APRIL 15th, 2018: THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
I John 2:1-5a
Luke 24:35-48 One of the most significant lines in today’s three readings comes at the end of our gospel pericope. Appearing to his disciples on Easter Sunday night, Luke’s Jesus reminds them, “You are witnesses of these things.” This verse assures us Jesus’ true followers aren’t identified by the catechism answers they can rattle off, the number of indulgences they’ve acquired, or the religious symbols they wear. They’re simply people to be listened to, witnesses to Jesus’ dying and rising; not so much because they actually were in Jerusalem during Passover week in 30 CE, but because they’ve had the same dying/rising experience in their own lives. Since these life-changing things happened to them, they must also have happened to him. That’s what makes them other Christs; they share the same experiences. Peter can certainly witness to this unique happening. Just a few weeks before, he emphatically told one of the high priest’s maids, “Woman, I do not know him!” when she asked about his relationship with some newly arrested Galilean carpenter. Now he not only cures a crippled beggar in Jesus’ name, he openly chides those who took part in putting him to death. Yet he doesn’t do so just to give them a guilt trip, he wants them “to convert, that your sins may be wiped away.” He hopes they’ll also be witnesses of Jesus’ dying and rising in their own lives. Of course, the main way our sacred authors believe we die and rise with Jesus is by undergoing a “metanoia:” a repentance. That’s how he began his public ministry; proclaiming the presence of God in the lives of those who undergo a total change in their value systems. The author of I John sees this repentance as revolving around keeping God’s commandments as Jesus taught them; focusing on the needs of others around us. Those who experience the risen Jesus in their daily lives because of their value-change must be witnesses of that experience. It’s not something they’re to keep to themselves. Others must also be invited to share in this new life. It’s important in today’s gospel pericope that the two Emmaus disciples mention that the risen Jesus “was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” Though Luke’s Jesus takes great pains on Easter Sunday night to prove he’s “not a ghost,” how do we know he/she’s real today? The chief way is in the breaking of the bread. Though most of our early Eucharistic catechesis zeroed in on Jesus’ presence in the bread, we know from Paul’s letters – especially I Corinthians – that second-generation Christians stressed his/her presence in one another. It was little skin off their teeth to profess faith in Jesus’ presence in the bread (and wine); it was “controversial” to acknowledge that same presence in those standing or sitting around them. If they couldn’t experience the risen Jesus in them, then he most probably was just a ghost. Constant reform of the Eucharist is essential to our Christian faith. Since the Reformation we already have a huge percentage of Protestant communities who rarely participate in the breaking of bread. One need only read the minutes of the Council of Trent to discover a few of the 16th century Eucharistic abuses. No wonder reformers swore off such magical practices. As the late Bishop Frank Murphy taught our North American College class of 1965, “It’s your job to form the Eucharistic community into the Body of Christ.” Nothing should stop us presiders or the participants from carrying out that ministry. If we worry only about saying the right words and performing the right gestures we’ll never have a true breaking of the bread, and never help anyone become a true witness, even ourself.
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