Third Sunday of Easter B: April 14, 2024

Why is it that at least some of the disciples present in the upper room were terrified when Jesus appeared so abruptly in their midst? I mean, the two disciples who encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus had just finished telling the others about their experience. They had recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Everyone there had just heard about this; and yet when Jesus wished them ‘peace,’ “...they were startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost.” Jesus asks them, “Why are you troubled?” Why, indeed.

They are alarmed with fright because they saw Jesus as a manifestation of death: He is a ghost, they thought. They have to learn that Jesus is a manifestation of life. Remember, this is the day of the Resurrection itself. It has been only three days since Jesus died and was buried. It will take many more weeks to realize that Jesus is a manifestation of life, and everlasting life at that.

Because Jesus died on the cross as an act of love, he was not conquered by death. In fact, he has conquered death. Now, the living Jesus asks the disciples to touch him, and even to eat with him. He was really alive. And, for those who were in contact with the risen Jesus, just like at Emmaus, this contact is through eating the Eucharist where Jesus is present; in doing this, we share his resurrection.

The risen Christ appears to us not only in the Eucharist, but also in the wounded, the hungry, in all those who need us. In both cases we can fail to recognize him. The church uses as its symbol the cross, but it is easy for us to see it as a sign of death, just as the disciples did. Just as Jesus conquered death through the cross because it is an act of love, so it is through death as an act of love that we know real life.

A nurse in training went to one of her classes one day. The professor announced that there would be a pop quiz. She breezed through the questions, until she came to the last question. The last question was this: “What is the first name of the woman who cleans this building?” She thought it must be some kind of a joke. Whoever heard of that kind of a question on a test? She had seen the cleaning woman. She could describe her physically, but why should she know her name? She was a ghost to this nurse in training. She handed in her test, leaving the last question unanswered. She asked the professor, “Are you going to count that last question on the final score?” “Absolutely,” said the professor, “In your careers you are going to meet many people. Each one is significant. Each person deserves your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello.” Today’s Gospel reminds us that for the risen Lord, each person he met was important; no one was a ghost.

In the same way, the poor, the hungry, the oppressed are easy to see as a sign of death, for they are. They are like the church, like the cross, a threat to life as we know it, to the world we have built. It would be easy to shun them and forget them simply as a sign of failure, a sign of death - just like a ghost.

The problem is if we do that, then we become ghosts ourselves, just shadows of a risen Christ, mere shadows of love as Jesus knew it. Isn’t it strange, that it is through recognizing Christ in Eucharist and the wounded, that we belong to the life of the risen Christ and share in his conquest of death?