From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts:
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
Excerpt from today’s Gospel, Luke 24:35-48
Jesus’ instruction of his disciples has not ended. To complete what he came to accomplish on this earth, it was necessary that his disciples and everyone else be convinced that he died. If he had disappeared into the desert and was reported dead there, or if it was said that he was murdered in some awful fashion and the rags and tatters of a body had been exposed for a brief time, or if he had been killed with sword or knife and his body destroyed immediately by fire or was pitched into the sea or into some unknown hole, it is unlikely anyone would believe that he lived “again.” Too much play for trickery.
No, he had to die publicly enough, slowly enough, and gruesomely enough that his death was undeniable, undebatable, a certainty.
It also had to happen in such a way that it would shatter the ill-formed faith of every single one of his followers, from the chosen 12 to the other disciples, the women who followed him, and the secret admirers like Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea. (Excepting only his mother, who undoubtedly wept but speaks exactly no recorded words through all of this). It had to happen in such a way that everyone else—his formal enemies, the civilian, priestly, and military leaders, plus the vast crowds—were certain, absolutely certain, that he was dead. Because he had to show what Resurrection actually meant.
Today’s Gospel shows us Jesus instructing the disciples about Resurrection in several ways. He appears suddenly among them and speaks (which might seem ghostly) but tells them to use other senses. Look carefully at his hands and feet—something marks them as having been pierced at his execution. There is no chance anyone had ever seen someone come and show off their wounds, post crucifixion. He tells them to touch his body and feel its solidity. These are no zombie wounds—they are recognizable but not off-putting, somehow changed. The apostles realize in amazement that they are in the presence of the same Jesus! He takes it one step further: he requests and eats fish, putting the ghost idea completely to rest. Resurrected bodies are now “spiritual bodies” as Paul calls them later (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). Such bodies may not need to be fed, but perhaps the Resurrected eat anyway from sheer enjoyment!
Evidence is—something new and wonderful has broken into our natural world. The sight, the sound, the touchable-ness of a Resurrected human being is a message of great hope and joy, brought to the apostles from our world’s supernatural origin and destiny. The disciples shattered faith is being mended stronger.
For further reflection:
What God wants is our hearts. That is only a real thing if it is given freely by us. God’s way of setting up the Church leaves us free. His original missionaries had to be confronted by convincing proofs of Jesus’ Resurrection so they could preach with utter conviction the Truth that they had come to know. This must continue in the history of the world in a regular, freedom-respecting, human way of coming to know the truth. It is not possible for every generation of human beings to see with their own eyes Jesus’ life as a human being on this earth, any more than we can experience our grandparents’ lives. Good witnesses, some written records, memories from our parents–that is the human way things are passed along. We freely accept them as trustworthy, or we do not. THAT responsibility is ours, one God has left in our hands. It was quite a struggle for those original disciples to give their hearts completely to Christ. They did, eventually at the cost of their own lives. It is up to us to decide whether or not they are trustworthy witnesses we will follow.
Let me add this. All generations report that once you enter into a relationship with the Risen Lord, conviction about the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of this Way will become evident to you. I stand by that. He is alive.
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