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| "But daddy, what happened to the flea?" |
(Easter
2022: This homily was given on April 17, 2022 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly,
R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Acts 10:34a,
37-43; Colossians 3:1-4; Luke 24:13-35.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Easter 2022]
To hear is one thing; to believe and understand what you hear is something else entirely. Let me make this point clear by sharing with
you 3 little anecdotes my sister sent me:
A four-year-old girl was learning to say the Lord’s Prayer. She had heard her mother say it many, many times. She finally decided to try it on her own. She said, “Mommy, listen to this: Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us some e-mail. Amen.”
A father was reading Bible stories to his five-year-old son Billy. He read, “The man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city, but his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.” Billy said, “But daddy, what happened to the flea?”
After Mass one Sunday, a little boy said to the pastor, “Father, when I grow up, I’m going to give you lots of money.” The priest said, “Well, thank you, Tommy—but why?”
“Because
daddy says you’re one of the poorest preachers we’ve ever had.”
All three of those children HEARD something, but all three children misunderstood what they heard! That four-year-old girl’s mother must have been having trouble downloading her e-mail; little Billy didn’t understand that “flee” was a command given to Lot’s wife, not a companion of Lot’s wife; and Tommy thought his dad was making a comment on the size of the pastor’s bank account, not a comment on the pastor’s speaking ability (or lack thereof).
And, by the way, Tommy and his father are NOT parishioners of St. Pius X!
To hear is one thing; to understand what you hear is something else entirely.
Today we hear—over and over again—the glorious proclamation of Easter: “Jesus Christ is risen! He’s alive. He has conquered sin and Satan and eternal death!”
We’ve all heard the message many times, right? But a more important question is: Do we really understand it? Do we really understand the importance and the meaning of this decisive event in human history?
It’s not a sin to say we don’t, or that we’re struggling with the issue. After all, not even the disciples understood the resurrection immediately! Remember the encounter Jesus had with two of them Easter Sunday afternoon on the road to Emmaus? As they were walking along, Jesus appeared to them in his resurrected body (although the Bible says they were restrained from recognizing him). They began to converse with our Lord, and very quickly the subject turned to the tragic events of Holy Thursday and Good Friday. At one point in the discussion, the two disciples say, “We were hoping that [Jesus] was the one who would set Israel free,” indicating that they thought our Lord had somehow failed in his mission. That, of course, was a gross misunderstanding on their part. Then they add, “Besides all this, today, the third day since these things happened, some women of our group have just brought us some astonishing news. They were at the tomb before dawn and failed to find his body, but returned with the tale that they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive.”
Jesus responds, “What little sense you have! How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have announced! Did not the Messiah have to undergo all this so as to enter into his glory?”
Jesus then gives them a long sermon (longer, by the way, than any sermon Fr. Ray will ever give!), in which he helps them to understand all the prophecies of the Old Testament which predicted his suffering, death and resurrection.
So it’s clear from this story: in spite of the fact that these two disciples had already heard about the resurrection from Mary Magdalene and the other women, prior to their conversation with Jesus, they did not understand it—or even believe it!
The world today is full of those who call themselves “Christians”—and yet, many of these professed followers of Christ also misunderstand the nature and the meaning of what happened on that very first Easter Sunday.
For example, some think that the resurrection of Jesus was just an experience the apostles had in their minds: something like a dream or a mirage. I wonder what “Doubting” Thomas would say to that? Pardon the pun, but no doubt he’d say, “Look, friend, I touched his wounds with my own two hands; it was no dream! Although in many ways it was a dream come true—for me, and the apostles, and the Blessed Mother, and the other faithful women.”
Some think that the resurrection of Jesus was like the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Not so! When Lazarus came back, he returned to THIS mortal, earthly life, and he eventually had to die again! He was a man who had 2 funerals!
Jesus rose to a life in which there is no death!
Some think that since Jesus has risen from the dead, heaven is guaranteed for everyone—except maybe a few sordid characters like Hitler and Stalin. Wrong again. The resurrection of Jesus means that everyone’s ticket to heaven is bought and paid for in full. But—as some of us know from experience—you can have a ticket to go somewhere, and never make the trip! To actually go on the trip you’ve got to pick up the ticket and use it. Faith and charity, rooted in God’s grace, enable us to obtain and cash-in on our ticket to the kingdom, which has been bought and paid for in full by Jesus. As our Lord said in Matthew 7: 21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
Does that mean that Jesus was raised only for good, holy people? Not at all. That’s yet another misunderstanding. He was raised for everyone, and his salvation is offered to everyone—but each of us must reach out for it in freedom and repentance!
It reminds me of the story of a very holy woman I once knew named Annamaria Schmidt. Annamaria, who was a very good friend of my mother, grew up in what is now the Czech Republic. She lived through the horrors of World War II, saw the Nazis kill members of her family and close friends, and suffered imprisonment and torture herself .
One day during the war, she came upon a seriously wounded Russian soldier lying in a ditch. He was very close to death. At that point she had almost lost her faith (given all she had been through), but this providential encounter renewed it. After she had wiped his face, and given him a drink of water from her water bottle, this soldier—who had grown up in an atheistic, communist country—said to her, “Can you tell me about the man?” At first she didn’t know what he meant. He repeated himself, “Can you tell me about the man? Many years ago, my grandmother told me that there was a man who had died for me, and who would help me and save me if I called out to him.” So she told him about “the man” who died and rose—and she baptized him in that ditch just a few seconds before he died.
Jesus was raised from the dead for everyone—even that Russian soldier. In his dying moments, he reached out for salvation in Baptism. Some of us have already been baptized, but have committed serious sins which we think cannot be forgiven. That’s a lie! Jesus did not rise only for good people; he died and rose to make us good! All we need to do is make a good confession, and we can begin again!
And finally, there are some who think that the resurrection of Jesus means that he’s now up in heaven and no longer here on earth. It’s very sad that so many have this particular misunderstanding about the resurrection—because it leads them to miss Mass on Sundays and holy days. The truth is: the risen, glorified Jesus becomes present to us, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist at every single Mass. Pope Pius XII once said, “Jesus Christ [rose and] ascended to heaven, but he never left the earth!” He was speaking there of the Eucharist.
And, of course, the Lord is present to us in many other ways as well—if we have the eyes of faith. As he himself said, “I am with you always, until the end of the world!” (Matthew 28: 20)
To hear is one thing; to understand and believe what you hear is something else.
Lord Jesus, we have heard the glorious proclamation of your victorious rising from the dead. Give us the grace to understand what we have heard—and to believe it with our whole heart, so that we will joyfully live our Catholic faith on this earth, and someday share your resurrected life forever in heaven. Amen.
