Although it is two weeks after Easter, we continue to celebrate the Historical Resurrection of the Lord. Reading accounts of the Resurrection for three weeks in a row may seem a bit excessive; however, Holy Mother the Church to strengthen our faith and hope, wants to tell us clearly, that the Resurrection truly occurred and that it is the most important historical event in the history of mankind. It is the one event that gives every human life meaning. It is the one historic event that gives meaning to every event in our own individual lives, and that especially gives meaning, hope and dare I say, even Joy to human suffering and human death.
Suffering and death are all around us; we hear about them every day. It seems in our modern day we hear of suffering and death more than ever before. Perhaps, some of us are suffering right now, maybe even facing the possibility of our own death soon or suffering from the loss of someone we loved. Maybe there is someone here right now who has lost hope. Well, the antidote to loss of hope is faith; faith in the Resurrection. In fact, faith in the Resurrection is the only thing that gives us hope; it renews the whole world in hope.
Our Gospel today from the Gospel of St. Luke is about this faith in the resurrection and the resulting hope. We continue the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. The disciples had recognized Jesus in the “Breaking of the Bread”; which was always a euphemism in the early Church for the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist. It was never about just a meal of fellowship were we “break bread together and enjoy one another’s friendship, chatting with one another about the things of this world. No, Breaking Bread always referred to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Sacred Priesthood, makes truly present in time, the passion, death, and resurrection of the Risen Lord; and so, which also makes present His very person, in His resurrected body, in our midst in the Holy Eucharist so we may have hope.
We see this in the Gospel today. After the disciples on the Road to Emmaus recognize Jesus in the breaking of the Bread, in other words, after they recognize Him in the Holy Eucharist, the disciples run back to give witness to hope. Jesus is truly alive “We have seen the Lord in the Holy Eucharist.” The Holy Eucharist is our hope.
In midst of trying to explain what had happened to them, Jesus suddenly appears to them all. And He says to them “Peace be with you.” Jesus knew how troubled and afraid they were. The door was locked; was it just the door to the room that was locked, or was the lock door a symbol of their closed minds and hearts to faith in the resurrection. After all, they did not know if they would be next to die a cruel death. The images of Jesus crucified were still too horrible to think about; their feelings of grief and sadness stifling, the darkness overwhelming; they were at the point of despair. And then in the midst of all of this, Jesus appears to them to strengthen their faith and their hope.
Notice the realism of all the Gospel passages after the Resurrection. The Evangelists take great pains to point out that what they encounter was not a ghost, was not a phantom, was not some spiritual resurrection in their hearts and minds, but it was real, physical, bodily, historical Resurrection. The body that appear to the disciples, now living, was the same body identical body they saw tortured, hanging dead on the cross and place lifeless in the sepulcher.
Jesus appears and shows them all his terrible wounds; he too has passed through the dark night of anguished and suffering. Even more he has passed through the dark valley of death itself. He calms their fears and he corrects their error in which they thought were seeing a ghost, for he has passed through death and is now alive; no ghost this One. By the simple acts of allowing the disciples to touch him and to see him do ordinary things like eating shows how much mercy Jesus had for them and for us. He was leading them in a gentle way to exercise the gift of faith they had received from Him.
Jesus then taught them the truth in order to put their minds at ease. He tells them that His suffering and death was in order to conquer sin and so conquer suffering and death. He teaches them that all these things had to come to pass according to the Scriptures, that the Scriptures are reliable for they point to His victory, the victory of Love. These words of Jesus, and His resurrected body truly standing before them, strengthens their faith. Jesus goes on to tell them they will all be his witnesses.
The disciples believed, each one of them cried out; I believe now help my unbelief. The disciples were literally transformed by their assent to the gift of faith offered to them by the resurrected Jesus before them. They accepted what Jesus was telling them and began to witness to their faith once they had received the gift of the power from on high, the great gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. So strong was their faith in the Resurrection of Jesus that most of them went on to witness to the fact of it, with their very lives, rather than deny it.
Jesus today, as he did for the disciples, offers us the gift of an increase of faith and so an increase of hope in the very midst of our fears and struggles. We need this help for the world tries to still our hope by attacking our faith. While the disciples of Jesus in all ages face attacks on their faith in Jesus and their faith in His historical resurrection, in our day more than ever we face fierce attacks on our faith. Hardly a day goes by when an article in the newspaper or a television program doesn’t attack our Christian faith; especially our Catholic Christian faith.
The current post modern man, who now thinks he knows more than any man that ever lived, says proudly the ancient stories of our faith are myths and should be dismissed as only for the weak, the truths of our faith are unscientific. Only poor, unintelligent, ignorant people accept these silly and unreasonable myths and so-called truths and try to impose their morality on other (even though these same people try to impose their reality on us). They try to convince us that our morality, our stand against gay lifestyle and unions, embryonic stem cell research, abortion and euthanasia, are all the result of bigotry, intolerance and bias.
All of these attacks have an effect on us. I don’t think we sometimes realize how detrimental they can be to our faith. It’s easy to say to ourselves “Oh it doesn’t affect me; I have been going to church all my life.” Yet the truth is, these attacks do affect us; they are part of a fierce spiritual war going on, and if we don’t take steps to strengthen our faith, by using our intellect, by studying our faith, the teachings of the Church we will not be able to defend ourselves against these insidious attacks on our Catholic Faith and we will lose our faith; guaranteed. And the worst part about losing your faith is you’re the last person to realize you lost it; and once you’ve lost it, you’ve lost your hope as well.
The only way the early disciples of Jesus survived the attacks on their faith was by allowing Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist in His resurrected body to nourish their faith, had it did in the upper room. They were able to practice their faith with all their strength because they recognized Him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” In other words, they saw him in faith in the Holy Eucharist and lived that faith. They not only went to Holy Mass every Sunday but even every day. And not only that, they spent time with the Resurrection Jesus in the Holy Eucharist every chance they could. It’s been said that the early persecuted Christians, hiding in the Catacombs, used to sleep in the Presence of the Eucharist Lord so that they would receive the nourishment they needed from his true presence to maintain their hope and to resist and stand up to the attacks of against their faith which would come in the form of torture and death.
In this Easter Season, the Church reminds us that Easter is not a day to be celebrated and then forgotten; Easter has to be celebrated always in order to keep our hope alive. Again this is why we celebrated Holy Mass every Sunday, every Sunday is an Easter Sunday!!!
At this Holy Mass and every Mass, our Lord continues to appear in our midst through His true presence in the Holy Eucharist to strengthen our faith, to renew our hope, and to give us peace in our hearts, so that we too can endure the struggles and suffering in our own life. It is a real, physical, bodily appearance, hidden from our sight but no less real then the post-resurrection accounts we hear in the Gospels. In the Holy Eucharist, “Dominus Est”…It is truly the Risen Lord we are dealing with.
In faith, may we always recognize Him in the “Breaking of the Bread.” Then our Lord’s resurrection will be to us the ultimate that His love is victorious, not only in the world but in our hearts. The Resurrection will not just be something that happened in history, but a real event that continues to happen in this Sacrament of love. The Holy Mass makes present the power of the Resurrection and the hope it brings available to us in the here and now; we who are so frighten and afraid and so weak in the here and now.
May we accept the Holy Eucharist in faith, and may its power of love, the victory of love, truly envelope us today and transform us. And with the help of our Heavenly Mother, may we witness to, even unto death, to the hope we hold in our hearts, by our faithful living out our faith in the Resurrection, by living faithfully our beautiful Catholic Faith.
Christus resurrexit! Resurrexit vere! Christ is Risen! He is Truly Risen! And He is truly present in His resurrected body for us in the Holy Eucharist!!!
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