The Risen Christ cannot be compartmentalised but penetrates every human reality

Thursday in the Octave of Easter

Acts 3:11-26; Lk 24: 35-48

I have a confession to make: I am still very much impressed by the nine young adults who received their baptism and/or confirmation last Saturday at the Easter Vigil. I was struck by how these young people decided to make such an important step in their life, a commitment which will change their life forever. The words preached by Peter two thousand years ago and that we have heard in today's first reading take on a new life:

"Repent, therefore and be converted
that your sins may be wiped away"

These words obviously do not apply only to them. In fact with them, at the Easter Vigil we renewed our baptismal vows. Repentance and conversion is therefore not something that is only done during Lent, but is something that characterises our whole Christian life. In fact, the crippled man who had been cured can act as a symbol for us to see how we are called to be, healed from the sin that cripples us and brought to a new life by the passion death and resurrection of Christ.

If it is hard to change, to be transformed as persons, it is as hard to believe that Jesus has really risen from the dead. We must not feel discouraged when we find it hard to believe this. Neither can we say that the disciples were luckier and that it was easier for them to believe than for us.

Let us have a closer look at what happens in today's Gospel. The two disciples share with the rest of their friends that they have just seen the Risen Christ. and yet, as they are still speaking, Jesus appears again and they think that he is a ghost!

Jesus does not scold them or chide them for finding it hard to believe - yet again! Jesus knows that it is hard to us humans to believe in this. So he meets them where they are - when we are as humans:

"Look at my hands and my feet
that it is I myself
Touch me and see."

Jesus approaches us in our language, he teaches us with symbols we can understand.

Jesus asks them to touch him and to eat fish to show them that his resurrection is not just something related to a world beyond this one but affects the present life: the life of daily work and toil, of politics and economics, of relationships.

Jesus's resurrection in his glorious body to which not even walls can be an obstacle means that nothing can be an obstacle to the Risen Christ. Jesus cannot be kept in a compartment, but he pervades, every area of our life.

"You are witnesses of these things!"

Am I really a living up to being a witness of these things?