On this third Sunday of Easter may we join with the Psalmist in his desire: “Lord, let your face shine on us.” This is a statement of trust and when proclaimed by Christians it becomes a statement of hope. There is hope because our Lord has triumphed over sin and death through His Cross and Resurrection. Throughout this Easter season the disciples slowly come to understand and believe in this reality. In our Gospel we are finally told concerning them that “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
Our Lord comes to us on this day and proposes the same questions to us. “Why are you troubled? Why do questions arise in your hearts?” The answer to these questions is the same that our Lord gave to His apostles: “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.”
This statement should take our minds back to last week’s Gospel where we came to encounter Saint Thomas. Thomas who beheld these same hands and feet that still bore the marks of the crucifixion. Therefore, be it the apostles or ourself who beholds these hands and feet we must remember that through the marks of the crucifixion that we have been set free.
The Book of Acts as well as 1st John instructs us on the importance of repentance and turning away from sin. “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.” “The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments. Those who say, “I know him,” but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.”
It was pointed out in our Gospel that the disciples came to know Him through the breaking of bread. We too come to know our Blessed Lord through the breaking of bread. This breaking of bread is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where we come to encounter Christ through the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
Therefore on this day may we come to abandon of sinfulness and begin to trust and believe in the Gospel. If we are to turn away from sin then we must embrace these wounds of our Blessed Lord. To fester in our sin, to make up excuses of how it right and just only turns us into liars who reject these wounds of our Lord.
Thankfully for us our Lord is merciful and just. Let us strive for Heaven each day and when we fall short of this reality may we allow the Lord to let His face shine upon us. For this is the face of mercy and forgiveness. This is the face of the Savior who dies upon the cross out of love for us that one day we to may come to join with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. May nothing on this earth be placed before this reality!
We thus need to cooperate with grace. Grace as poured out from the life giving waters of baptism which have integrated us into Christ and His Church on this earth. Grace as is poured out in the Sacrament of Confession when we come to see the merciful face of our Lord. Grace as poured out in the Breaking of Bread where we come to behold Christ present with us in the Eucharist. Let us strive to behold the face of our Lord and come to embrace His Hands and Feet which bare the wounds of the crucifixion which have set us free.
