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It’s so easy to lull ourselves into the trap of thinking that the apostles were such perfect disciples. For example, we allow our minds to follow a very a carefully scripted, divine chronology. First, the apostles knew and loved Jesus perfectly. Second, they believed without doubt in Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. Third, the apostles trumpeted the gospel to the ends of the earth. And, fourth, the apostles were so successful that their preaching did reach to the ends of the earth. Although that’s where our mental script ends, the chronology continues. Back here on earth and seated here in church with the homily completed, it’s now time to recite the Creed, to offer our gifts, to partake of Holy Communion, and then, to go home and get all of the chores completed. “Oh, by the way,” the kids whine from the back seat of the car, “can we stop at Dunkin’ Donuts on the way home?” In reality, however, the gospel readings for the past several weeks have presented quite a different depiction of these paragons of the Christian faith and a quite different chronology as well. As St. Luke reminded the early Christians: “You disowned the Holy and Just One and preferred instead to be granted the release of a murderer. You put to death the Author of life. But God raised him from the dead, and we are his witnesses.” Consider the chronology offered by the scriptures. First, the apostles deny Jesus, even though they previously were steadfastly maintaining that they were his friends and colleagues. Second, the apostles slept while Jesus was agonizing in the Garden of Gethsemane while contemplating his impending arrest and death and praying for deliverance. Third, after Jesus accepted his fate, was arrested, and as he embraced suffering and death, what did the apostles do? They fled. Fourth, the apostles proceeded to lock themselves in an upstairs room out of fear about what might happen to them due to their association with Jesus. And, fifth, on at least two occasions, the apostles didn’t recognize the Risen Lord standing right in front of them! One apostle, Thomas, persisted in his doubt, to the point of demanding physical evidence of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. In contrast to what many of us may think happened, the gospels are very clear about what actually did happen. The apostles were feckless. They also didn’t know what Jesus’ resurrection meant. Baldly put, they were clueless! I think we should take comfort in this fact. Why? Because rather than depicting the apostles as fearless and courageous icons of our faith—the stuff of fantasy, like “Power Rangers” and “Mutant Ninja Turtles”—so far beyond us in terms of their knowledge of what Jesus’ resurrection meant, the gospels are unanimous in telling us that the apostles were real flesh and blood human beings, just like us, with their own foibles and imperfections. Even St. Luke suggests this in the Acts of the Apostles: “Yet I know...that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did....Therefore, reform your lives! Turn to God, that your sins may be wiped away.” Fearful. Feckless. Foibles. Imperfect. Ignorant. The gospels present this reality, I believe, so that we also may come to know—in the same way that the apostles came to know—that Jesus is risen from the dead, yes he is truly risen! And so, today I’d like to isolate a few images from the gospel to consider what it means if we’re to come to know that Jesus rose from the dead. As the Bible uses the verb “to know,” don’t think the term is synonymous with being “smart” or “intelligent.” To know that Jesus is risen from the dead doesn’t require a high IQ or SAT scores. Instead, “to know” as the bible used the term is the consequence of a personal relationship through which human beings grasp the truth about other people. They know the truth clearly and without any hesitation or doubt. When we know in this way, we don’t need facts or evidence. Instead, we simply know the truth. This experience is sort of like how someone can say “I know this is the person I’m meant to marry.” It’s also sort of like how spouses know after years of marriage that they really do love one another, their kids, and their grandchildren. Although the facts may actually provide evidence to the contrary or “prove” the opposite to be the case, spouses will say without hesitation or doubt, “I know better that all of that!” The late-Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago also exemplified this type of knowledge when he was staring pancreatic cancer straight in the eye and wrote in his book, The Gift of Peace, that “death is a friend…not an enemy to be feared.” How did Cardinal Bernardin know that? “To know” when the bible uses the term isn’t something we think about first and then deduce the truth, a matter of the mind. That’s what theology is about. Instead, it’s something we simply know as a consequence of a personal relationship, a matter of the heart. Furthermore, no matter what the cost may be to us personally for acting on this knowledge, we’re willing to act on it and we’re willing to bet our bottom dollar on it because we know it is the truth. As Jesus’ disciples, that’s what it means when we say, “I know Jesus rose from the dead.” It’s not a matter of making mental calculations and deducing how this is the truth. That’s what theologians do! No, it’s the result of a personal relationship wherein we meet the Risen Lord, experience him already having forgiven our sins, offering us the gift of peace and, then, sending us out into the world to do the same in our relationships. That’s what Jesus’ disciples do! In the biblical sense, then, “to know” isn’t to impose a previously determined judgment upon a person, group, or situation. No, that’s “prejudice.” Instead, this sense of knowing is the consequence of the Risen Lord revealing himself to us, just as he did to the apostles. Breaking through our arrogance, bravado, and pride, the Risen Lord doesn’t allow the locked and sealed doors of our hearts and minds—the proof of our sin—to keep him out. No, the Risen Lord moves through and beyond the barriers we’ve erected and stands right in front of us. Are you afraid, thinking it a ghost? “Peace be with you,” the Risen Lord says. Are you doubtful and full of disbelief? “Put your finger into the holes in my hands. Place your hand into my side,” the Risen Lord commands. “Do not persist in your disbelief, but believe.” Much to my comfort (and, I hope, yours, too), the gospel teaches us that the apostles—human beings very much like you and me—didn’t quite possess this knowledge when the Risen Lord appeared to them twice in that upper room or along the road to Emmaus as we heard in today’s gospel. One of the reasons the apostles were clueless—and perhaps we are, too—is due to prejudice. For the apostles, the Messiah was to come as a mighty king who would liberate the Jews from political slavery. While each of the apostles knew that Jesus had been crucified, died, and buried, their prejudice about the kind of Messiah Jesus had to be actually blinded the apostles from being able to know that Jesus had liberated them from spiritual slavery, that is, from the power of sin and death. Their desire for political freedom made it impossible for the apostles to know the spiritual freedom Jesus had won for them as he stood in their midst as the Risen Lord. But that’s not all. When the apostles finally did recognize the Risen Lord, he disappeared. I can hear each of the apostles muttering to himself: “Gosh, I wish I knew then what I know now.” Can’t all of us identify with that experience? We allow our prejudices to infect how we look upon people, groups, and situations. Our jaundiced eyes grow blind through prejudice as we see only what we want to see, not what stands before us. We judge others impoverished and lacking when, in reality, we are the impoverished ones. It is we who lack the ability to see others in the same way the Risen Lord looked upon the apostles! “If only I hadn’t been so ignorant, so selfish, and so prejudiced, I’d have known it back then. I’d not have wasted so much time and I wouldn’t have hurt so many people. If only I had know then what I know now!” Ever catch yourself saying that? If you have, be grateful because it’s the first step in repentance, of God’s grace moving our hearts and minds to turn away from sin and the blindness—the prejudice—it has engendered in us. Just like the apostles, the awareness of our sin and blindness provides the foundation for us to know what it means to say, “The Lord is risen! Yes, he is truly risen!” We know the Lord is risen not when he breaks through the barriers we have erected and stands before us. We know the Lord is risen when we accept his gift of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. But, that’s only the beginning! Beware because strange things then begin to happen. For example: · All of those years and perhaps even decades of estrangement—whether between family members or formerly dear friends—now look like nothing but wasted time and we see how pathetic we really are because we now know—through our relationship with the Risen Lord—how we’ve deprived ourselves of the joy and happiness that is ours when we live in the peace of God’ kingdom. And, as we know this truth with absolute certainty, God’s Spirit moves our hearts and minds away from self-justification and toward forgiving and seeking forgiveness. “If I only knew then what I know now, none of this would have happened,” we mutter…just like the apostles. · Something tragic happens, like the death of a spouse, a friend, or worse yet, one’s child. The comfortable status quo of our routine is shaken. Our placid world is turned upside down. We may wonder if there even is a God. As we frantically search for answers, we don’t find any. And, even those answers which we do find fail to satisfy the anguish present in our hearts and the anxiety filling our minds. Feeling lost and alone in the midst of these raging and turbulent seas, we know that faith isn’t found in a catechism or rituals. Yet, even in our desperation, we experience an abiding peace that fills the void. “My Lord and my God! If only I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have doubted” we mutter, just like Thomas the Apostle.
·
We may
find ourselves griping about our first teenage child: “This kid is
giving me living hell. I can barely countenance the bugger.” Then, by
the time the second and third teenager goes through this same stage, we
know this is all pretty normal. So, as we relax a bit and worry a
little less about failing as a parent, we begin to feel a little guilty
for our overzealous attempts at parenting in the past. Then, a strange
urge rises in our hearts and minds. We want to say to our eldest child:
“I did my best, I thought, out of love for you. Sometimes, though, it
was out of love for myself and fear of failing as a parent. Yes, I was
too zealous. Can you forgive me?” And kids, when a similar strange
urge rises in your hearts and minds, can you ask your parents for
forgiveness because you really were a bugger? When we experience these very strange things, what we now know—in the biblical sense of the term—cuts through the barriers of our arrogance, bravery, and pride. It moves through the locked and sealed doors that we’ve erected to protect our hearts and minds from having to face the truth. Suddenly, however, the Risen Lord appears and is standing there right in front of us. Will his presence open our hearts and minds—as he did the apostles’ hearts and minds—to change how we look at people, groups, and situations, so that what we now know will change our past prejudice and behavior? This is what it means “to know” the Risen Lord in the biblical sense. That is why the Risen Lord’s statement, “Peace to you!”, conjured up disbelief in the apostles. “How could he forgive us after what we’ve done to him?”, the apostles were surely wondering. But, like them, when we know the Risen Lord, our disbelief will also be transformed into joy as we experience the forgiveness extended to us by the Risen Lord and, in turn, we offer those gifts to others. In the end, faith does not mean simply believing that Jesus has risen from the dead. No, faith requires much more. It means that we know—in the biblical sense of the term—that Jesus has risen from the dead because we experience what St. Paul calls “the power of the resurrection” (Philippians 3:10), which is nothing other than the experience of forgiveness and peace. Yes, the resurrection is a great miracle! But, the more wondrous miracle is the new creation we become when we know the Risen Lord and then accept our commission to go forth and to proclaim God’s forgiveness of sins to the ends of the world by forgiving others as God has already forgiven us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “You are witnesses of this,” the Risen Lord says to us. We know the Risen Lord, then, as we offer the gifts of forgiveness and peace to those who have wronged us, just as the Risen Lord offered these gifts to the apostles. “The way we can be sure of our knowledge of him is to keep his commandments,” St. John wrote in his first letter. “Whoever keeps his word truly has love the love of God made perfect in him.”
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HOMILY
