3rd Sunday of Easter 2024
Fr. Mark Gatto
Preached: April 14, 2024
Jesus has wounds. He had wounds even after the Resurrection. Our Christian Faith teaches that Jesus is truly God and truly human. Fully human like us in all things but sin. He suffered and he died. After his Resurrection, the Risen Lord is made known to the the disciples in various ways. It says that Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. In the appearance in today’s Gospel it says that “he showed them his hands and his feet.” In seeing and touching the wounds of Jesus, they recognized his risen presence with them.
After his death, the disciples struggled with their faith. They were lost in a moment of doubt, abandonment and suffering. The presence of the Risen Lord Jesus gave them hope and courage to move forward. If we are struggling with our faith, if we are feeling abandoned by God or going through some suffering, then we too need to experience the presence of the Risen Lord Jesus. One way we experience the Risen Lord is in the Breaking of the Bread, the Eucharist. But another important way is through seeing and touching the wounds of Jesus.
Where will see and touch the wounds of Jesus today? In suffering and wounded humanity. Jesus shared our humanity, to suffer with us. In the wounds of humanity, we see and touch the wounds of Jesus. In the one human family, in our world today, we need to see the wounds causing so much suffering. In poverty, in war, in divisions. Are we ready to look upon the wounds of humanity? With faith we see and touch the wounds of Jesus in the wounds of humanity. That needs to lead us to work for peace and to heal these wounds in whatever way we are able.
Where will see and touch the wounds of Jesus today? In the wounds found in the body of Christ, the Church. St. Paul speaks of the church as the body of Christ. In the wounds of the church we see and touch the wounds of Jesus. Sometimes wounds caused by persecution.
Recently when in Rome I went to visit the Church of St. Bartholomew on Tiber Island. They created a sanctuary there to remember the martyrs of the 20th and 21st Century. In the various side chapels there was a memory of recent martyrs in various parts of the world. Asia and Oceania, in America, in Europe, in Africa and martyrs of Communism and martyrs of Fascism. Martyrs who were Catholic and also of other Christian churches. When we see these wounds of Jesus in the wounds of the church caused by persecution, it should strengthen our faith by the witness of martyrs.
But we also see wounds caused by injuries and abuse within and by the church itself. Are we ready to see and touch the wounds caused by our church with honesty and desire to work to heal them?
Where will we see and touch the wounds of Jesus? Within ourselves as well. Our own sufferings, our own grief, the hurts and betrayals of life. Jesus embraced our humanity. We can face our own wounds for there we see and touch the wounds of Jesus.
When we are struggling with doubt, with sense of abandonment, with suffering, our faith does not ignore these realities. Like the disciples of Jesus, we need to experience the presence of the Risen Lord Jesus. We need to see and touch the wounds of Jesus found in wounded humanity, found in the wounded body of Christ, the Church and in the wounds within our own lives. Faith allows us to recognize Jesus even in these wounds and then moves us to act to bring healing and light.
