HOMILY OF THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B
Acts 3:13-15.17-19ab, 1John 2:1-5a, Luke 24:35-48.
THEME: FLESH AND BONE PRESENCE OF JESUS
We must not be extra-ordinary before we do extra-ordinary things. The one who suffered and died on the cross, is the one who resurrected. The disciples thought that Jesus was a spirit when they saw him after the resurrection, but he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that is it I myself; handle me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
At times, we think that God is present only when the atmosphere is charged spiritually, or that God is not present unless there is a spiritual phenomenon. We cannot separate the spiritual from the physical. Doing so is like sharing our lives into departments or dividing our attention between God’s time and man’s time.
“For this reason when he came in to the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; holocaust and sin offerings you took no delight in. Then I said, as is written of me in the scroll, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God.” Hebrew 10:5-7.
To live among us, a body was prepared for Jesus. To assure us of his victory over death, he needed the body for a proof. ‘The Word Among Us’ is the Messiah, who lived in our street, who shared in human suffering that he may lead us to God.
Hence, we must see the spiritual side of our human existence. We must not detach our life in God from our daily life in the street. Just the way Jesus walked through suffering to death and he rose again, we must lead life of sacrifice; life lived in his footsteps.
Imagining Jesus being with us in the street, with the print of the nails in his hands, a true Christian with real conscience cannot but be conscious of living a good life that looks towards God. As the resurrected Lord lived among in the body, we too are called to use our bodily existence to walk with the Lord.
Therefore, for those moments, when we have acted in ignorance of the Lord’s presence, let us listen to the voice of Peter as in our today’s first reading;
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” Acts 3:19
In our second reading, John implores, “He who says, I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his words, in him truly love for God is perfected.” 1John 2:4-5
May we encounter the risen Lord, and may our encounter with him yield us a new life that looks towards heaven, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
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