Can you believe it? We're already five weeks into the Season of Easter. This liturgical time of year is about believing (or coming to believe) that miracles do happen. Miracles like the resurrection are perhaps difficult for people of our generation to accept, but then again, it never was easy for people of any generation to understand this truth. Only in faith can we come to believe the full truth of a carpenter turn prophet who proves himself to be the Son of God.
Faith for troubled hearts
During the eighteen years of my priesthood, I've had many occasions to preside at sacramental moments in the lives of Catholics. Some such moments are joyous: baptisms, reception of Communion for the first time, weddings; while others come with all manner of emotion: children's first celebrations of Reconciliation, and even funerals. Each one of these occasions provides an opportunity for me to speak with people about the journey of faith and about the truths that are discovered along the way: that Jesus died, that he rose from the dead, that he has promised this same truth to all those who believe. The thing about faith though is that it comes hand in hand with doubt, so when my own grandparents died, and when a few close friends died, there were moments when I too believed (even just for a moment) that this was the end.
What bothered me most was that the individuals, the persons I had known and loved might have come to an end. We know that in the persons we love there is so much that deserves to go on, to survive, to be rewarded. The kindnesses they showed, the attitudes they had, the way they did their work or said their prayers, the sacrifices they made, the loyalties they showed, the hopes and ambitions they had, and the personal relationships they had with family and friends. When death comes, there's a part of us all that somehow believes that life is incomplete or even an absurd experience in itself.
The followers of Jesus too understood death as destructive and final. Even more, death by crucifixion, inflicted by the Romans wasn't just final. It was humiliating and disgraceful too. No wonder the disciples would have understood Jesus' death as final, but then something happened that changed their whole perception of death. Christ rose. Because of Christ's death and Resurrection, the death of the ordinary individual is now understood not as something final and immediately destructive, but rather fruitful and eternally victorious. You might say that because of Jesus' resurrection, death has now taken on a positive, creative, introductory character. It is now the beginning of something rather than the end of everything.
Despite our occasional and persistent doubts, and there are few of us who live without doubts, Jesus of Nazareth is the hope for us all. During his life on earth he made some startling claims. He claimed to have come from heaven, to have seen the Father, to have been sent by the Father. He claimed to be the bread of life, not just as food and friend in the Eucharist (wonderful though that is) but as the answer to all our hungers: for survival, for meaning, for permanence, for love. He even uttered some wonderfully reassuring words in today's gospel: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
If Christ's claims are true, and they are very well supported, very well attested to by the goodness and integrity of his character, the evidence of those who knew him, the multiplicity of his miracles and the historical reality and explosiveness of his Resurrection, then he is not just another prophet, another teacher, another guru. He is the Son of God, the only person in human history who gives total meaning to our existence. Others may enlighten it - poets, scientists, philosophers, theologians - but only Jesus fully illuminates it.
During his earthly existence, he encouraged the apostles to not let their hearts be troubled, to trust in him. From heaven, the Risen Jesus calls to us, beckoning us toward our final home, so that even when all traces of earthly existence are gone, we can be assured that life will go on, in that place to which we are all headed. This is the faith that sustains troubled hearts. It is the faith that we profess and proclaim. It is the faith that makes us Easter people, people of hope for this generation.
Faith for troubled hearts
During the eighteen years of my priesthood, I've had many occasions to preside at sacramental moments in the lives of Catholics. Some such moments are joyous: baptisms, reception of Communion for the first time, weddings; while others come with all manner of emotion: children's first celebrations of Reconciliation, and even funerals. Each one of these occasions provides an opportunity for me to speak with people about the journey of faith and about the truths that are discovered along the way: that Jesus died, that he rose from the dead, that he has promised this same truth to all those who believe. The thing about faith though is that it comes hand in hand with doubt, so when my own grandparents died, and when a few close friends died, there were moments when I too believed (even just for a moment) that this was the end.
What bothered me most was that the individuals, the persons I had known and loved might have come to an end. We know that in the persons we love there is so much that deserves to go on, to survive, to be rewarded. The kindnesses they showed, the attitudes they had, the way they did their work or said their prayers, the sacrifices they made, the loyalties they showed, the hopes and ambitions they had, and the personal relationships they had with family and friends. When death comes, there's a part of us all that somehow believes that life is incomplete or even an absurd experience in itself.
The followers of Jesus too understood death as destructive and final. Even more, death by crucifixion, inflicted by the Romans wasn't just final. It was humiliating and disgraceful too. No wonder the disciples would have understood Jesus' death as final, but then something happened that changed their whole perception of death. Christ rose. Because of Christ's death and Resurrection, the death of the ordinary individual is now understood not as something final and immediately destructive, but rather fruitful and eternally victorious. You might say that because of Jesus' resurrection, death has now taken on a positive, creative, introductory character. It is now the beginning of something rather than the end of everything.
Despite our occasional and persistent doubts, and there are few of us who live without doubts, Jesus of Nazareth is the hope for us all. During his life on earth he made some startling claims. He claimed to have come from heaven, to have seen the Father, to have been sent by the Father. He claimed to be the bread of life, not just as food and friend in the Eucharist (wonderful though that is) but as the answer to all our hungers: for survival, for meaning, for permanence, for love. He even uttered some wonderfully reassuring words in today's gospel: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
If Christ's claims are true, and they are very well supported, very well attested to by the goodness and integrity of his character, the evidence of those who knew him, the multiplicity of his miracles and the historical reality and explosiveness of his Resurrection, then he is not just another prophet, another teacher, another guru. He is the Son of God, the only person in human history who gives total meaning to our existence. Others may enlighten it - poets, scientists, philosophers, theologians - but only Jesus fully illuminates it.
During his earthly existence, he encouraged the apostles to not let their hearts be troubled, to trust in him. From heaven, the Risen Jesus calls to us, beckoning us toward our final home, so that even when all traces of earthly existence are gone, we can be assured that life will go on, in that place to which we are all headed. This is the faith that sustains troubled hearts. It is the faith that we profess and proclaim. It is the faith that makes us Easter people, people of hope for this generation.
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