Homily for Third Sunday of Easter
The Easter appearances of Jesus have no consistency. In some cases, the disciples recognise him at once. In others -like today's reading- Jesus is walking and talking with his erstwhile friends for at least half a day and they still do not recognise him. In some of the appearances, he walks through closed doors, unhindered by the barriers of our material world. In another instances, Jesus stresses his physical and human characteristics as in his encounter with the doubting Thomas: "A ghost has no flesh and bones as you see me to have." And, in one instance, he sits down on the shore and tucks into a hearty breakfast of grilled fish!
The nature of such appearances, and their very variety is saying this to us: Jesus is now available to you in an infinite variety of ways. He is present to you at every point of his universe. He is present with us, even when we ourselves are unaware of his presence.
Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that it is our task, it is the mission of the Church, is to make God present in our world. This is surely wrong, since God's presence in our world predates us, and will survive us. Rather it is our mission to find God in the world, and to call mankind's attention to that presence. We do not make him present; we seek him out in our own surroundings; we call attention to his presence.
The great Easter encounter is of course with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. According to that story, the three great pointers to God's abiding presence in our world are, firstly, the scriptures and secondly, 'the breaking of bread' and, thirdly, the company of fellow-travellers. As the disciples discovered with hindsight, Jesus is present with is as we talk about him are reminisce about him with our fellow travellers. As Augustine notes in that Sermon, "He was seen with their eyes but was not recognised. He was at the same time seen and concealed. Christ being alive found the hearts of his disciples dead." Their false expectations of him prevented recognition. They had hoped that he was the one to set Israel free. Perhaps we fall into a similar trap. We look for him in full churches or in full novitiates and full seminaries. Or, a more common mistake I suspect, we view empty seminaries as evidence of his absence from the world. The Emmaus disciples were looking for a dramatic magician. Jesus was with them as a fellow pilgrim. There may be directions here for us as we embark on collective our search.
As we approach the Eucharist let us again remind ourselves that it is not the purpose of the Eucharist to make God present in the world. It is to make sacramentally explicit the conviction that God is already present in our world, in our lives. When we listen to the Scriptures and to break bread together, we are being told: Go back to your homes and priories, to your places of work and recreation seek out the God who is concealed in the ordinary events and the people you encounter in the course of your everyday life. At the Eucharist, we elevate the ordinary elements of life so that you may go back to your homes and see those ordinary things in an elevated light. God presence is no longer limited or confined. He is now present forever in the heart of his world and our world. It remains to us but to recognise him and to respond to him with reverence.