Homily: 3rd Easter – Cycle B
How
many of you watched the eclipse of the sun last Monday? (Keep your hands up, I’m counting… just
kidding!) I watched the eclipse and if
you’re anything like me you were very much amazed at the spectacle. As I commented to one person afterwards, “I
didn’t have this on my ‘bucket list’ of things to do before I die, but I’m
writing it on there today and then checking it off!”
One
of the things that I couldn’t get out of my mind during the entire process was
just how impossible it all was. I mean,
here we are, standing on this huge rock, hurtling through space, circling a big
ball of fire, millions of miles away.
And there’s this other, smaller rock, that’s circling around the rock we’re
on, which, on a regular basis, lines up perfectly with the big ball of fire and
is the right size and the right distance between us and that ball of fire to
block the ball of fire out completely for a short time, making a dazzling
display for us. Friends, this did not
just “happen”. Too many variables had to
line up over hundreds and thousands of years for this to have happened by “chance”. I can only imagine that this is one of those
great “easter eggs” that God has thrown into the universe to delight us. Hopefully, you had similar thoughts and
experiences.
Okay,
let me ask you this, how many of you told one or more persons about your experience
of viewing the eclipse? Great! A good many of you. I did, too!
When you did, you engaged in the work of being a witness. A witness is someone who has an experience of
an event who then will give, or be called upon to give, a testimony of what
he/she has experienced to others. We
know this most commonly, of course, from courts of law. In a criminal investigation, “witnesses”—those
who had some experience of the event in question—are called upon to give
testimony about what they have experienced in an attempt to establish the facts
of the event and, thus, judge whether a crime has been committed. In the same way, our experiences of the
eclipse made us witnesses. Our testimony
of our experience before others is evidence that we are.
In
today’s Gospel reading, we are once again back in the upper room the night of
the day of Our Lord’s resurrection. It
begins with the two disciples from Emmaus giving testimony to what they
witnessed when the Risen Lord walked with them on the way and then revealed
himself fully when he broke bread with them at table. It continues with Jesus himself appearing to
them. After going through many gyrations
to demonstrate to them that it was he himself who was alive, and not a ghost,
Jesus again explains how the Scriptures had foretold everything that had
happened to him. After he does this, he
says to them, “You are witnesses of these things”. The disciples from Emmaus had already proven
themselves to be witnesses. With Jesus’
words, the apostles and others who were present learned that they, too, were
witnesses. Witnesses are those who have
an experience of an event and who then testify to what they have experienced.
In
the first reading, Peter is giving testimony to what he has experienced to a
group of Jews who are questioning him after he and John brought healing to the
lame man. He recounts how Jesus was
treated by the Jews—that he was put to death at their hands—but then recounts
his experience of Jesus, risen from the dead.
He tells them plainly: “of this we are witnesses”. Peter and the other apostles have taken Jesus’
words seriously and have made themselves witnesses by giving testimony about
what they have experienced—a most impossible thing… the rising of a man from
the dead!—leading others, thus, to believe, even though those others may not
have seen it for themselves.
Friends,
we too are witnesses of the risen Christ.
When we look back at these encounters with the risen Lord, we see that they
took place around a table: the disciples from Emmaus at the table in their home
and with the apostles and others in the upper room, where the Last Supper was
celebrated. We gather each Sunday (and
more often for some of you) around this table—an altar of sacrifice, yes, but
also a table of encounter and communion—and the risen Lord makes himself
present to us. And how impossible is
this, right? That the Master of the
Universe, who designed it to include such useless, yet awe-inspiring events as
a total eclipse, in such a way that we can experience it, would nonetheless
make himself present to us in bodily
form, under the appearance of simple bread and wine. It’s not only impossible, it’s unfathomable
for us. None of us would have ever come up
with this idea on our own: it’s too strange to our sensibilities. It could only be imagined by him who sees so
far beyond our thinking. Yet, here it
is, and here we are once again. Therefore,
Jesus’ words to the apostles and the others in the upper room that first Easter
night are the same that he says to us here today: “You are witnesses of these
things”. We are witnesses of these
things.
As
you are all staying aware of, I’m sure, we are in the midst of a National
Eucharistic Revival here in the United States.
A revival in which we are striving to reinvigorate this belief among the
faithful: that the Son of God took on human nature and lived among us; that he
suffered death unjustly in order to redeem us from our sins; that he rose from
the dead by his own divine power; and that he is present to us in the form of
bread and wine in each Mass so that we might be witnesses of his
resurrection. Friends, people throughout
the world are suffering and looking to be rescued from it. What I just described to you is God’s rescue
project. As recipients of his rescue, we
are called to be witnesses: to give testimony to others about what we have
experienced. In this year of revival,
may our testimony bring new life to our celebration of these awe-inspiring
mysteries!
Perhaps
one last note: If you are struggling to believe in the impossibility of what
happens here in the Mass, consider thinking about it this way. Just as we could not look directly at the
sun, even as the moon was eclipsing it, so too we could not look directly at
Jesus in his glorified body. Thus, he
appears to us in this way—in the form of simple bread and wine—obscuring the
full brightness of his glory, yet allowing us to look directly at a portion of
his splendor so that we might not shy away from looking at him, but rather
approach with confidence to his warm embrace.
Let us approach him now, eyes wide open, ready to receive him and the
grace to be his witnesses in the world.
Given at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish: Carmel, IN – April 14th,
2024
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