We Are Meant To Live!

Homily – April 12, 2015 (Second Sunday of Easter - B)
Acts 4: 32-35; Psalm 118: 2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20: 19-31

"Jesus Christ is the face of the Father’s mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith. Mercy has become living and visible in Jesus of Nazareth, reaching its culmination in him. The Father, “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), after having revealed his name to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex 34:6), has never ceased to show, in various ways throughout history, his divine nature. In the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), when everything had been arranged according to his plan of salvation, he sent his only Son into the world, born of the Virgin Mary, to reveal his love for us in a definitive way. Whoever sees Jesus sees the Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Jesus of Nazareth, by his words, his actions, and his entire person[1] reveals the mercy of God.” (Pope Francis’ Misericordiae Vultus - Jubilee of Mercy - April 11, 2015)

“20-Some” years ago, I sat in on a high school religion class just after their Easter break, and the teacher welcomed his class back with this mini-lecture. He said something like… “I offer you three elements of the Easter Miracle: The Chicago Cubs, the “Bannister Mile”, and my wife skipping to the end of a movie or a book!” His mini-lecture went on, and honestly, it still applies and could be offered today.

First, the Chicago Cubs. Opening Day was this past week, and the Chicago Cubs came out of Spring Training and into the new season with a new coach, some great new players, and a promising chance to make a run for this year’s World Series. Now the realist and the skeptic would say that the Cubs always make those kind of changes in the off season, and they never win it all, but Cubs fans are Cubs fans, and they will always hope that this truly is the year! For us, baseball fan or not, Easter is about a promise, a call to change, and life everlasting. The teacher told his class that day, “Easter is about hope!”

Next, “The Bannister Mile!” For all of recorded history, at least the part that involved stopwatches, no one had ever run the mile faster than 4:00 minutes. According to legend, experts said for years that the human body was simply not capable of running a 4-minute mile. It wasn’t just dangerous; it was impossible. The previous record of 4:01 stood for nine years. But on May 6, 1954, English runner, Roger Bannister did the impossible. He ran the mile in 3:59.4. After all that time, and all that speculation that it could never be done, the four minute mile was broken! 46 days later, Australian John Landy ran the mile almost two seconds faster, and over the next five years 21 others broke the four minute barrier! The teacher told his class that day that, “With Easter, seeing is believing.”

Finally, we need to know the end of the story! The teacher used the example of watching movie thrillers with his wife, and her need to want to fast forward to the end of thrillers. As he shared, “she just couldn’t stand not knowing if the hero was gonna die, or if things were gonna work out or not.” He said that he literally had to leave the room while she forwarded the movie to the end. Then he would be invited back in, and they would enjoy the film, and she, knowing how it would end could concentrate on the real meaning and nuances of the story, and truly enjoy, and understand it better! The teacher said to his class that day, “Because of Easter, we too can fast forward and know there is Resurrection!”

So today the Church invites you to be an Easter People… Hoping, Seeing, Believing and Celebrating God’s risen presence among us, and the power of his divine love and mercy! I think Fr. would agree that a very large percentage of you, youth and adults alike, came to the Sacrament of Reconciliation this past Lent, maybe even more than ever. And I think that we are very blessed, as no parish in this Diocese offered more opportunities for Confession than did St. John’s, and for that matter, no two priests worked harder than our own Pastor and his Associate to make sure we had the opportunity to experience the love and mercy of the Sacrament. Now I know you’re thinking, “Why is he talking about Confession? That’s a Lent thing! It’s Easter, and it is the season of joy, and spring and chocolate bunnies, and stuff!” While I would agree with two of those three points, I would also contend that confession is only one part of the Sacrament instituted by Christ on this “Divine Mercy Sunday.” Reconciliation is certainly about the courage to show up, and many of you did. But it is also about the opportunity to change, grow, and RECONCILE oneself to the mercy of God and the hope He has in you!

In today’s Gospel, we hear our resurrected Lord say three times, “Peace be with you!”

That greeting of peace is significant, as peace always following reconciliation. It's an invitation to start anew, with hope for a new life, and new possibilities. Listen again to the beginning of today’s Gospel: “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” God's divine mercy comes to free us, opening these locked doors of our hearts. Christ enters our midst today to bring us hope, and the courage to face any fears, and overcome any obstacles that stand in our way of living the life of the Gospel.

Today’s Gospel continues: “The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” This second greeting of peace calls us to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We are called to participate in God’s mercy so we can receive the Holy Spirit, seeing and believing that we were meant to live for so much more, breaking through the imagined ceilings or impossibilities, so we can go forth to be all we are called to be.

The Gospel continues as, “Jesus came [again], although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” This third greeting of peace comes to Thomas, but not just because of his doubts, although his doubt does resonate with us, because we know we’d react in a similar way! Even the biggest Cub Fan would say, “World Series? I’ll believe it when I see it! One could argue that after all that time, the Australian runner John Landy needed to see what he saw, before breaking Bannister's record! So it would be too easy for us just to simply see Christ’s resurrection, and his appearance to the Apostles, as some evidence of an historical moment that we all point to, to justify our own belief system, and only say that we won! It’s more than that, as this third greeting of peace to Thomas calls us to experience God’s Divine Mercy in the hands and feet of Christ, and to accept the challenge to see others as they are seen through the eyes of God.

For the Apostles, “seeing” means more than the physical sight of the risen Lord. Seeing means that your relationship with God becomes so real, bringing you so close, that you actually begin to feel the Lord, experience the sacrifice, and even begin to see though his eyes, serve through his hands, and walk in his feet. This is why Thomas utters probably the most faith-filled response in Scripture, “My Lord, and my God!” He was so close, he could feel it! Instead of just saying, "Wow, it's a miracle... He really is real," Thomas and the Apostles experienced the Lord in a deeper way. Our faith must move beyond the physical, and into the mystery. Thomas was a mystic, and all the Apostles became Mystics as well, meaning that they were able to SEE more than what was before them! Do you want to know the real doubt that Thomas had? The real doubt was not whether Christ had resurrected. He knew that Christ's promise would be fulfilled. No, the real doubt was aimed at his fellow Apostles... Why were they sitting in a locked room, when they should have been out sharing the Lord with those they would serve? So the spirituality of the Apostles, and our own spiritual journey becomes deeper when we approach the Lord who comes to us, and try to come away able to see through His eyes, and work through His hands and feet.

That changes the meaning of the phrase, “seeing is believing” doesn’t it? Suddenly, today’s Gospel doesn’t just become an event for “the privileged few”, but rather a significant challenge for us to reconcile ourselves, and all that we are, into becoming the hands and feet of Christ.

Easter is not staying put in a locked room so that the risen Lord can come visit you. It is not the winning of a championship. It’s not crossing the finish line in first place. And it’s not the end of the book! Pay attention over the next few weeks, and you’ll see that Easter is the sharing of the Good News so, as our Gospel says in its conclusion today, “that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.” Remember what Jesus said about being sent by His Father, so as to send us, and that maybe seeing is believing?  Then you too must see, act and love as Christ did so that others may see Him in you…

EASTER is hope! EASTER is believing! EASTER is the Risen Lord; Christ’s peace with us; the gift of God’s Divine Mercy!