Father Rick Bolte's Homily

A: Third Sunday of Easter

“Everyone clear your desk; take out a clean sheet of paper and a pen.  Question number one, what was the first reading about?”  Probably a number of us have scary memories of those pop quizzes from school.  But how many of us could have answered the question?  We just heard it read.  For many of us, our minds are distracted.  We think about what went on in getting to church, the plans we have for the rest of the day, what’s going on in the pews around us, and any number of other concerns we have in our lives.  We hear the scripture readings but often don’t really hear them.

Some of us may not be aware that the church rule requiring us (except in the case of illness) to fast from all but water and essential medicine for an hour before receiving Communion is still in effect.  The reason isn’t that God cares when and what we eat or drink.  But our Church realizes we need to be reminded of our need to be prepared for the Eucharistic celebration.

Our gospel reading today is written at a time when the community is worried about their faith as the eye witnesses to Jesus’ earthly life are dying.  They’re worried that they will not know Jesus even second hand.  Today’s gospel story shows that the natural eyes are not the important part.  The two disciples don’t even recognize Jesus with their natural eyes.  And when they do discover who he is, he vanishes from their physical sight.  But he is known through the reflection on Scripture and the “breaking of the Bread.”

Part of our preparation might well include at least reading the Scripture readings for the day in advance.  The disciples’ hearts were “burning” as Jesus explained the Scriptures to them.  They experienced Christ affecting them through his word.  I know at times in the Friday morning Scripture study I and I think others have felt something touching us deeply when we try to hear what Jesus is really saying in the Scriptures and how it might actually apply to our lives today.  It is unfair to yourself to limit yourself to encountering God in his word only when the priest or deacon says something in the homily that moves you.

We begin the Eucharistic Celebration with the penitential rite.  We begin by acknowledging that we are sinners in need of God’s mercy.  If we haven’t reflected on our life over the past week, that has limited significance.  We often live with only a vague sense that we may have done some things wrong but it’s often nebulous.  If we’ve taken time to pray during the week and reflected on how much God has shone his love to us and how limited has been our response, we are much more aware that we are in serious need of God’s mercy before we might dare to come into his presence.  In the penitential rite we together acknowledge our sinfulness and how great is the mercy of God which reveals his love for us.

In the offertory we place the bread and wine upon the altar.  At this point the bread and wine represent our life and, like all things placed on an altar, they are there for sacrifice.  True love is expressed in sacrifice.  The sacrifice is expressed when we choose to do something that is not our preference but we know is good for the other.  Knowing how imperfectly we love, we pray “that these our gifts may be acceptable to our heavenly Father.”  We realize our lives need to be transformed to be a true, loving sacrifice.

In the Eucharistic prayer we ask that the Spirit may come upon these gifts (us) that they (we) may become the Body and Blood of Christ.  We acknowledge by faith that Christ is fully present in the form of bread and wine.  Yet at the same time we realize that our openness to the fullness we are being offered is limited by our ability to receive all that is being offered.  So at Communion we receive that fullness of Christ while realizing that the experience is incomplete as we and all assembled reflect God’s presence so imperfectly.  We spend time in thanksgiving for what is offered to us and the ways in which we have been able to encounter Christ in one another even though imperfectly (remember the bread and wine transformed was the community/church’s gift of its imperfect self).

We’ve offered ourselves, asked to be transformed, and received Christ imperfectly realized but by faith knowing he is fully present to us.  Now we go forth.  United with Christ and one another, we go forth as the Body of Christ in the world.  We seek to grow in our ability to be Christ in our world.  We return to Mass the next week realizing our efforts but also our shortcomings.  We will again ask to be transformed so as to go forth again.