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?


Comments

Popular Posts