Over two millennia, scientists, tourists, and grave robbers have been searching for the tombs of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Many gave up seeking.
Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, pressed on. In 1922 he unlocked an exciting find: a king’s embalmed body in a nest of three coffins, the inner one of solid gold. On the king’s head was a magnificent golden mask. There were jewels, statues, a chariot, vases and a throne. It was the tomb and treasure of King Tutankhamen, aka King Tut. Carter found it because he never gave up his quest; he persisted in his dream that he would find the tomb.
As the saying goes “it’s better to light one candle.” A hopeful person can accomplish much, because hopeful people persevere, despite obstacles and setbacks, in achieving their goals.
Today's word of God, from one viewpoint, is about persistence.
In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter denied he had been with Jesus, denied he was a disciple, denied he even knew Jesus. But Peter suddenly realized what he did and wept bitterly. He begged forgiveness. He wanted to start afresh.
Jesus asked Peter three times, “do you love me?” and three times Peter said, “You know I love you.” Peter had fallen badly, but God lifted Peter up. Despite our own falls, God continually lifts us up so that we can begin again to live a life worthy of our baptismal calling as sons and daughters of God our Father. God empowers us to persevere in becoming our true self, the very “likeness of God.”
In today's passage, a repentant Peter, on fire with the Spirit, fearlessly proclaims that Jesus, once crucified and now risen, lives and because he is gloriously alive, we live. That is the Easter message, pure and simple.
The letter of Peter explores perishable and imperishable things. Think again of King Tut’s tomb. Peter contends that perishable stuff like silver or gold didn’t save us from death and nothingness. No! The imperishable blood of Jesus, the lamb of God, freed us from death so that we can be with God forever.
And so, with our eyes of faith fixed on this imperishable prize, God graces us to live like new creatures. Imagine:t he awesome triune God dwells within us and we dwell within the triune God! We are becoming new creatures, in the likeness of God.
The author of the Lukan Gospel describes two disciples on their way to Emmaus. Even as they walked and talked with Jesus, they didn’t recognize him at first. They presumably had known Jesus. They’re disheartened. But then they heard rumors that Jesus is alive. Is he, or isn’t he?
Eventually in the “breaking of the bread” (the Eucharist) the two recognize with their eyes of faith the transfigured bodily reality of Jesus Christ. They were seeking God and found him in the “breaking of the bread.”
God also reveals himself to us if we persistently seek God with faith. Yes, we seek God in prayer, especially in the Mass. But we should also seek God's wisdom in the Bible; ask his Spirit to guide us in trying to do the right thing; and become aware of God’s presence in our daily lives.
Yes, seek God's wisdom in the prayerful reading of the Bible, a privileged expression of our faith that highlights what God wants us to know about himself, his relationship with the universe, and his purpose for us.
The Bible is not about scientific theories; it’s about religious truths, communicated by many authors through the languages, images and literary forms with which they were familiar. At the heart of the Bible is Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, who entered our history so that we could become “like God.” Jesus is the way into a glorious future, the exemplar or model or blueprint of our true self, and the life in and through and with whom we breathe and live. We hear from God in the Bible about the baffling questions of life: Who really am I? What’s my purpose in life? How should I live? Why is there evil?
Seeking God requires persistence. We pray for the grace to seek God daily, to patiently listen for God, especially in the sounds of silence. Jesus encourages us to pray and explains the importance of persistence. Keep on… Everyone who asks receives; and they who seek find; and to those who keep knocking, the door shall be opened. That’s what Luke, Chapter 11, verses 9 onward is all about. I think of that great gospel hymn “Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
We may have doubts like the many heroes and heroines of Christianity. We may wonder, if I ask will I receive? Of course we should seek the right things. The point is: never give up seeking God, his grace and his Spirit.
Seek God enthusiastically in the routine of our daily lives. We are meant for something beyond getting and spending, beyond having a nice home, a big car, a vacation get-away, beyond the scientific achievements and engineering marvels and economic feats of our 21st century.
But what is that something we are meant for? The answer points us to something transcendent, beyond ourselves: a relationship with God. Out of that relationship with God our love for one another will flow: into our families, our friends and colleagues and our neighbors.
Yes, our purpose in life is to seek God daily, persistently and enthusiastically as the disciples did, and we will find God in all his fullness, and his life – divine life – will transform us into new creatures so that we can become “like God” and love and serve one another. Yes, wash the feet of one another, as Jesus did at the last supper. And even if we stumble, if we seek God, God will lift us up over and over again, so that we can get back on track and enjoy our true treasure: God and the things of God. Amen.
