3rd Sunday of Easter

Most of us like to think we’re pretty smart. We’ve been around. We know what’s going on. But the fact is that compared to God, we’re pretty clueless. For generations God tried to communicate with His people. He sent prophet after prophet. But, in the end, the prophets were at a loss to deliver God’s message so that people could understand it.

Finally, He sent his Only Son to deliver the message. Jesus was more successful than the prophets had been, but it wasn’t because we suddenly got smarter. Jesus had the advantage of being able to perform miracles. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. For His grand finale, He raised Himself from the dead. Even so, all these centuries later, people still don’t believe.

The Gospel readings in these days after Easter show just how hard it is for us to understand God’s message. Even Jesus’ followers who were there didn’t really understand the resurrection. They were confused. The women who found the tomb empty didn’t understand. “They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him,” they said. Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, but she didn’t recognize Him.

The disciples on the road to Ameus didn’t recognize Him. The Apostles in today’s Gospel didn’t recognize Him. From the very beginning, we’ve been confused. And we still are.

[pause]

After the unpleasant weather we’ve been having, Monday morning was beautiful. It was the kind of morning we’ve been waiting for. It would be the beginning of a beautiful day. But at some point you turned on the television or the radio and heard the terrible news. Thirty-two promising young lives had been snuffed out by one disturbed individual with a gun. Suddenly it wasn’t such a beautiful day after all.

It would take a while for the picture to develop. Who was the killer? Were there more than one? How many died? How many were hurt? Of course there was the usual question, “who can we blame?” Once again we’re confused. Like the women at the empty tomb, we may have asked “Where’s Jesus?” Surely He wasn’t on that campus Monday morning or this terrible thing couldn’t have happened.

Like the early disciples, we don’t always recognize Jesus when we see Him. There is plenty of evil in the world. We know that. No one ever promised us that there wouldn’t be. In fact, the scriptures make it pretty clear that we can expect evil, no matter what we do. God doesn’t cause evil. Jesus doesn’t cause evil. Evil men do evil things. Satan is alive and well and working his ways in our lives every day. Because God gave all of us free will, there will always be evil.

So, if Jesus doesn’t prevent evil, where was He on Monday morning? Well, he was there comforting the wounded. He was there giving courage to the students and faculty who performed heroic acts. He was with the police and the paramedics. He was in the hospital where the wounded were taken. He was with the students and family members as they waited for word on their friends and family.

Jesus was there on Friday when millions of Americans joined with the Virginia Tech family to mourn their loss. He’ll be with the survivors as they try to make sense of this terrible tragedy and as they try to get on with their lives. He’s in hundreds of churches all over the country, comforting all of us as we try to deal with this and other senseless tragedies. He’s here today, in this Church. But after all these centuries, we’re no better at seeing Him today than our ancestors were 2,000 years ago, even though He left us the Holy Spirit to be our advocate.

This is really the season of the Holy Spirit. During the Easter Vigil and during the season of Easter, we welcome new members to the Church. We confirm our young people. Our PSR students celebrated first communion last Sunday and our eighth graders will be confirmed next Saturday at the Cathedral. These sacraments will be celebrated at churches all over the world during the next few weeks.

[pause]

We can see the Spirit at work in today’s first reading. Good old
St. Peter. You have to love Peter. He was always making mistakes and saying the wrong thing. Yet our Lord picked him to be the first leader of His new Church; the first Pope.

On the night before Jesus was crucified Peter was so afraid that he actually denied that he knew Jesus; not once but three times, just as our Lord had predicted. His first day on the job, he went and hid.

But let’s not be too hard on Peter and the others. Imagine what that night when they took Jesus away must have been like. The eleven Apostles really didn’t understand what was going on. All they knew was that Roman soldiers had come and taken Jesus. He was their leader, their friend, their Messiah. What were they going to do with him? Were they going to kill him? Would they be next? Because we’re only human, I doubt that any of us would have acted any differently.

But Jesus rose from the dead and left Peter and the others the gift of the Holy Spirit. What a difference! Now he’s threatened with jail or worse if he doesn’t stop preaching in Jesus’ name and what does he do? He defies the priests. He says, “sorry Charlie. There’s no way that I can’t preach what I’ve seen.” What happens? He and John, protected by the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, are allowed to walk away. Of course we know that eventually they were martyred for preaching the Gospel. Theirs was a dangerous job and they knew it. But the Spirit gave them courage that they never had before.

Through the centuries, Christians’ enthusiasm, even their bravery has been tested many times. It seems to run in cycles. Sometimes it’s been OK, even fashionable to be a Christian. In many times and places Catholicism has been the official religion. Other times it’s been discouraged or even illegal, for example in Ireland when it was under British control or in many countries today. When we think of martyrs, we tend to think of ancient times. But there were more Christian martyrs in the twentieth century than there were in the first nineteen combined. There’s no reason to think that this century will be any different.

We like to think that we live in a land of religious freedom, but those freedoms are being tested today, more than at any time in our history. Just this past week, a TV talk show host announced on national television that Catholics shouldn’t be allowed to be Supreme Court Justices. Can you imagine what would happen if this person made that same comment about African Americans, or gays, or Muslims, or any other group?

I know you can’t see it in the back but this is an editorial cartoon that ran this week in the Philadelphia Enquirer. It shows the nine Supreme Court Justices sitting on the bench. Five of them, obviously the five Catholics, are wearing Bishop’s mitres. At the bottom of the picture is the caption “Church & State.”

Of course both of these incidents were responses to the Court’s ruling that the law banning partial birth abortions is legal under the Constitution. This is a position that the Church supports, but it’s hardly a “Catholic position.” Right-thinking people of every religious persuasion, even atheists, agree that this is a barbaric, and unnecessary, procedure There’s just no justification for it. But it makes a convenient excuse for anti-Catholic bigots to attack the Church.

[pause]

As we continue through the Easter Season, this “season of the Holy Spirit”, let’s pray that He gives us the same courage that changed St. Peter from one who denied the Lord three times when He was in His greatest distress to the brave first Pope who was willing to risk prison, and even death rather than refrain from preaching the Gospel. That He gives us the courage to speak out against injustice, whether it’s directed at our Church or directed at our brothers and sisters in need. That He gives us the will to be united in our belief in God and in His Church, a Church where human beings make mistakes but where the sacred teachings are inspired by an infallible God.

Finally, let’s pray for the victims of hate and injustice, especially the young people who died as a result of the violence in Virginia last week.