Easter changes things. Once you experience Easter things can never be the same.
Once you accept the reality of Easter, you realize that those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and follow his commandments, cannot die. Our earthly machines wear out. Our flesh dies, but like Jesus, our brother, death cannot hold us.
Once you come to accept the reality of Easter, human history can never conform to secular history. History is not repeating itself. There is a beginning, a middle and an end of history. The center of history is the earthly life of Jesus, including his passion, death, burial and Resurrection.
When Jesus appeared after his Resurrection, he taught the apostles how to read Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, as evolving prophecy of his suffering, death and resurrection.
No one saw the Resurrection. But they saw him, Resurrected, risen from the dead. Mary Magdalene saw him just after dawn on the Day of his resurrection. We now call that day “Sunday”. The two disciples who were walking the seven miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus that Sunday afternoon saw him. And he explained the Old Testament Scriptures to them. When they arrived at the inn and sat down for dinner, he took bread, said the blessing and broke it. This remembered episode at Emmaus could be called the first post-Resurrection Mass. There was a “Liturgy of the Word”, including an explanation. And there was the breaking of the bread. He was demonstrating to them how to understand his scripture in light of the Resurrection and how to celebrate the Eucharist. And they never forgot this lesson. He disappeared from sight in that moment and they went running back the seven miles to find the apostles in the upper room in Jerusalem.
Today’s Gospel begins when the two have just arrived and are telling the apostles of this encounter with the risen Lord. As they were speaking, he appeared to them again, saying,
“Peace be with you.”
And, once again, he began to explain the scriptures to them, saying,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
This was the second time that day that he had given this same scripture lesson. The Church has never forgotten this lesson. Every Easter vigil on Holy Saturday we listen to seven readings from the Old Testament, beginning with Moses and the prophets and psalms, just like Jesus did twice on that first Easter Sunday. Peter, in that first reading from Acts, follows Jesus’ example of interpreting scripture when he says,
God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
And, he said,
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.
Everything changed that day of the Resurrection. History changed. Lives changed. One period of human history ended; … the part of history when Death was always the victor. A new chapter of history began; … Death was vanquished forever. Death could never win against one of God’s baptized, unless that person denied God and rebelled against him.
Easter changes things. Once you experience Easter things can never be the same.
Once you realize that you do not have to fear Death, you can really hear Jesus saying to us, as well,
“Peace be with you.”
And,
“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.”
You can actually measure your own spiritual growth and maturity by examining your personal fear. If Death can’t defeat you, what can? Do not be afraid!
This was not a ghost, as he explained. Resurrection involves both body and soul. And, then he said, “I am hungry. Got anything to eat?” And he continued, saying,
Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
Easter changes things. Once you experience Easter things can never be the same. We are called to change, to repent. To repent means to believe in Jesus and to become his witnesses.
Luke 24:35-48