HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR C (1)

HOMILY FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR C

THEME: FAITH IN THE RESURRECTION

BY: Fr. Jude Chijioke

HOMILY FOR SUNDAY MAY 1 2022

Readings: Acts 5:27-32,40-41; Revelation 5: 11-14; John 21: 1-19

Peter and the apostles said in reply, “The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness. of sins.” (Acts 5)

“I, John, looked and heard the voices of many angels who surrounded the throne and the living creatures and the elders. They were countless in number, and they cried out in a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessings.” (Rev 5)
“When they climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” So, Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”, because they realized it was the Lord. Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and in like manner the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed to the disciples after being raised from the dead.” (Jn 21)

The liturgies of these Easter Sundays constantly place the risen Lord at the center and do so according to the different perspectives of the New Testament writings we proclaim. Even today we could ideally put three testimonies in a triptych. The first is the evangelical one evident in the final lines of the chapter 20 of John’s gospel, which is a real conclusion that puts an end to the gospel: “Many other signs Jesus did in the presence of his disciples, but they were not written in this book. These were written, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and so that, by believing, you have life in his name” (20:30-31).
But to this kind of “end” of the Gospel here is added another chapter and another story that has at its center a solemn apparition of the Risen One along the shores of Lake Tiberias. Christ intervenes in three successive moments: there is the scene of the miraculous catch of fish which has the value of a sign of the effective presence of the risen Lord; there is the banquet of Christ with his disciples, a sign of communion and intimacy; finally, there is dialogue with Peter, a sign of the Church’s mission. It is a vivid representation of the figure of the Risen One in his effective action, in his closeness to the faithful, in his real presence in the Church through the apostolic ministry. We are therefore faced with an experience that we too can repeat every time Christ makes himself known with his signs of love distributed throughout history, every time he breaks the Eucharistic bread with us, every time in the Church, he offers us his Word and his salvation through priestly ministry.

If we continue in our contemplation of the triptych, the face of Christ appears before us as it is painted by the testimony of Peter in front of the Sanhedrin. That Creed Peter professed before the tribunal. A creed centered on the resurrection expressed in a double language. On the one hand, it speaks explicitly of the “resurrection”: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus whom you killed.”

The term “resurrection” emphasizes the continuity of life and presence of Jesus: he is not replaced by another; he is not a ghost neither is he ghostly survival. This, therefore, calls for faith in the continuous historical closeness of the Risen One; also, in the gospel passage faith in the resurrection and real presence was underlined through the sign of the meal Jesus shared with the disciples at the table on the shoreline of the lake.

Again, Peter uses another expression to indicate the Passover of the Lord, an expression dear to John and Paul: “God raised him up with his right hand making him Head and Savior.” The “elevation” or “exaltation” or “glorification”, emblematically represented in the ascension to heaven, demonstrates that the Risen One cannot be reduced to a normal, experimental, immediate experience: he belongs to the “Above”, that is, to the sphere of the divine in which he returned after his passage among us. He is really present, yes, but mysterious; experimentable, yes, but through active faith; operating but above all in the secret of history and existences. “Resurrection” and “elevation” are the two faces of Christ’s Passover, they are the signs of his closeness and of his mystery.

To have a full and direct experience, it is therefore necessary that the faithful also arrive in the glory to which they are called and led by Christ himself. And this is the value of the third picture of the triptych, the one drawn from the passage from the Apocalypse that we read today. The whole heavenly court is summoned to celebrate the liturgy of the immolated and glorious Lamb, that is, of the Paschal Christ. Around the Father and the Son in the colossal celebration of blessed eternity, the almost infinite circle of angels and righteous people widen, described with an “innumerable” number. The celestial vault is full of singers who sing the hymn of perennial praise. Our Easter liturgies are almost an anticipated reflection, a glimpse of that perfect adoration to which we will then be called. A single voice, a single praise that rises to God and Christ and waits to become perfect and eternal. Because, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “we now see as in a mirror, in a confused way, but then we will see face to face” (1 Cor 13:12).

Fr. Jude Chijioke