This year's Gospel readings follow Mark. However, the resurrection is not narrated in Mark, so the Church today pulls her core readings from one of the two latesr gospels, Luke [24: 36-48] and from Acts [3:12-19]. Luke was a Gentile, probably converted by Saint Paul, and a physician by trade. A great writer in Greek, although not very knowledgeable about Judaism. Luke has a few anchoring themes which play out in today's texts.
First, there is peace. "Peace" was a standard greeting amongst Jews. In Jesus' case it is especially significant because, for Christians, he and not Caesar is Prince of Peace. Jesus' peace surpasses human understanding, is true peace compared to Roman peace-through-military-strength, and gives the challenged Lucan community assurance of Christ's presence. As the old song says "you never walk alone." Lucan Christians can step out in faith and confidence to spread and defend the Gospel.
Second, there is continuity between covenants. For Luke it is very important to establish that the Jewish Scriptures can now be re-interpreted to refer to Jesus, the newly re-defined Messiah. That is especially true of his suffering, death, and rising, elements so different from the military-political glory traditionally expected of the Awaited One.
Third, there is hostility towards mainstream Judaism. Luke is the first gospel to be written after mainstream synagogues and Jesus congregations became completely separated. Christian anger, centred on the failure of the mainstream to convert, is reflected in the role reversal we see in the reading from Acts today. Now, the respective roles of Judaism and the Roman government in the death of Jesus are flipped. Now the righteous, reluctant Romans are pushed by the perfidious Jews into crucifying Jesus for religious heresy. Such nonsense has contributed to anti-Semitism's role in the murder of Jews over the centuries.
Fourth, Jesus is Son of God in a proprietary sense that would not have been understood during his lifetime. Indeed Jesus refers to teachings he made "when I was still with you." We might wonder why there is so much zombie-imaging in this mystical story. For Jesus has his followers touch his hands and feet, and eats fish with them. Is this physicality essential to faith in resurrection? No. Earlier gospels speak of Jesus appearing in various forms and times; and, even before the gospels, Saint Paul speaks of a "glorified body." As a matter of fact, Luke himself as well as Paul and the protomartyr Stephen have experiences of a non-physical Risen Christ. So what gives here? In the Graeco-Roman world, ghosts were considered commonplace; the standard tests for a ghost were having no real appendages with bone, nor having feet touching the ground nor the ability to show teeth or to eat. (Ghosts, like the angels, can't eat.) The symbolic message, then, is that the Christ is no ghost of an ordinary man named Jesus but rather a continuing manifestation of the Logos, the Word, fully and uniquely manifested in the Saviour's life.
How do we "see" the Risen Christ today? First, in those we are called to serve -- the least, the last, and the lost. Second, in our baptised brothers and sisters whose backs we have, who never walk alone. And third, in Christ's Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. It is in our sacramental food we receive the spiritual nourishment to encounter and serve Christ in one another and others. It is also in recognizing Christ in others that we come to experience Christ sacramentally. As one great bishop once remarked: If you don't find Christ in the beggar in the street, don't look for him in the Sacrament.
We are all witnesses to Christ changing people, including us, to change and redeem the world.
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