Homily for the 3rd Sunday in Easter - April 18, 21
Readings for today can be found here.
I bet we
can all relate to the disciples in today’s Gospel. Their world had been turned upside down. Not just once, but twice in the span of a few
days. First, the person they believed to
be the Messiah was arrested and killed.
All their expectations of the future were shattered. Their first instinct was to run and
hide. Then, three days later, some of
their number report they’ve seen Jesus, alive and raised from the dead. In the passages before today’s readings, two
disciples saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus.
There were already reports from women in their number that Jesus was
alive. The disciples must have been
confused, full of questions, concerns, not really knowing what to think.
Then Jesus
appears in their midst. And the first
thing He does is offers them peace.
However, instead of receiving this peace, the disciples are terrified
thinking it’s a ghost. Jesus asks them
why they’re troubled and proceeds to show them that it is really Him standing
with, in the flesh. How often in our
lives have we felt like the disciples? Like
our world has been turned upside down? Or
that our plans in life didn’t work out and we have no idea what to do next? I’m sure we can understand being troubled
just like the disciples in that room.
But Jesus
offered the disciples two things that He offers to us as well. The first thing is peace. Jesus wants us to be at peace in the way only
God can provide. That peace comes from
trusting that God is there with us in the midst of our troubles. Jesus never guaranteed his disciples that
their lives would be trouble free. The
accounts in the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of Paul show plainly that
witnessing to Jesus brought a lot of trouble.
But they were at peace because they knew God was with them. They learned to trust that God would take
care of them and provide what they needed.
The
troubles in our lives can be an opportunity for us also to trust more deeply in
God. There was a time in my professional
career that I was having real difficulty at work. I felt I was in the wrong role and that I
couldn’t meet the expectations of my manager.
I was under a great deal of stress and it was very difficult to be
motivated. However, I prayed to God to reveal
His plan for me through this source of trouble.
Eventually my position was eliminated and I was laid off. Many would consider this an even greater
source of trouble! But I continued to
trust and within a few weeks found a new job doing work I greatly enjoyed and
succeeded in. The experience deepened my
faith, peace, and trust in God.
The second
thing Jesus offered the disciples to ease their troubles was His presence. Jesus showed the disciples that He was bodily
with them. Jesus is bodily with us as
well every time we attend Mass in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ, in the form of bread and wine. Whenever we’re troubled, we can partake of
the Eucharist and have Jesus with us in the most intimate way possible. Jesus is literally within us and a part of
us. We can also speak to Jesus directly
in prayer in adoration of the Eucharist.
Spending quiet time with Jesus in adoration is an excellent way to seek
and request the grace of God’s peace.
Jesus
wishes us not to be troubled. Jesus
offers us His peace and His presence in order to trust more deeply that God
will care for us, regardless of the difficulties we face. We can be with Jesus whenever we wish, either
by receiving the Eucharist at Mass, or by spending time in adoration before the
Tabernacle. Since Jesus is with us, why
are we troubled? Why do we have
questions in our hearts?
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