Third Sunday of EASTER 2009

If Jesus had not died, I suspect, some people would feel more comfortable with God. Parents sometimes tell how the sight of Jesus on the Cross upsets their children. Passionist priests and religious are sometimes asked if we have not heard of the Resurrection. If we say that we have indeed heard of Jesus rising from the dead, we are then asked why we don’t move on from the Passion and just preach and live the Resurrection. I wonder if even some of you, gentle readers, may feel the same way.

After the Resurrection, as we saw last week and again this week, Jesus was not embarrassed to offer the sight of the holes in His hands, feet and side. Jesus is totally at peace now after the cruel events of Holy Week. Jesus doesn’t seem to be able to stop saying, ‘Peace be with you’! Every time He comes to His followers after the Resurrection, His “mantra” is ‘Peace’.

It really all depends on whose story you and I are following. Maybe we have a story about Jesus in which His Passion and death is something of an embarrassment. If so, please leave it aside. It is a wrong story that somebody may have told us many years ago.

From the sacred lips of Jesus listen to His story: “This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, has to be fulfilled.” Jesus then “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and He said to them, ‘So you see how it was written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead…(Today’s Gospel).

This is the central act of Jesus our Saviour summed up in that one fact of history. This is Jesus’ story and it is our privilege to live and preach it. This is the price of love and Jesus’ dying was the victory that means that death is not the end. This is the victory of light over darkness. This is the victory of good over evil. This is the victory of God over Satan.

Suppose, gentle bulletin reader, that we ‘drop’ the Passion and just live and preach the Resurrection. That would be fine until we meet someone carrying a cross of loss, depression, failure, doubts, hurt, anger, brokenness, loneliness, financial ruin or whatever is crushing the person. And I step up and say, ‘Brother/Sister, cheer up Jesus loves you and He is risen!’ The person looks at me and says, ‘And what does He know about suffering?’ The only true answer is ‘everything’. Jesus went to the limit of suffering and laid down His life for us. There was nothing He would not have done for us. Best of all, He has handed over His victory over sin and death and let us call it our victory. You can’t get better than that.

Aidan Troy (Aodahán, C.P.)