Three Ways to Recognise and Experience the Risen Jesus
Homily for Third Sunday of Easter – 14 April 2024
Easter Grace
The opening prayer for this Mass, asking that we may exult forever in renewed youthfulness of spirit, and referring to our rejoicing now and rejoicing in the future, reminds me of an experience ten years ago when I was looking after the Hermanus parish. The parish involved a lot of travelling because it included Hermanus itself, Zwelihle township, Gansbaai and Bredasdorp. That Lent, I encouraged the parishioners to pray for a special Easter grace, for a remarkable Easter, and I prayed the same for myself.
It was an demanding Triduum trying to cover all those places. Easter itself, meant the Easter vigil in Hermanus, Easter morning Mass in Hermanus again, then Mass in Gansbaai and then back to Zwelihle at noon, or as soon as I could get there. I arrived a little late, exhausted, but concerned that the people of Zwelihle were getting the dregs – a tired priest after midday on Easter Sunday. Well, I was met with a welcome at my car, fit for a king and escorted into the church with singing and dancing. They had been there since the previous afternoon and had prayed and sang through the night preparing for their Easter Mass, and their rejoicing was undiminished even so late in the Easter day.
When it came to singing the Gloria, the whole congregation, from the smallest children to 90-year olds broke out into a choreographed dance as they sang in Sesotho, and rang bells and used pipes as trumpets. I was overwhelmed with emotion. It was a moment of grace and conversion, and renewed commitment. It was my special Easter grace, and one of the key moments of my life so far.
What grace would you say you are experiencing this Easter? What has changed for you? Wherever we are at, and whoever we are, the risen Jesus can stand among us today and proclaim, “Peace to you.”
Recognising Jesus
The Gospel passage for today is a continuation of the beautiful Emmaus Resurrection account. You will remember how the two disciples left Jerusalem to go to Emmaus. They were dejected and sad, and had given up hope. And Jesus walked alongside them, unrecognised, and taught them about the Old Testament Scriptures concerning himself. And they recognised him in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist, and they said to each other: “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and opened the Scriptures for us.”
These two disciples, despite the late hour, returned immediately to Jerusalem to meet up with the Eleven and told their story. This is where today’s Gospel passage picks up. As these two disciples were telling their story, Jesus appeared in their midst and wished them peace. In many ways this Gospel text from Luke’s Gospel, is the same story that we heard last week from John’s Gospel. Again in this text Jesus says, “Peace be with you,” and again he shows them the wounds in his hands and in his feet.
The ‘disbelieving for joy’ response of the disciples to the risen Jesus in the Upper Room is a good representation of our lives and faith. We too experience uncertainty and challenges to faith. Our doubts of faith, our daily challenges and difficulties we face, are comparable to the state of alarm and fright, the agitation and doubt that the disciples experienced. It is into our lives and daily situations that Jesus speaks the same words he spoke to his disciples, “Peace to you,” and calls us to recognize who he is for us.
Three Ways to Recognise and Experience the Risen Jesus
Like the disciples in the Upper Room, we must recognise the risen Jesus present to us. We might well ask where we are supposed to start in terms of experiencing the risen Jesus and recognising him. The Gospel today, the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus and their return to the Eleven in Jerusalem, gives us three ways to recognize and experience the risen Jesus.
We experience the risen Jesus in the midst of the Church. Firstly, we see that those two disciples had been walking away from the community of disciples. They were discouraged over the events that had taken place in Jerusalem. They had given up and had left the apostles. You could say they were not in the Church. They were walking in the wrong direction. The lesson is in their return to the community of faith, in the midst of the apostles, in the Upper Room, place of the Eucharist. Their lesson in the Scriptures from Jesus and the reminder of the Eucharist sent them hurrying back to Jerusalem to be with the community of disciples.
It is the same for us. We experience the risen Jesus in the midst of the Church. Remember, we are first and foremost a community of believers and the highest expression of that is when we are gathered together for Eucharist. Jesus said: ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst’. The risen Christ is present with us when we come together as a community in this Church as well as when two or three of us get together to pray. Jesus is present when you help your children say their bedtime prayers. He is present when a family says grace before meals and other prayers.
The second way that Jesus was present to the disciples in the Gospel was in the proclamation of Scripture. Jesus explained to the two disciples the meaning of the Scriptures and their hearts burned within them. In today’s Gospel text, Jesus again explained the Scriptures concerning himself to the disciples in the Upper Room, and opened their minds to understand.
Our prayerful reading of the Scriptures in our daily prayer and with our families, also opens us to recognising the presence of the risen Jesus to us. During the Mass the Scriptures are proclaimed and we should allow the power in these words to enter our lives, and to transform us. We should allow the word of God to burn in our hearts. In the proclamation of the Word of God, we will hear Jesus speaking to us, challenging us, teaching us, comforting us and calling us.
We need to arrive at Mass having prepared ourselves to listen to Jesus explaining the Scriptures to us. We do this by prayerfully reading the Scriptures for Mass beforehand, and asking Jesus to open our minds to understand them. Equally, after Mass, we can share in our families and among our friends what we have heard and understood.
The third way that the disciples on the road to Emmaus met the Lord was in the ‘breaking of the bread.’ The first words that these two disciples shared with the Eleven were about how they had recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The ‘breaking of bread’ in the New Testament is code for the Eucharist. At Emmaus, using the same words as at the Last Supper, Jesus broke the bread, gave it to them to eat, and they recognized his presence.
To really understand, or just to have a glimpse, of what happens in this sacrament, that it is the real presence of the risen Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity, is enough to inspire us participate in the Mass fully. Nothing should be more important; nothing should keep us away. When we recognize the risen Jesus present in this sacrament, we are strengthened to proclaim his presence to the world, just as the disciples at Emmaus were strengthened to run back to Jerusalem and tell the disciples, “We have seen the Lord.”
Today we invite Jesus to walk alongside us in our daily lives. We ask him to show us his hands and his feet. We ask him to open our minds to the meaning of the Scriptures. We ask that we may recognise him in the Eucharist. We ask that he make our hearts burn within us with his words.