3^rd Sunday of Easter (B); April 15, 2018

Acts 3:13-15,17-19   Ps 42   1 Jn 2:1-5   Lk 24:35-48

Deacon Jim McFadden; St. John the Baptist C.C.

         In the mid-‘80s the Australian director Peter Weir (Mosquito Coast, The Truman Show) did his first American film, a successful thriller Witness (1985), which starred Harrison Ford (in his only performance that earned him an Academy Award nomination). The movie is about a young boy who sees the murder of an undercover police officer by corrupt coworkers and he’s hidden away in an Amish community for protection. As the story unfolds he recalls what happened by putting the pieces together, then he tells the Ford character named John Book (note the Gospel of John symbolism). The movie contains the marks of a witness: one sees, recalls, and tells.

In today’s readings the term ‘witness’ is mentioned twice. The first time is on the lips of Peter in our first reading of Acts. After the healing of a paralytic at the Door of the Temple, Peter exclaims: You “killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15).

The second time it is on the lips of the Risen Jesus. On the evening of Easter he opens the minds of the disciples to the mystery of his death and Resurrection, saying to them: “You are witness to these things” (Lk 24:48). The Apostles who saw the Risen Christ with their own eyes, could not keep silent about this incredible experience. Jesus had shown Himself to His innermost circle so that the truth of the Resurrection would reach everyone through them. What’s true for the Apostles is true for us because we are members of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ. So, Jesus commissioned His disciples to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19).

The only way we can enthusiastically and steadfastly embrace this Mission is that we have seen through the eyes of Faith that Jesus is Risen, that Jesus is alive and present among us. As missionary disciples we testify that Jesus is alive.

That’s what a witness does. We have seen through the Eye of the Soul the reality that Jesus is Risen and that He dwells within His Church. We see this reality not indifferently, but we become involved as we experience the Risen Christ through the Church and the Sacraments. From that starting point we recall the meaning of Jesus’ public ministry, culminating in salvation to the world. Once we grasp the profound meaning of the Resurrection, then we tell the Good News to the world. We do so not in a nonchalant, detached way, but as one who is profoundly grateful for being called into an intimate relationship with Jesus. A Christian witness is one whose life has been radically changed and they want to share with others what they have received in such abundance.

The content of a Christian witness is not promulgating a theory of living; it’s not about an ideology of self-realization; it’s not a complex system of theological propositions or moral prescriptions. No; what we tell to the world is the message of salvation, a real event. Our witness is about a Person, Who is the Risen Christ, the living and only Savior of the world. The Risen Jesus can only be effectively testified by those who have a personal experience of Him, which was initiated in Baptism and Confirmation. Their experience of the Risen Christ is nourished through the Eucharist in which they really receive His Body and Blood, His soul and divinity.

Christian witnesses are not perfect, to be sure; but, they do embrace conversion, which is reflected in their regular practice in Penitence through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Thanks to this journey into the mystery of Faith, every Christian can be an effective witness of the Risen Jesus. And, his or her witness is more credible, if their life is lived according to the Gospel, which results in a joyful, peaceful, gentle, and merciful life. As a Christian surrenders more and more to the Risen Christ, they let go of the vanities of the world with all of its self-absorbed conceits. A self-referential Christian cannot be an effective witness because he or she has become tone deaf and blind to the Resurrection; therefore, one is incapable of communicating the living power of Jesus and His tender mercy.

So, during the Easter season, let us resolve by the gift of Faith to be witnesses of the Risen Lord and to bring the Paschal gifts of joy and peace to the people we encounter. Amen.