Every year I teach a religion class or two at Guardian Angels School where I am also pastor. Towards the end of the school year, I have a question box session where I answer whatever questions the students have previously prepared. OK, so that means that a lot of them are about sex, but that is acceptable as long as the adolescents are sincerely searching for answers.
One questions I often get, though, is not about sex, it is about Twilight. If you are not aware of what Twilight is, it’s a series of books and an accompanying chick flicks of the “young girl loves vampire” genre. That’s one that Shakespeare never dabbed in. Back to the question. Teens will often ask what the Church’s position was on Twilight. Well, an official position was never published. What the Church expects is that the reader is able to distinguish between fiction and reality. I tell the 8th graders, “If you can’t separate fact from fiction, you shouldn’t read the books.”
Vampires are not real. Werewolves are not real. Zombies are not real.
But Jesus is real.
And the Risen Lord Jesus is not a ghost. He is the Son of God become man, who died for us, but then rose from the dead. When the disciples saw Jesus, they did not see a ghost. To be sure they realized this and that those who came after them realized this, we have today’s Gospel reading. Jesus said, “Look at my hands and my feet. It is me. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” He then went on to eat something right in front of them.
Sometimes people will ask me if it is OK to mess around with a ouija board, or visit a fortune teller like Madame-Take-Your-Money, or even dabble in the occult. All that is wrong. Certainly, most of it is a scam, but what if there was a slight percentage of it that is not a scam? What if there was a spiritual power that does not come from God? There is. It is the power of the devil, the evil one. If a spiritual power does not come from God, then why would anyone chance messing around with the devil?
The forces of evil suffered a devastating loss when Jesus conquered hate with His sacrificial love on the cross. But the forces of evil are not totally defeated. They are still trying to make inroads in our world and in our lives. They will never defeat the Lord, and they will never defeat us as long as we are united to the Lord.
Many people who lived at the time of the Lord had given up on having any sort of spiritual life. The devil had defeated them. Many people who live in our time have given up on life. They can’t see a reason for living. They can’t see anything positive in life. The devil is defeating them. But this no longer is the devil’s world. It is Jesus’ world. People need to know that there is truth, and beauty and meaning in life. People need to know that Jesus is present for them also, not as a ghost, but as the real Risen Lord wanting to share His Life with them. That is why the message of the Lord is called the Gospel. The word Gospel means Good News. People need to know the Good News about the Lord: life is beautiful when lived with the Lord.
How can people come to know this, to know the Good News? Through us. Today’s reading concludes with Jesus telling the disciples and us, “You are witnesses,” witnesses of the Lord’s wonders and love and beauty and reality.
Much of the world suffers from Twilight. Many people have given up on reality and seek spiritual fables and even occult powers to free them from their disillusionment with life. Of course, they are just digging a deeper hole of frustration for themselves. These people need something. They need Someone. They need Jesus. They need us to bring Jesus to them. We are Christians. We are Catholic. We are called to be witnesses to the Gospel. We are called to proclaim to the world the Good News: Jesus is real!
WE SAW AND WE BELIEVE
Believing in the risen Christ has never been easy. At best, it can only be accepted and understood by our faith that Jesus alone awakens in us. If we have never experienced deep within us the peace and joy that come from Jesus, it will be very difficult to find outside proofs of his resurrection.
This is what Luke seems to convey to us in his narrative about the first encounter of the risen Jesus with his disciples. They all had different stories to tell. Two of them were still telling about their supper with Jesus, when they met him on the road to Emmaus. Peter was recounting how Jesus had appeared to him, too. The majority, however, did not have any personal reason to believe in the risen Jesus. They really didn’t know what to make to make of all that was being said..
It was then that Jesus stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ If we really want to have faith in the risen Jesus, we must sense, even today, His presence in our midst, and make those around us, in our community and parishes, experience the same joy, happiness and security that come from knowing that He is alive and sharing our own difficulties and concerns.
Luke’s narrative is very realistic. Jesus’ physical presence does not have any magical effect on the disciples. Actually, some of them were so agitated that they believed they were seeing a ghost. Still others had doubts and “could not believe” what they saw. But they stood there dumbfounded.
It is the same problem with us today. Faith in Christ does not happen automatically or deep down in us. It comes up slowly and ever so gently in our hearts. At first, it is just a desire. Most often, it grows amid all sorts of doubts and questions: how can such an awesome thing be true?
According to Luke’s gospel, He remained with them: “Have you got anything to eat?” and explained to them anything that had been written about Him in the Law of Moses. In that way, they began to understand what had happened. He wanted them to become witnesses so that they could later speak about what they had seen and experienced before their own eyes.
Believing in the Risen Lord is not a matter of one day. It is a long process that, sometimes, may take years. What really matters is our own personal attitude. We have to trust in Jesus always. More importantly, we have to make room and place for Him in our lives and in our Christian communities.
WANTED: WITNESSES
The Gospel narratives of the Easter season repeat the same theme time and time again. Seeing the risen Christ was an experience the disciples could not keep for themselves. Anyone who had seen Jesus full of life could not keep it for himself. It was an experience to share, and they all became witnesses.
The disciples of Emmaus “told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized Him at the breaking of the bread.” Mary Magdalene, too, after embracing Jesus’ feet, ran to where the disciples were and told them: “I have seen the Lord.” Later on, all these disciples would be told: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you to proclaim the Good News to all people.”
The strength of Christianity to communicate the Good News about Jesus is found in its witnesses – those believers who can speak in first person, on their own behalf. Witnesses are those who can say, with Paul of Tarsus, “Christ lives in me.”
Witnesses recount their own experiences. They don’t believe or know any theories or dogmas about Jesus’ life or nature: but they have lived and loved much of what He did and said. A witness does not only proclaim that salvation is found in Jesus; but he knows that he has been rescued, strengthened and saved by Him. Jesus has become “something” essential, unique in his life that cannot be found anywhere else.
So this union with Christ crucified is not an illusion: but something real that has transformed his life little by little. It is not a vague and passing theory: but a concrete, personal and vital.
A witness has to communicate and share his/her experience; a witness must recount what has transpired on the road and everything that has made him/her what he/she is now. A witness shares his/her experiences, not his/her wisdom. A witness radiates enthusiasm, instead of proclaiming doctrines. A witness does not teach theology, but makes disciples of Jesus.
Today’s world does not need more words, theories and speeches. Our world needs life, hope, meaning and much more love. There is a need for many more witnesses, rather than defenders of the Faith. Today’s believers will teach us to change our lives because we have learned ourselves from Jesus.
ANYTHING TO EAT
Jesus appears to the disciples still “uncertain” and “troubled” about Jesus’ resurrection. Sure, the two from Emmaus had given them some reassurance. They rejoiced at seeing Jesus and, yet, “they couldn’t believe it out of sheer joy.” So Jesus asked for something to eat – dead people do not eat!
Eating together, sitting at table for a meal, was a sign and a proof of trust, love and friendship. It was much more for the disciples who could still remember the Last Supper. Moreover, Christ wants to remind them that He is still related to them in His humanity. The disciples are called to witness to this humanity.
In most religions, the Old Testament included, man always felt “awe and fear” in the presence of God. The Israelites told Moses, “Speak to us. If God speaks to us, we might die.” Even the visits of angels produced an initial response of surprise and fear. When the angel appeared to Zacchary, the latter was “startled and fearful.” “Do not fear, Zacchary,” said the angel. When the angel greeted Mary, she, too, was troubled and the angel had to reassure her, “Fear not, Mary.”
God was unapproachable, nameless, invisible and difficult to describe. One could not look God in the face, just as we cannot look straight into the sun. Christ, however, greeted his disciples every time with the usual, “Fear not. Peace be with you.”
“Do you have anything to eat?” It was already sufficient to have shown his hands and his feet to prove that he wasn’t a ghost. Christ goes beyond that, and he invited himself to a meal with them. Sitting together at table to share a meal had always been a cultural sign of togetherness. During his 3 years of public life, Christ had frequently been accused of having meals with all kinds of people. Certainly, Christ used meals and banquets as an expression of communion and community.
Do we use our Eucharistic meals and gatherings as a reminder and expression of the same link between Christ and His disciples? Our Eucharistic get-togethers should be the right environment for sharing fraternal bonds, and an invitation for all to come and sit at the table of life – with no beggars waiting for crams to fall from the table!
The one who is inviting us to sit and share a meal is the giver of life; he is the one who told us not to fear those who can only kill the body; the one who said that we are worth much more than the birds of the air; the one who promised that last will be first and that those who risk their lives for His sake will save it. Quite a mouthful for an after-dinner speech! Fear not –“I will be with you always until the end of time.”
YOU ARE MY WITNESSES
Luke tells us the story of the encounter of the disciples with the Risen Christ as an experience that started something new for them. Jesus’ wish is
clear. His job had not finished with the Cross. Having been raised by his Father after his execution, he gets in touch with his disciples to start with them a movement that will make them witnesses capable of proclaiming the
GOOD NEWS to all peoples: “You are my witnesses.”
It was not easy to make witnesses out of those men who had been thrown into total disarray and fear. All through that meeting, the disciples had remained silent and totally passive. The gospel writer simply describes their interior world: they are still afraid, disturbed and incredulous; what they hear still sounds too good to be true.
But Jesus will regenerate their faith. What really matters now is that they don’t feel to be alone. They must really feel that the Jesus they are listening to is truly alive. These are the first words they heard him speak:
“Peace be with you. Why are you so agitated? And why are these doubts rising in your hearts?
When we forget the living presence of Jesus in our midst; when we make him invisible because of our own interference and conflicts; when our own sadness gives importance to anything except his peace; when we share with others our own pessimism and incredulity…we are denying the existence of the Risen Christ. There cannot be a Church without witnesses.
In order to awake their faith, Jesus does not ask them to look at his face, but to see his hands and feet. They have to look at the wounds of the Crucified. They have to always remember that He loved them unto His death. He is not a ghost: “Yes, it is I indeed.” He is the same one they had known and followed along the roads of Galilee.
Every time we want to study and explain our faith in the Risen Christ with vague theories and explanations we end up seeing a ghost. To find the real Jesus, we must simply read what the Gospels tell us: look at the hands that blessed the sick and welcomed those children; see those feet that got tired as He walked miles to meet the forgotten men and women; examine those wounds and relive his passion. It is this same Jesus who has now been raised by His Father.
Even though they are still full of doubts and fear, Jesus trusts in his disciples. He is going to send the Spirit to them and he will sustain them. Hence he asks them to continue being his witnesses in the world: “You are witnesses to this.”
They should not teach any sublime doctrines, but simply share their experiences with others. They should not preach intricate theories about Christ, but simply reflect his Spirit. They will make Him credible with their own lives, not with their words. This will continue to be the Church’s real problem: our lack of witnesses.