. By
the time we've reached Easter weekend, we've felt the joy of the risen Lord,
and then we want to get on with the rest of our liturgical year. But, Easter does not just end with Easter morning - Easter is a season that lasts all the way to Pentecost, which falls on May 24th this year. During the Easter season, our Sunday readings tell us about the post-resurrection
appearances of Jesus. These readings
help us to reflect upon what the risen Christ really means to us in our lives
of faith.
Why would we need any further explanation? Christ has risen: what’s so complicated about that? Peter
tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that the God of our ancestors has glorified
his servant Jesus. Jesus is
glorified! Jesus is risen! What
did this really mean to the followers of Jesus right after his
resurrection? What does it really mean
to us today? That's
what these post-resurrection appearances in the readings of the Easter season
help us figure out.
There
are a lot of emotions going on in today's Gospel, feelings that some of us also
might have in our own lives. The
disciples were terrified and startled, thinking they’d seen a ghost. They're troubled and skeptical, holding onto a lot of questions in their
hearts. After
seeing Jesus’ hands and feet, after starting to realize who he truly is, they are
incredulous for joy and are amazed. The
disciples are coming to terms with what the resurrected and transformed Jesus
is all about; this is a radical new experience for them. Perhaps.
we, too, still wonder what relevance the resurrection has for us, how the risen
Christ can transform the reality of our lives.
Luke's
Gospel tells us that the risen Jesus personally opened the minds of the
disciples to the fuller meaning of the words he spoke during his lifetime. He
offered a deeper understanding of the prophets, the psalms, and the law in the
Hebrew Scriptures that he had fulfilled. The experience
of the risen Christ for these original disciples and for those of us who follow
Jesus today is to open our minds and hearts to this.
But
how do we experience the risen Christ as a reality? Incredulous
joy and amazement: that is what the disciples felt in the midst of the reality
of the risen Christ. Pope
Francis had issued an encyclical The Joy of the Gospel that many of us have
read and that Father Burke Masters addressed at our parish mission last year. I
recently came across a pastoral letter that Bishop Terry Steib of Memphis had
issued back in 2009 that I had used as a study text with the prisoners I
visited at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl; it is
entitled: Living our Catholicism: That Our Joy May Be Complete.
In
experiencing the risen Christ in our lives, Bishop Steib asserts that we
shouldn't approach our faith primarily as a code to live by or a philosophy of
life, but rather as a faith that rests on a real, historical person: Jesus of
Nazareth, who literally embodies God for us. We can
take for granted the fact that God entered human history and became flesh. With
joy, we proclaim that the entire Christ event is still with us today. The
risen Christ lives today in our Church's liturgy and symbols, in the sacraments
and the Word of God, and in our interactions with one another as brothers and
sisters in Christ. Through
these many ways, the risen Jesus continues to be enfleshed by us, for us and
among us in the here and now. Bishop
Steib emphasizes that our joy in the risen Lord must flow out of our love of
God and love of neighbor, which are inseparable from one another. Only if
we serve our neighbor, can our eyes be truly opened to the reality of the risen
Christ in our world, to the reality of how much God loves us. Love
grows through love, it's as simple as that.
It is
not enough for us to go to mass regularly or to fulfill what we see as the
basic requirements demanded of us as Catholics. Being
Catholic, living with the reality of the risen Christ, means that we live out
our faith doing what Jesus asks us to do. It
means that we're constantly transformed by intentionally seeking to live in
God's love, by sharing that love in a variety of life-changing ways.
We
here at St James take a lot of joy in being very involved in the community and
in our different ministries. In
fact, we are handing out our Time and Talent survey this week to see where you
would like to get further involved in our different ministries. I
just looked at the last two weeks and have seen the many ministries we have
been involved in: our seniors outreach ministry at the Traceway community, with
the Shepherd Center and with our own Happy Hearts group; two activities at the
Dismas House, a residence that helps federal prisoners transition back to
society; and a lot of different visits to the sick and shut-ins. The youth have been involved in different
activities. And members of our Hispanic community
as at the Hispanic Diocesan retreat this weekend as well. It is
wonderful being in such an active parish where there are different activities
going on all the time and where we take so much joy in living out the Gospel of
Jesus and proclaiming the Kingdom of God. By
prayerfully considering a new ministry or using our talents and gifts to grow
on our own journey and to share those things with our community – that is a
great way of living out the joy of the resurrection. We invite you to do that by looking over our
Time and Talent survey.
Our
Easter season helps us discover what the risen Christ is all about, it helps us experience the reality of the
resurrection in our lives, and it helps us live out our Catholic faith in the
joy of the risen Christ. May we heed
this call.
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