Third Sunday of Easter (April 22^nd 2012)   

Gospel: Luke 24:35-8

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Questions raised by this passage from the Gospel

1 Is Jesus a "ghost" in my life, or is he flesh and blood? Do I relate to him on an abstract level, or is he truly present in my life?

2. The risen Lord does not proclaim a moral teaching to the disciples, but conversion and the forgiveness of sins. Am I inclined to believe that being a Christian involves fulfilling certain practices? Or do I believe that it consists in being forgiven by the risen Lord and given new direction and meaning by him?

3. Does conversion consist in me making a huge effort to rehabilitate my life, or is it something that flows naturally from the risen Lord's unconditional pardoning of my sins?

4. Don Fabio describes sin as a distortion of our true nature. If this is true, then does it make sense to say that the risen Lord's pardon of our sins can lead us to live life truly?

"The Lord is flesh and blood! We continue to look on Jesus as if he were up there in heaven, far away from us, taking care of his own affairs, whilst we are down here like ants living out our own existence. And we continue living our lives of mediocrity, every now and then directing a vague prayer heavenward. But Jesus is flesh and blood! He eats with us, and is present in the Eucharist. He is tangible, something that can be experienced and proclaimed."

Jesus is not a ghost, or an idea, but someone who wishes to enter into personal relationship with us

This passage recounts the meeting of the apostles with the risen Lord after Jesus appears to the disciples at Emmaus. The Lord enters the room and emphasizes to them that they are not seeing a ghost. Sometimes we approach Jesus on a purely mental or intellectual level. We try to understand him in terms of things that are plausible and easily accessible to us. It could justifiably be said that the Lord Jesus is merely a ghost in the lives of many Christians! In other words, he is an abstraction, a pleasant idea, but he is not someone who is truly present and who, as it were, sits down and eats with us. In this passage Jesus tells the disciples that a ghost does not have flesh and blood as they can see that he has. The Lord is flesh and blood! We continue to think that Jesus is up there in heaven, far away from us, looking after his own affairs, whilst we are down here like ants living out our own existence. And we continue living our lives of mediocrity, every now and then directing a vague prayer heavenward. But Jesus is flesh and blood! He eats with us, and is present in the Eucharist. He is tangible, something that can be experienced and proclaimed. He is not just an idea!

The risen Lord does not ask us for exterior observances, but conversion

What is proclaimed by the risen Lord? A teaching about morality? A message about things that must be done and obligations that must be met? No, what is proclaimed is conversion and forgiveness of sins. What does this Gospel present to us as being the ultimate objective of the apparition of Jesus? The encounter with the risen Lord gives rise to a proclamation to the ends of the earth regarding conversion and the forgiveness of sins. A proclamation, in other words, that a person can be transformed utterly. It is simply not true that we are destined to remain the same miserable creatures that we have always been. It is not true that we are doomed to act out the same patterns of behaviour that, at the end of the day, were the patterns of behaviour that we learned in our infancy. A person can be born again! A person can have a new life! Radical transformation and conversion are possible for the human person. A change in motivation, a change at the profoundest depths of our being, a change in that part of us that is most authentic. Conversion is possible and it must be proclaimed! And this conversion cannot be separated from the forgiveness of sins.

Conversion is not our doing, but arises out of the unconditional forgiveness of sins

In speaking of conversion, what is it that can transform a person into a child of God? What is it that renews our lives in such a way that we no longer appear to be ourselves? People are transformed when they have been pardoned. We tend to think of the forgiveness of sins as a purely sentimental act of mercy on the part of the person who grants forgiveness. But Scripture sees forgiveness in a much more proactive way. It is something that impacts on a person and radically changes his life. When Christ pardoned sinners he used to tell them to go and sin no more, to live a life that had been transformed by his pardon. Many people need to be healed through love. To effect change in such people, it is necessary to love them, and to accept them as they are. Once they genuinely encounter forgiveness of sins, they are transformed. To encounter forgiveness of sins means to experience healing in that part of us which has ceased to be authentic.

           

Sin is a distortion of our true nature. The forgiveness of sins allows us to truly be what we were meant to be. The forgiveness of sins thus leads to new life

What is sin? To understand forgiveness of sins, we need to understand what sin itself is. Sin is a malignant growth within us. A person is not being true to his nature when he sins. He is only true to his God-given nature when he doesn't sin. A person is authentic when he does good, and inauthentic when he does evil. Goodness is natural for us, so to receive forgiveness of sin is to rediscover ourselves, and to actively be, finally, what we really are. Sin distorts our being in such a way as to make it appear that all of human existence and endeavour is destined for the tomb. What is life when it is lived from the point of view of the tomb? And what is life when it is lived from the point of view of the resurrection? It is something completely different! If a man can really rise again, and if he is not a ghost or an abstraction, then humanity is confronted with the possibility of a way of life that is completely different. I am not destined for nothingness. Life is no longer delimited by roads that come to a dead end, but by thresholds that must be overcome. All of our mediocre and selfish attitudes are conditioned by a fear of death and annihilation. If a man has risen from the dead, then these attitudes are definitively proven to be unfounded. Life is no longer something that is lived with the tomb as its point of reference. It is no surprise that the disciples are terrified when they see the risen Lord. Their mentality tends towards the belief that when something is dead, it is dead. But the resurrection shows us that when something dies, something else begins, because God is more powerful than anything.

            Conversion and the forgiveness of sins demonstrate to us that Christ is not just an abstract idea. I can be changed and I can move away from my sins when I begin to enter into relationship with Christ on a personal level, and stop treating him as if he were an intellectual notion only. This Sunday, once again, we proclaim the life of the resurrection, the life that comes - not from us - but from Christ.