Homily from Father Stephen for the 3rd Sunday of Easter
In the Breaking of Bread
Since Easter Sunday, the Gospel readings have been giving us accounts of the appearances of Jesus to his disciples after the resurrection. These accounts tell us that the apostles were frightened, and that they had doubts even when Jesus appeared among them.
This tells us two things: first, that the apostles had failed to understand all that Jesus had told them and explained to them about himself before he died on the cross; second, that the acceptance of the resurrection by the apostles depended as much on their faith, as on the physical appearances of Jesus.
Our own experience is similar to that of the apostles. None of us have seen the risen Christ in person. Yet we are asked to believe in God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross and rose from the dead for us. And so we, too, have to rely on faith to believe in the resurrection. We can never take our faith for granted, and we need to continually strengthen it. Faith has never been as important in our lives as in today’s circumstances. I heard my father say yesterday –‘I can’t take much more of this isolation. I just can’t do it’, to which I replied ‘You can and you will!’ It is all about a positive view point. I watched on TV with Deacon Joe last year’s Marathon in Austria with a runner called Eliud Kipchoge. He managed to do the race in less than two hours. 1 hour, 59 minutes and 39 seconds. Unheard of! This Kenyan highlighted that no human is limited. He is an inspiration to so many of us. These days are days to focus on others. To reach out and help those around us. Let’s not waste this opportunity!
Our faith in God will be strong only if we have communication with him through prayer. As with human relationships, if we stop talking to God we will quickly loose contact with him and he will mean very little to us. That highlights our need to say our daily prayers – both in the morning and at night time, whether as a family or quietly in our rooms.
In today’s Gospel, we see that it was during prayer that the apostles recognised Jesus, even though he had been with them on their seven mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus. St. Luke tells us that they recognised him at the breaking of bread. If we have failed to recognise Jesus in the past, we now have the opportunity of meeting him as we break bread in this Eucharist. That Eucharist is sitting at dinner together, is playing games together, is doing the house work together, it is seeing the needs of our neighbours, it is not fighting in our houses with each other, but recognising the presence of God as we come together as an isolated family. We can ask him to deepen our faith during this time of personal and private prayer, and to help us to recognise what he wants us to do in life, by getting to know him better through the Scriptures and our celebrations of the Sacraments – although that is in the future, hopefully soon!! We pray also that others may recognise us as followers of Jesus and be encouraged by our Christian living.
Today’s Gospel highlights community. The story hinges around one sentence: ‘their eyes were opened and they recognised him.’ In sharing a meal, the disciples recognised Jesus, but they had already welcomed this stranger as a friend.
What can I/we do this week to reach out to those around us?
Please take care, be safe, stay at home, be kind to each other and be kind to yourself. May God bless and protect you and may he reward you all for all your goodness.
