Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter – Year B
29-30 April 2006

Whenever I behold the wonder and beauty of the world that surrounds us…
I am utterly confounded by those who do not believe in God!
The marvelous variety and order of nature…
blossoming trees…new-fallen snow…and autumn leaves…
and the beauty I find in people I meet every day…
show forth the goodness of a magnificent Creator…
and make me wonder how anyone can say there is no God!
When I in awesome wonder consider all the works the Lord’s hands have made…
my soul cannot help but sing…
O Lord, how great Thou art!
In Easter we sing: Heac dies quam fecit Domimus…
This is the day the Lord has made…
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Every day is a day made by the Lord…
And every day you and I are faced with wonders beyond our imagining:
The wonder of creation and the beauty of the human person
Man’s ingenuity and the achievements of human progress
The splendor of the Church and the grace of her sacraments.
Complex realities and solemn mysteries,
which reflect the abiding presence of our loving Father.
[PAUSE]
God is present all around us.
He is alive and real to us.
We can touch what He has made and we can see His image in one another…
in every human person…
in the infirm…in the weak…the poor…and the unborn.
All of creation is a sign of the glory of God…
and how often we overlook the marvels that surround us!
[PAUSE]
In a special way, Jesus is present in His sacraments,
those outward signs which He gives us
as instruments of His mysterious, hidden grace.
He is present to us as we celebrate the Mass:
In the assembly of the Mystical Body which gathers for worship…
In the priest, who stands in the person of Christ the Head of the Body…
In His Word, as the scriptures are opened to us…
And in the Eucharist He is really, truly, and substantially present to us.
We experience Jesus as did the Apostles on the road to Emmaus.
As He opened the Scriptures for them…
and was made known to them in the breaking of the bread…
so we come to know Him in word and sacrament.
We recall from earlier in Luke’s Gospel,
that as Jesus and the Apostles walk on the road,
Jesus pretends to go on further
and the Apostles bid him "stay with us, Lord."
Even though the Lord Jesus ascended to the Father in the sight of His apostles
He remains with us even today in the Eucharist
The same Jesus who was with the Apostles is with us.
The same blood that was shed and the body that rose triumphant over the grave
is poured out for us in this most holy Sacrament.
In today’s Gospel, the Apostles are afraid that they have seen a ghost.
Yet, it is fact the Risen Jesus.
So, today, we do not encounter a phantasm or a figure…
but the Risen Christ under the symbol of bread and wine.
[PAUSE]
Christ our God comes to us in the mystery of the Eucharist
in order to draw us into a personal relationship with Him.
Our response to Christ’s gift of love in this Sacrament
must be a life of total self-giving love in return.
Christ who died for us calls us to a life of loving others above ourselves…
a life of giving, not taking,
and expecting nothing in return.
It is in dying that Jesus showed His true power.
It is in dying to ourselves that we experience new life.
The relationship to which Christ calls us is cultivated through a life of prayer.
As Saint Augustine once wrote:
"Before we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we must first adore Him."
It is further nourished by a life of studying the mysteries of our faith…
by allowing Jesus to open the Scriptures…and the Tradition…to us.
[PAUSE]
This Catholic Christian faith of ours, which we celebrate in this Eucharist…
is not popular these days…
and increasing numbers of people find it an insufficient reason
to get out of bed on a Sunday morning…and even less on holy days!
This faith cannot be proven by science…
we cannot put the Eucharist under a microscope and find Jesus!
Yet, simply because it is not provable…
does not make it any less valuable…
nor any less vital to the lives of every human person.
The faith of the world depends on you…
the disciples of the 21st century…
who come to know Jesus in the breaking of the bread!
By our example of ethical living…loving service…and constant prayer…
we bring Christ to others
and preach His Gospel to the nations.
Every day the glory of God surrounds us in a myriad of ways.
Today…right now…the Lord is calling us to bask in that glory…
and to proclaim to the world
our faith in Jesus whom we meet in the Eucharist.
May the grace of this sacrament we receive strengthen us…
as it did Pope John Paul…
to be people of the Eucharist…and faithful disciples of Christ.
And may our hearts and souls never cease to sing:
Christ is alive!
The Risen Lord is indeed with us!
Alleluia!