3rd Sunday of Easter
READING 1:
Acts 3:13 -15, 17-19
Psalm
4: 2, 4, 7-8, 9
READING 2: 1 John 2: 1-5a GOSPEL: Luke 24:35-48
This is a spectacular weekend at Queen of Peace! Yesterday we celebrated the love of man and woman in two weddings and the Confirmation of 57 young men and women. All of them, the brides and grooms and the newly confirmed spent time in preparation. In fact, we started with 66 preparing for Confirmation and nine didn’t stay the course. Some parents told me they were amazed at the changes in their sons and daughters through this preparation process. Some of the young brought their elders closer to the Lord as they journeyed. They accepted their full stature in the Church by receiving the Holy Spirit. I warned them that when the Spirit came down like a dove on Jesus, he was immediately tempted by the devil and they can expect the same. Evil doesn’t recognize us as individuals, but evil hates good and attacks whoever is good. Since they are not Jesus, they are as likely as we are to submit to temptation. We love them anyway and want them here praying with the rest of us sinners. Evil continues to attack good. Everything doesn’t go according to God’s plan that we love God first and love our neighbors as well. In this war of terror, we might ask: “If the Islamic jihaadists, the Jews in Israel and the Americans pray to the same God, whose side is God on?” The answer to the question is: “If we all prayed as we ought, we would all be on the same side: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” You can see how important the commandment to love God and neighbor is. How do you react to the struggles of life? Do you rebel because God does not answer your prayers to become rich? Do you hear people promise to be generous after they win the lottery? Do you deny God because He called away your husband, your wife, your child, your parent? Do you defy God because you didn’t get into the school of your choice; get the job you wanted? Do you doubt God because you didn’t get the date you longed for, or the treatment you deserved at home? It is not so much what happens in your life that matters; it is rather how you react to it. If things aren’t going as you’d like direct your mind toward God. God will to give you life in abundance. When you go to a movie you do not walk out because you see a good man suffering in the first scene. You give the movie credit for a plot. Why can’t we do as much for God? God would not permit evil unless God could draw good from it. The Beatitudes that Jesus preached recognized that blessings come through adversity. An oyster develops a pearl because a grain of sand irritates it. You may not get the school or job you want, but God can draw good from wherever you are. God, in love with us, gives us freedom. God knocks, but God does not break doors down. The latch is on the inside. That is the lesson of the suffering, the horrid death of Jesus. God offered a new way to live and thrive in this world. But the prospect was altogether too much for the people. They wanted freedom from the Romans not a change in their daily routines. God knocked, but they kept the doors bolted. Still, Jesus would not be contained in that tomb. He broke the door down! He is in the world to stay! He is alive and those who choose him choose life. Today's gospel reading leads us to reflect on faith, doubts and crises. By dropping into the apostles’ pity party and inviting his apostles to look closely at him and touch the nail holes and the wound in his side, Jesus removes any doubt that they are seeing Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. By eating a piece of fish before their eyes, he convinces them that they are not dreaming or having a mere vision or hallucination or seeing a ghost. Jesus explains that his death on the cross was not the last word. Instead, it was part of God's eternal plan to show His love for His people could bring good effects from even the most disastrous events. By claiming victory over our greatest insecurities: poverty, rejection, abandonment, suffering and death Jesus evidences the fact that we have nothing to fear. Jesus was crucified, young people die from natural causes and drive-by- shootings and accidents, wars happen, we don’t always get what we want. But God does not lose the game. God will draw good out of evil, victory out of defeat, and life out of death. The effects of our sins are not in our control. There are consequences that are natural and immediate and there are effects that are supernatural and ultimate. The effects are in the hands of God. Joseph’s brothers threw him into a well and sold him to slave traders. But from that point on, Joseph was in God’s hands. He said to his brothers; “You thought evil against me, but God turned it into good.” (Gn50:20) It is the nature of human beings to get more of what we focus on. We often focus on the things that don’t really matter instead of what we really want in life. Without vision, purpose, direction even success is empty. We need to direct our minds toward the quality of life we were created for. Never give up, never surrender, and never lose hope: your God loves you; your God is with you and you God has a plan for your welfare and not for woe; plans to give you a future full of hope. (Jer. 29:11). Do your part and God will do God’s part. The evil one wants to bind you up, imprison you, paralyze you through life’s challenges; God wants to bless you through those challenges. Quit sitting around feeling sorry for yourself or mad at God. Quit worrying about how nothing is going to get better in your life. If you will do your part by continually focusing on the goodness of God, living with faith and expecting abundance, God will take you places you never imagined. The Good News is that God has good things in store for you! Fr. Jeff McGowan |
