3rd Sunday of Easter
Fr. Philip Neri Powell OP
OLR, NOLA
Audio File
Imagine
for a moment that the Risen Christ appears to you and asks, “Why
are you troubled?” Once you've gotten over the shock of seeing and
hearing Jesus, you get down to business, cataloging all of your
questions and wondering which one to ask first. Do you ask about
heaven? Hell? The communion of saints? Do you ask about the state of
your holiness? The eternal whereabouts of deceased friends and
family? Maybe you want to some answers to the controversies that
plague the Church, or the secret to settling our nation's political
problems. As your mind whirls with questions, Jesus waits patiently
for you to figure out what you think you need to know. After
awhile he says gently, “Peace be with you. Why do so many questions
arise in your heart?” This question brings your spinning heart and
mind to a full stop. Jesus waits. You stare at him, gasping like a
landed catfish. He holds out his hand and says, “Touch me and see.”
Whatever questions, problems, anxieties, fears, or complaints you had
lined up to air – they all vanish. Now, you're incredulous for
joy, amazed that the Risen Christ is with you. Imagine how amazed and
joyful you will be when you come to understand that he has always
been with you. He never left your side.
OK.
If he never left my side, then why do I have all of these questions,
problems, anxieties, fears, and complaints that demand answers and
solutions? John gives us part
of the answer: “Those
who say, 'I know him,' but do not keep his commandments are liars,
and the truth is not in them.” Harsh but true. Sin makes us stupid.
Sin twists the intellect and will over time, teaching us to call Evil
good and Good evil. Choose this error consistently and before long
you become a slave to the vice of folly. You become a fool. Harsh but
true. A fool cannot tell the difference between Truth and lies,
Beauty and ugliness, Goodness and evil. Consistently choosing lies,
ugliness, and evil reshapes the body and soul into a vessel of
irrational doubts, nagging worries, insolvable problems, and angry
fears. The intellect is ruled by the passions and the will is let
loose to pick and choose its own twisted idea of what's good. So, why
do I have all of these questions, problems, anxieties, fears, and
complaints that demand answers and solutions? Because I am a sinner
who chooses to wallow in disobedience and disbelief. Instead, I
choose to believe that I am alone, abandoned by God and His Christ. I
refuse to hear Christ say to me, “Peace be with you.”
But
John gives us just part
of the answer to the question of why we have so many problems,
anxieties, and fears plaguing our hearts and minds. When sin is my
default choice and foolishness my preferred mindset, then I shouldn't
wonder why even ordinary challenges to My Self become extraordinary.
Extraordinarily unsettling. But these questions, problems, and fears
– even though they are fashioned out of freely chosen sin – they
are real.
Jesus does not say “Peace be with you” to the disciples because
he thinks their fears are imaginary. He doesn't reassure them of his
real presence among because he believes the trauma of his execution
is a group delusion. They are afraid. They are traumatized. The very
real, real-world force of his death and resurrection hits them all
square in the gut. And their reaction is shock, terror, fear. What
the disciples need – what we need – is not only rock-solid faith
and obedience to his commandments but Real World reassurance as well.
Abstract principles, psychological props, symbolic gestures all have
their uses in helping us cope when things fall apart. But nothing
comes close to knowing – truly knowing – that
Christ is with us.
“Touch me and see.”
Touch him and see. Touch him in the Eucharist. He is truly present –
body, blood, soul, and divinity – really present in the consecrated
bread and wine. Touch him and see him in the Church and his saints.
We are his Body. We are his hands and feet and arms and legs. We
speak his Word and accomplish great things in his name. Touch him and
see him in your personal prayer. In the silence of our heart and mind
as you quiet yourself to listen. Touch him and see him in the public
prayer of the Church. This Mass. “When two or more are gathered in
my name, I am with you.” Touch him and see him in the poor – the
materially poor and the spiritually poor. Those who have little in
the way of material wealth and those who do not believe. Touch him
and see him in the sick and dying; those who mourn; those who spend
their lives in prison; the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the
ignorant, the foreigner. Touch him and see him among the least of
those who belong to him. Why do so many questions, fears, worries,
problems arise in your heart and mind? Peace be with you. Touch him
and see.
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