2nd Sunday of Easter
John 20,19-31
Today we begin the season of "Mystagogia". These are the weeks after the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ Jesus where the Church reflects with newly initiated on their Easter experience. These are the days where the actions of the liberating Christ are made intimate in the lives of individuals and communities.
Often in life we look for the presence of Christ, but we are left empty. Often we search the landscape for a sign of the sunrise of human liberation and find only darkness. To counterbalance the absence we at times experience, these weeks are replete with the presence of the Risen Christ!
Certainly in the days of the disciples between Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension there were strong encounters with the Risen Christ, whose effect animates the Church even to this day. In that time in history the events of the Risen and Liberating Christ’s ongoing presence were real and impactful. In the days after the Resurrection, we search for Christ present and find him there!
When Jesus appeared to his disciples, he showed them the marks of the nails, and the wound in his side. He said "Because you have seen, you believe. But happy are those who believe without seeing."
Meanwhile, two companions on the road encounter a stranger who they think is new in town. And they recognize that stranger as the Risen Christ in the breaking of the bread.
In our struggle for liberation, we often encounter the wounds of the Lord. People are bleeding from deep wounds of oppression. In our own person, in our families, in the Church, in the poor of the earth: there is undeniable woundedness.
In our struggle for liberation, there is brokenness as well: divisions within ourselves; fractures between family members who don’t even talk anymore; communities divided by race or religion or economic status.
It is in those very wounds that we encounter the presence of the Risen Lord. When we touch those wounds, we put our finger in the place of the nails, our hand in the wound in his side.
It is where we are broken and split that we behold the Risen Christ in the breaking of the bread. Pieces are distributed to be shared and people are made whole again.
The first and most enduring place where we experience the Risen and Liberating Christ’s ongoing presence is in a faith that is fortified and not shaken by the wounds and fragments that surround us.
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