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Homily for Third Sunday of Easter

READ: (Acts 2: 14, 22-33; 1 Pet 1: 17-21; Lk 24: 13-35)

REFLECT: Journey with Jesus for a happy life and life eternal…

Dear friends, we are in the third Sunday of Easter. Today’s liturgy of the word invites each one of us to journey with God for a happy and a life eternal. We all of us are gifted with a journey of life, an important task and assignment. In this journey of life accompaniment becomes an important aspect in life, whether we accompany or others accompany us. That’ why someone has very beautifully said, “tell me with who you are and I shall tell you who you are.” Yes, the company or the group of people we have in our association makes life better or worse. The good company gives us good thoughts, good feel and good results or feedback while the bad company misleads, misguides and misses the right perspectives of life. So company in life or accompaniment matters a lot. Based on our journey with others and the accompaniment, one’s strength or weakness can be spotted out.

Unlike the human beings whose company or accompaniment is selective, temporary and transitory, God’s accompaniment with us is without such boundaries and limits, making it accessible for all by accepting us as his children. It is we who fail to realize or it is we who don’t Journey with God. But the one who journeys with God obtains light for life, happiness and moves to eternal home with God. The readings of the day manifest to us the same that journeying with God our lives can be a happy and an eternal one. So based on the liturgy of the word I would like to share with you three points of reflection;

1.     Jesus makes us realize:

The Realization as who we are makes us to move towards God. In all our realization, it is God who makes us realize and draws us closer to him. The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles Peter is made realized who he supposed to be. He speaks boldly about Jesus’ resurrection and acknowledges that he and others are witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. The moment Peter and the disciples realized and believed in the resurrection of Jesus, they become fiery proclaimers of Jesus’ word and deed. In the Gospel too we hear, although the disciples were with Jesus till his death, the Emmaus disciples could not realize who they were journeying with. Jesus makes them realize who they are called to be and supposed to be. That’s why Jesus tells them, “O foolish ones, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures.”

Yes Jesus by unfolding them the scriptures makes the Emmaus disciples realize to be wise in understanding and hold fast to the things occurred about Jesus’ resurrection. Perhaps we can say that Jesus was catechizing them about patriarch Moses and the prophets who foretold about the coming and going of Christ to God by birth and through resurrection. Jesus makes them understand, opens their hearts to grasp the depth of experience they could have in Jesus’ resurrection. Today what makes us a failure to realize Jesus amongst us is our slow and sluggish ways. In a fast advancing world, where everything is fast, somehow matters related to our spirituality and spiritual fervor we become slow and sluggish in experiencing God who comes close to have personal contact and encounter to be with us.

Pope Francis tells us that “Jesus’ encounter with those two disciples appears to be completely fortuitous. It seems to be one of those chance meetings that happen in life. The two disciples are walking, deep in thought, and a stranger comes up alongside them. It is Jesus, but their eyes are not able to recognize him. And therefore, Jesus begins his “therapy of hope”. What takes place on this road is a therapy of hope. Who administers it? Jesus.” Yes, we all need such a therapy or healing to make us realize that Jesus walks with us. Just as Jesus was offering them the therapy by walking them and unfolding them the scripture for their understanding, we need to allow Jesus to journey with us to administer and offer such a healing, so that we realize the presence of God in our lives. Let us not consider Jesus as a stranger and make his divine presence alien to each one of us. So let us pray that we realize Jesus in our lives and make him part of our life-journey.

2.     Jesus makes us recognize:

The one who realizes who God or Jesus is, recognize Jesus in people, place and things that are manifested to us. The second reading from the First letter of St. Peter we are invited to conduct ourselves with a holy fear and reverence for God to free ourselves from the futile ways inherited by our forefathers. It is not with perishable things like silver and gold that our forefathers were freed from the yoke of sin but by the precious blood of Christ.  Yes, it reminds us that we are all saved by the precious blood of Christ in passion and death. The same act of saving by the precious blood of Christ is done today in the Eucharist, which has the power to set us free and become the children of God.

Jesus reminds the same saving act to the Emmaus disciples. Once the Emmaus disciples were made to realize who they are called and supposed to be, now Jesus takes a second step of disclosure, reminding them of what he had done in the upper room on the last supper. That’s what we hear in the Gospel reading, “when Jesus was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed, broke and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” Yes what did they recognize? They recognized Jesus as the one who broke the bread and shared the wine on the last supper. They recognized the words of Jesus too that he would rise again after three days from death. The recognition for the Emmaus disciples becomes a memory brought live for them now. The recognition is the Eucharist and the presence of the Eucharistic Lord Jesus in it.

Today too, the Lord gives us ample opportunities to recognize him in the Eucharist we participate and the Holy Communion that we receive. It is in and through this sacrament that we obtain graces from above to journey with God and be at peace and joy with one another. Our failure to recognize Jesus in the Eucharist fails to see the brighter side of life. so let us recognize Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, revere him and realize the most holy presence of Jesus in the Eucharist to have our eternal home with God.

3.     Jesus makes us reach out to the other:

The realization of Jesus in our lives, the recognition Jesus in the Holy Eucharist will make us reach out to people in bold proclamation about God’s glorious deeds and the unspeakable joy of the Easter experience in our lives. That’s what we see at the end of the Gospel reading. The Emmaus disciples felt that their heart were brimming over and burning with zeal and passion as Jesus interpreted the scripture on the way; they immediately left the place, met the eleven disciples and others, shared with them all that happened, very significantly how Risen Jesus manifested to them in the breaking of the bread.

Yes, the moment we experience God in our live, we can’t but speak about or share the experience of God to the other. Every God experience in our lives gives us a platform to make known God’s deeds and goodness to the other. Today what becomes a stumbling block for all of us to reach out to the other is the lack of God experience. There are lakhs of experiences God gives us through different people in diverse situations and places, but we fail to experience God and share it with others the good experience that God gives to us. It could be because of our difficult path or difficult phase of life that we are going thourgh or could be because unbearable and unimaginable sufferings and pain we go through in our relationship with God and with one another. But keeping it aside, looking ahead with hope in God will open a bright future.

That’s what Pope Francis would say, “We have all had difficult moments in life, dark moments in which we walked in sadness, pensive, without horizons, with only a wall before us. And Jesus is always beside us to give us hope, to warm our hearts and to say: “Go ahead, I am with you. Go ahead”. The secret of the road that leads to Emmaus is simply this: despite appearances to the contrary, we continue to be loved and God will never stop loving us. God will walk with us always, always, even in the most painful moments, even in the worst moments, even in moments of defeat. That is where the Lord is. And this is our hope. Let us go forward with this hope! Because he is beside us and walks with us. Always!”

Yes, let us go ahead with such hope and optimism of life. We pray that we experience God and share God’s goodness to others by spreading the good news to people near and far. All of us are given such experience to realise the presence of God, recognize Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and reach out to people sharing the in-depth experience of God in the Holy Eucharist.  Do we have such divine experience of God in the sacrament that we participate?  

The moment we give due importance and preference to the Eucharist and to the Eucharistic Lord, our lives begin to change and give the power to changer others as well. The breaking of the bread has such a divine power to reach out to people enormously, touching the very core of our lives, inspiring and bringing us closer to God. As the Gospel draws our attention to how the Emmaus disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, so also we are called to recognize Jesus in the Eucharist we celebrate and participate. Let us journey with the Eucharistic Lord who reveals his love so unconditional and unfathomable. Let us journey with the Eucharistic Lord to strengthen us and sustain our life to journey with him heavenward.

RESPOND:

Do we realize Jesus in the life we live in different situations and times?

Do we recognize Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and experience the divine presence of God?

Do we reach out to people of God after the God experience we had in the Eucharist?

Let us journey with God by realizing the presence of Jesus in our lives, recognizing Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and reach out to people by the God experience we had in the Holy Eucharist. Amen.

God bless us all! Live Jesus!

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com

9500930968