By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
April 26, 2020: 3rd Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14,22-33; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
Christ is the fullness of Revelation of God. What God has been revealing through various means and varied persons, God finally revealed in fullness through God’s own Son and there is no other revelation that is fuller than this. However, Revelation has not ended with it. It goes on even today, it continues, it progresses! What is most important is what we do in the face of this continuous, progressive revelation.
There is an entire mindset and disposition that comes into play when we reflect on this aspect of revelation! First of all, one has to believe that there is an ongoing revelation from God – that God speaks today, here and now! Not that everything is said and done, recorded and sealed and there is nothing new to know! God reveals, in and through each and every thing that happens to us and around us. At this point of time there is a global happening that is filling the minds of every one invariably… the health emergency that the entire planet is facing. Apart from the great sadness and suffering that it is causing to persons and communities, there is a revelation here in too…this is where our eyes of faith have to become sharper to observe and understand, look and learn, spot and personalise.
Secondly, when we say God reveals in situations, it is not that God creates a situation so than it could be revealed… let us not give into that naive interpretation that is doing the rounds (in fact every time a so-called natural disaster strikes this interpretations is revived). It is so unintelligent and unChristian to say God sends some disasters to remind the human beings how they have gone astray!
The term so-called natural disasters is purposefully used here, because how many of these natural disasters are really and literally “natural”…if only we analyse them enough, we would see that ultimately there were human-made, the cause be greed, exploitation of the resources and insensitive approach to the common home, the planet earth and the universe. It is never that God sends disasters… God sends reminders and messages through persons who speak up and protest and call the attention of the world. But we are so negligent of these sign right upto the moment when the disaster breaks open! How blind are we to neglect the induced climate change that is ticking the globe’s way to annihilation. How hard headed are we to believe that using an extra automobile or cutting an odd tree in a locality or polluting a little rivulet in the vicinity would do nothing to the global wellbeing!
Having these reflections at the back of our mind…let us listen to the Word giving us three commands this day: Receive, Realise and Respond to God’s Revelation – only then shall you be truly considered God’s own people! When God reveals Godself and the essential truths to live by in our daily life…
…We receive. The disciples as they walked, when the Lord offered to walk with them, they accepted it, they received him. When Jesus began to speak to them about a lot of things that have happened they listened with patience, they received it. When they found Jesus had something divine to offer them, they invited him to stay with them, they received him in their house. Today as the Lord offers us revelations, we need to be in a position to receive, to welcome the message, to really listen and truly see what the Lord wants to communicate.
…We realise. Once Jesus broke the bread, they realised it was the Lord. Once we experience a unique sign from the Lord we would realise that it is the Lord who is at work. The Lord communicates himself to us, we need to realise how great we are to receive it and realise how wonderful it is to have the Lord with us. We need to realise our own frailties, faults and most of all the responsibility that we have right now, right here – to do whatever we can, however small it might be!
...We respond. The disciples as soon as they realised it was their Master, they could not wait, they left and returned to where they started from, to meet the apostles. They didnt mind the distance they had covered, nor the effort or the tiredness, they wanted to respond wholeheartedly and they did it. Responding to the revelations of the Lord, many a times, will demand much from us and we need to be prepared. We need to be prepared to put ourselves into some inconvenience, some suffering, some challenge and some call to reach out and to change our ways.
Even today, in and through the proclamation of the Word, through the experience of people shared, through the events that take place around us, through the majesty of the nature and power of the miracles, the Lord keeps revealing Godself to us. Let us not give into naive interpretations and fictional narratives! Let us get truly in touch with the Lord and sit at the Lord’s feet, ready to receive, realise and respond to God’s self revelation with love, faith and hope.
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.