Dear Immaculate Family,

Today’s Gospel, as all other accounts of Jesus’ apparitions, is intended to highlight the reality of the resurrection. Jesus is not a ghost or an hallucination. He is real. He can be seen and touched. His wounds can be examined. He even asked for something to eat.

The risen Jesus is the same Jesus they knew, the one who was crucified. But, at the same time, he is different. There is something new, something different in him, something they had never seen before. Jesus seems to transcend what we usually think of as our bodies. He appears out of nowhere. He can pass through walls and locked doors. When he shows up, he is not immediately recognized.

God did something new in Jesus’ resurrection, and, in a sense, God is doing something new each time we experience the risen Christ. After his resurrection, Jesus was the same Jesus, but different at the same time. After having met the risen Christ, the apostles were the same apostles but radically different at the same time. A bunch of depressed, frightened, doubtful and diffident disciples became a community of witnesses who boldly proclaimed the good news to everyone and eventually didn’t hesitate to give up their own lives for the sake of Jesus.

There is a big difference between the apostles locked up in the beginning of today’s Gospel and the apostles preaching in the temple area in the first reading. They met the risen Lord and experienced the power of the resurrection. After having found the Lord, our lives cannot be the same. That’s at the very heart of Easter.

As he did with his disciples, Jesus gives us peace, forgives our sins, opens our hearts with the Scriptures, breaks the bread with us, and sends us out to mission… Sounds familiar? That’s what happens every Sunday or every time we celebrate the Eucharist. If we have encountered with the Lord, heard his word, received his peace and forgiveness, shared a meal with him and touched his body in the Holy Communion, then our lives cannot be the same, and we are to bear witness to all those things.

God bless you all!

Fr. Rolando