This week I will be leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Please keep our parish pilgrims in your prayers as we will in ours as we visit many places described in the liturgy of the word.
I read about a couple who traveled to Israel for their 50th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, the wife died there. Despite the cost of transporting the body, the husband decided to bury her in the US. He explained to the funeral director: “Someone died in Israel almost 2000 years ago and he rose from the dead. I want to be sure Miriam is buried once and for all, so I’ll bury her in the U.S.” Now that’s a person who’s taking no chances.
Today's word of God, for the third Sunday of Easter, encourages persistence.
In the Acts of the Apostles, 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 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: the awesome triune God dwells within us and we dwell within the triune God! We are becoming new creatures, in the likeness of God.
The Gospel describes two disciples talking about things that had occurred in Jerusalem. Even as they walked and talked with Jesus, they didn’t recognize him at first. They presumably had known Jesus. They’re disheartened with all the goings-on. But then they heard rumors that Jesus is alive. Is he?
Eventually in the “breaking of the bread” the two recognize with their eyes of faith the transfigured Jesus Christ. They were seeking God and found him in the Eucharist.
God reveals himself to us if we persistently seek God with faith. Yes, we seek God in prayer. 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, through 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 of our true self, and the life through and with whom we breathe and live.
We hear from God in the Bible about baffling questions of life: Who really am I? What’s my purpose? 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 in the sounds of silence. Jesus encourages us to 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 the great hymn by the 20th century composers Rodgers and Hammerstein: “Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
We may have doubts, like 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 in the routine of our daily lives. We are meant for something beyond getting and spending, beyond having bigger better perishable things.
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, friends and colleagues and 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. 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, God can lift us up again, so that we can get back on track and enjoy our true treasure: God and the things of God. Alleluia. Alleluia.
