After Christ’s death and resurrection,
he came back at different times to visit his disciples to help them understand
what his life and ministry were really about, to help them understand the
reality of the resurrection in their lives.
We hear about these appearances of the risen Jesus at the same time each
year during the Easter season. These
readings help a gain greater understanding of the resurrection in our own lives
of faith.
The first story we heard about on the
second Sunday of Easter was about Doubting Thomas. Many of us in the modern world can relate to
Thomas’ struggles with his doubts. As a
rather new priest, I remember a young man coming to me struggling with doubt and
wrestling with his lack of belief in God.
He expressed it this way: “I just
don’t understand…the more I search, the less I find, (and the less I can
believe). I don’t understand how people can believe in whatever they believe in
and be confident (that) what they believe is the truth….I can’t accept anything
without knowing for sure it’s true.” This
young man told me that he just doesn’t understand what we mean by the term
“faith.” He sees faith as a cop-out from
having to provide legitimate proof, in justifying a belief in just about
anything. Many in our modern world
struggle with doubts both big and small, yet if we use our doubts as stepping
stones to continue to search for God, if we can move in any little steps
possible out of our doubts and into belief, then our doubts can help us grow
and explore.
Today, on the third Sunday of Easter,
Jesus appears to the disciples when they are fishing at the Sea of
Tiberius. After they return to shore
after catching nothing, they meet Jesus, but they don’t realize who he is. He tells them to cast their nets out again
off the side of the boat. It amazes me
that they follow his command without any hesitation and without even realizing
yet that this is Jesus. Perhaps they
don’t recognize Jesus because he was not just resuscitated and brought back to
life, but rather he is risen, he is resurrected, and he returns in a glorified
state that’s very different than just being a living and breathing human
being. He is able to instantly appear in
a room behind a locked door, but also he is able to cook a meal and eat with
his disciples.
How often do we feel Jesus calling us
to do something, and we are hesitant to respond? How often do we look for an excuse or reason
not to follow him, to keep the status quo in our lives of faith? We often hesitate to take a leap of faith out
of fear or complacency. Sometimes it is
easy to just wait for that last opportunity and put something off rather than
to follow Jesus joyfully and enthusiastically at the first chance we get. I remember someone telling me that their
teenagers would procrastinate going to mass at a large with masses all weekend
long until Sunday evening, calling that Sunday evening mass the “last chance
mass,” that last opportunity of the weekend to go to mass and to be with the
Lord. Do we wait to give God priority in
our lives, waiting until the last moment possible, showing that we are giving
other things priority and putting God off until later?
I was reading the homily that Pope
Francis preached at the Chrism Mass during Holy Week. Pope Francis preaches a very powerful message
that aims to challenges us all. He
challenged his priests to renew the Spirit with them and to anoint the people
with the oil of gladness during our Eucharistic celebrations. He said that when the Catholic faithful leave
mass, they should look as if they have heard the Good News of Jesus, Good News
that touches the core of their daily lives.
The Good News I as a priest try to bring you today is that Jesus indeed
has risen from the dead, that we have a wondrous new life in him, and that this
new life is to motivate us to cast our nets into the sea and to share our faith
with others. On Easter Vigil, we had 3
men come into our Church, and I could see by their enthusiasm and joy that the
Spirit was really touching their hearts.
How many more are there out there who are desiring to join us in our
faith, but are just waiting for an invitation or some encouragement? How many fallen-away Catholic are there in
the Tupelo area who need some motivation to come back to the faith, to return
to our parish community? Where is God
calling us to cast our nets into the deep, to try something new in our life of
faith, to get more involved in our parish or in the community, to reach out to
others?
We know that Christ has risen, and that
through his death and resurrection we gain eternal salvation. We know this to be true. But in the midst of our joys and our
struggles, in our frustrations and our comforts, where is the risen Christ
leading us today? The disciples were willing to go out to sea and to cast their
nets again even when they had previously come up empty. What about us?
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