Father Dan Juelfs
Homily from the Televised Mass, NewsCenter1
Third Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2024

Have you anything to eat? 

On this third Sunday of our Easter celebration, we hear an account of another of Jesus’ appearance to his disciples following the resurrection. Another occasion of Jesus presenting himself to the disciples basically to encourage and to bring about their faith. Bring them to the reality of the fact that he has risen from the dead. Move them beyond the fear, the confusion, the difficulty, that they went through when they saw the crucifixion — all of that struggle and difficulty. 

Today’s account references, in a very real sense, two appearances. On one hand, we find the two disciples that Jesus had appeared to on the road to Emmaus, we don’t have the account of his actual appearance but, we find the two of them coming to the others to proclaim that we’ve seen the Lord. And while they’re there Jesus appears to them again. Jesus makes his presence known in the Upper Room while those two are telling the other disciples of their experience of what they’ve come to see. 

On both occasions we find Jesus proving, as it were, making his appearance known, as the reality of his resurrection. To bring them to know that that was in fact what happened. In the Emmaus event, we find that the disciples recognize him in the breaking of the bread. When he offered to share a meal with them. They realized that this truly was the person of Jesus. That he was very much present to them. 

In this appearance, this account we just read, Jesus simply asks for something to eat, in a sense a very routine kind of question. But he did it so that the disciples would realize that he was truly there. He was truly present. It allows the disciples to realize that he was there in human form. They weren’t seeing a ghost. There was more to it than that. It was the reality of Christ’s presence. 

Not a ghost but definitely a human with some exceptional abilities. Again, he comes through the locked door. Again, he appears to them despite the fact that they had the room secured. 

On both occasions, whether it was the road to Emmaus or this occasion, Jesus takes the opportunity to open the scriptures. To help the disciples recognize, to help the disciples put together the things that have been put off part of their history in terms of their Old Testament, what we would refer to as their Old Testament faith, but allowing them to see how God was progressively working and how all of these things that were happening had been proclaimed. Helping them to realize in that context the reality of resurrection. Jesus had told them he was going to suffer and die but on the third day rise again. And he continues to appear to them and continues to remind them of that. That this is all everything that had happened despite their confusion had been foretold in the scriptures. 

How do we experience the presence of Christ? How do we understand the continuous actions of God throughout history? How does it come to us? Because in very many ways we too need those assurances, those reminders of the presence of the resurrected Lord in our midst. We, too, need to put the actions of Jesus in perspective. Perspective of the history that had been proclaimed — God’s actions throughout the world. 

Our celebration of Easter each year reminds us again who God is and who we are. Our God is a God who continually invites us to be reconciled, reunited with him when we fail, and we are the people that seeks that forgiveness who recognize that we need it in our lives. We’re reminded by our reading of scripture, of the history of God’s actions in the world, and we take the opportunity during the Easter celebration, to renew our baptismal promises proclaiming our faith in God, our faith and his actions in our lives.