Father Thomas Welbers' Homily	Jump back to Homily Index
Third Sunday of Easter, May 4, 2003 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19 1 John 2:1-5a Luke 24:35-48	Listen to Audio

The afternoon and evening of that “first day of the week,” the day of Jesus’ resurrection, as recounted in St. Luke, has a twofold encounter with the Risen Jesus. First, in the section that comes right before what we have just read, Jesus appears to two of his disciples on their way back home, walking to the village of Emmaus. He asks them what they are talking about, and they don’t recognize him. And so they tell him of their hopes that were dashed, their disappointments, their fears – and their deep, tragic sorrow. They had placed all their hopes in Jesus, and that they now don’t know what to do.

And then, he begins to speak to them, talking about the Old Testament Scriptures that were so familiar to them as faithful Jews. But he still doesn’t tell them “I am Jesus.” Rather, he leads them into an understanding, anonymously, an understanding of what they already knew but failed to grasp. And it’s only when they invite him in to stay, that he reveals himself in the breaking of bread. Only then do they recall, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us?” And they run back to share the good news with the other disciples. That’s where our Gospel today begins. They recount what had taken place, and how Jesus was known to them in the breaking of bread.

What does Jesus do when he appears at that moment to the whole group? He first assures them that it is he, and not a ghost, not a spirit come back from the abode of the dead. And he demonstrates this by having them touch him and probe the wounds, and even by something so mundane as eating something. Ghosts don’t eat, the risen Jesus did.
And he again opens their minds to the scriptures. He takes them, step by step, into an understanding of all he told them before that they had been blind to and deaf to. They had heard it all already, but it’s only in the presence of the risen Jesus that they could now begin to understand, that what had been said before could be unfolded before them in a way that – ahh! – now it penetrates and sets their hearts on fire!

And then, what does he say to them? “You are witnesses of these things.” In other words, I have shared all that I am with you. Now I depend on you. You are my witnesses, telling others of what you have experienced.

And he says the same thing to us. To us who have just celebrated again his presence as risen Lord among us in our celebration of Easter. And we recognize his presence and power as risen Lord in every Mass, every time we gather to break the bread and share the cup of salvation. The bread that we bless, break and eat is the body of the sacrificed and risen Jesus, and the cup that we drink is the blood of the new covenant, offered to us to unite us as one in him, as God’s new people.

What we celebrate here as disciples called together is what we also give witness to as apostles sent forth. And so when we go forth from here, we can truly say, in deed as well as word, to the people that we encounter during the week, “I have witnessed the presence of the risen Lord, he has been raised, it is true.”

That’s why we come back here week after week, to be nourished by his word and the meal of his sacrifice. When we come together we also nourish one another by our faith, shared in common, and renew our identity as the Body of Christ, his hands, his feet, his members, making him present and alive – living with his life, and commissioned and empowered to fulfill his work.

The sacrament of confirmation which we celebrated here yesterday, is the sacramental sign of the fullness of the Holy Spirit, who continues to do what Jesus did in the evening of that “first day of the week,” transforming us from disciples to apostles. By the work of the Holy Spirit, we no longer share in Christ’s life for ourselves alone, but for one another and for the world. As members of Christ’s body, we not only live with his life, but we are his hands and his feet, his eyes and his ears – the compassionate voice and the loving heart or the risen Jesus.

And that’s what it means to be his witnesses.

© Thomas Welbers, 2003