Before Mass:
In this Easter season, our first reading is always from Acts – this is the story of the early Church. In fact, today’s first reading is a sermon given by Peter on the day of Pentecost… moments after the Holy Spirit was poured forth.
Then the Gospel is actually the evening of Easter
Sunday…. Just hours after Mary Magdalene came back with the unbelievable news
that Jesus had Risen!
There’s a tradition for many Christians during the
Easter season where one person says ‘He is risen’ and the other person echoes
‘He is risen indeed!’. I thought we’d
try that right now…
Did you feel anything in your heart when you said
that?
See – that’s basically what happened on that first
Easter Sunday – and we’ll hear about it in our Gospel today. I want you to think about how YOU felt saying
that… and compare that with how THEY likely felt when they said it. Is there a difference ? and why?
Ponder that as we listen.
Homily
How do you start a fire? Matches? Lighter?
Rub two sticks together? Jesus
started a fire simply by explaining the scriptures to these two disciples. Remember what they said: ‘Were not our hearts
burning within us as he talked to us on the way?’
Have you ever experienced that? Have you ever had your heart set on fire by
Jesus?Many of us would have to say, no… so Here’s the real question: why did THIS conversation set their hearts on
fire? Seriously – they were disciples,
for Pete’s sake!… they had heard all of this before… they were very likely two of the 72 whom
Jesus sent out! Remember when he sent
them out two by two to spread the word, to heal the sick and all that? They had likely seen God work through
them!!! They had likely seen
healings…lives changed.. demons cast out.
THAT should have set them on fire.
Because of that fire, they bet their entire lives on Jesus. It became personal to them.
So you can imagine how they felt watching all their
hopes/dreams/plans get nailed to that cross.
Walking along that morning, they were likely still in disbelief. This doesn’t make sense! We were so SURE He was the one.
Here’s my point:
these guys had HEARD Jesus warn them that he had to be killed and rise
from the dead. They HEARD it… but they
didn’t understand…or didn’t listen.
Why? Because they already knew
all the answers… they ‘knew’ the Messiah would come and kick Rome out and
restore Israel as the greatest kingdom on earth. They were so SURE of their understanding of
the prophets, that anything contrary to their deeply-held beliefs just didn’t
sink in. They were like yeah-yeah-yeah
Jesus – skip that part about dying and just get to the part where you kick some
Roman back-side.
See what I mean?
They were so entrenched in the fact that they were the Chosen people…
the sons of Abraham… they were so confident in their “knowledge” of God that
they didn’t really listen to what Jesus was telling them. That “knowledge” had to be nailed to a tree… that “confidence” had to be crucified so that
they would be open to actually listening.
And today, they finally “heard” it…. Their hearts were
so raw with emotion that they were open vessels just waiting for Jesus to fill
them up – and He did. He gave the
greatest bible study ever as they walked along the way. Finally, they understood all that had
happened was exactly what Jesus and the prophets had predicted. Their hearts were set on fire as the TRUE
understanding sunk in. They RAN back to
Jerusalem and their emotion bubbled over as they exclaimed “He is Risen” – and
the apostles replied “He is risen indeed!”.
Do you and I feel any of that emotion when we say
that? Honestly, probably not normally –
and that’s not to make us feel guilty or anything… the problem is, we’ve heard
this our whole lives. We’ve heard the
stories so many times that they sound ‘normal’ to us. To the first disciples, resurrection
was unheard of… it was something to shout about. But for us cradle-Catholics, it’s just a fact
– like the sun comes up in the east or 2+2=4.
Facts are true – but facts are boring – they’re not personal. Jesus rose from the dead is a fact… but it NEEDS
to be personal.
How do we get there?
We gotta move…or more correctly – we gotta allow God to move us. Like the disciples, you and I can get too
comfortable with what we “know” about God.
We’ve got God all figured out – we know exactly the minimum we need to
do to get to heaven – and we check the boxes.
We don’t need to know any more.
We don’t WANT to know anymore.
Jesus wants to walk with each of us personally. He wants to set YOUR heart on fire. Let Jesus re-teach us everything we already know but never actually let it sink in.
THEN we can recognize Him in the breaking of the bread.
He is Risen. He
is risen indeed!
