HOMILY/SERMON FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B 14TH APRIL 2024

HOMILY/SERMON FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR B 14TH APRIL 2024

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19ab; Ps.4; 1Jn.2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-48

… _by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments_ . (1Jn.2:3)

Ongoing Spiritual Enlightenment!

Jesus is the Word of God. Yet, it is possible to be familiar with the scriptures without having a real encounter with Jesus. When this happens, the person in question will be in a state of ignorance that he/she is both unaware of and unwilling to admit. In such situation, one will confidently be acting in ignorance. The readings of today set to address such a situation. They invite us to put on a learning disposition that allows us to unlearn (what we think/feel we already learnt), in order to relearn. The focus is to know the scripture to the point that we truly encounter Christ. We have not yet known the scripture until we can decipher what Jesus is saying to us today in our present and peculiar situation. If not, the bible will only seem like a book of history, having no touch with the reality of today.

In the first reading, Peter confronted the people with their guilt in condemning Jesus. They hated Jesus to the point of preferring a murderer to him. However, Peter is conscious of the fact that the people acted in this manner, with the thought that they were condemning a man who spoke and acted against the scriptures. Killing Jesus was an attempt to preserve the law and teach others how to do the same. But how can you preserve or promote something that you have not clearly understood? Jesus’ murderers were unaware of their ignorance of the Scripture; so, while trying to preserve it, they actually acted in error. However, it was after the resurrection that their mistake became glaring to them. The fact that they were unable to truly kill Jesus or bring his mission to an end, clearly showed that they were mistaken.

So, Peter invited them to repentance after instructing them. Remember that Saul was also in such situation; killing Christians, he thought he was doing something noble, until he encountered Christ on his way to Damascus. The point here is that, irrespective of who we are or what we have become, we must never close our hearts to on-going spiritual formation and enlightenment. It is sheer foolishness and ignorance to argue for the rightness of an action/event on the basis that it has always been so. If there is one thing that must keep increasing from generation to generation, it is level of enlightenment. So, a level of awareness that was acceptable in the past generation, will be considered ignorance in this generation.

What we must do today, is to humbly accept enlightenment whenever it comes to us. A time comes when you may have to apologize for something you thought was right all these while. Our level of awareness is our level of dedication to the Christian faith. If this awareness is not growing, then we are not maturing in the faith. In the first reading, the people had to repent of what they thought was the right thing to do because they accepted on-going spiritual formation. Like these people, the sins we confess at the confessional, are always dependent on our level of awareness and enlightenment as to what constitutes sin. When this enlightenment is low, we see ourselves not confessing certain sins because we don’t even agree that they are sins in the first place. A sin that has been justified by the penitent will not be mentioned in the confessional. But then, what constitutes sin is not dependent on how we feel about it.

It therefore means that the more mature we are in Christianity, we more aware become of what offends God and the more urged we will be to repent of them. Again, on-going spiritual formation will make us more uncomfortable with sin, such that, should we fall out of grace, we will be quick to make amend and return to the Lord. If you can afford to be comfortable when not in the state of grace, then something is wrong somewhere. The second reading went further to point out another effect of a heightened enlightenment in spiritual matters – our level of commitment to a life of holiness. The extent to which holiness is the project of the Christian, is the extent to which he/she avoids/falls into sin. A truly committed Christian knows when sin is knocking at his/her door and will not want to open. But one who is not committed to holiness, goes about knocking at the door of sin. When you really love someone, you will make frantic effort not to offend the person.

In the gospel reading, Jesus appeared before the disciples who thought that they were seeing a ghost that has come to hurt them. All that Jesus did and said at all his appearances to the disciples was to strengthen their faith, assure them of forgiveness and commission them to do the same. Beloved, Christianity is not about _gbas gbos_ (an eye for an eye). Christianity is not about “no gree for anybody”. The Christianity is a person of forgiveness. If you are busy keeping scores or revenging all wrongs done to you, then you are too busy to be a Christian. See, life is too transient for anyone to loose his or her peace. Peace is a great asset that those who lack it are truly poor. Little wonder peace was Jesus’ first greeting to the disciples after his resurrection.

Beloved, you cannot have peace if you are not encountering Jesus in the Scriptures. You cannot have peace if you are not growing in your spiritual life. You cannot have peace if holiness of life is not your personal project. You cannot have peace if you cannot forgive. You cannot have peace without Jesus. Peace is true wealth