One aspect of the Easter season I find so moving is the vivid stories of the encounters with the risen Christ. They are personal, moving and sometimes even humorous. Thomas, who struggles with doubt that the testimony of his friends is actually true, encounters Christ in the flesh, who gets right to the point: “Bring your hand here and put it into my side” so that he might believe.
In one of his appearances to Mary Magdalene, Jesus has to admonish his overjoyed friend, “Quit holding onto me, I have not yet ascended to my Father.” These resurrection appearances and the accounts of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles are meant to convey an important truth of our Christian faith: The resurrection of Jesus was real, personal and transformative for the community of believers who encountered the risen Christ.
The fruit of the transformative encounter with Christ is perhaps most powerfully seen through the compelling figure of Saul in the Acts of the Apostles. After his conversion on the road to Damascus, he tried to join the disciples, but they were still afraid of him. This man who persecuted believers with great zeal and countenanced murder is now speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord. How can this be? Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ and the gift of the Sprit have transformed him: He is a new man living in spiritual freedom. Indeed, we hear the entire Church was at peace, walking in fear of the Lord and the consolation of the Spirit. This is the gift of the Father — the gift of peace and new life that come from the risen Christ and the Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, we return to the time before Jesus died, to his farewell address in the last supper discourses. Jesus sums up three years of teaching and ministry into simple and vital commands: Love one another as I have loved you and remain in me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.” The promise and commands of Jesus at the Last Supper are fulfilled in today’s account from Acts — the nascent Church. The community of disciples are loving and serving as Jesus. They are trusting and following the Spirit. God’s gift of the risen Christ and the Spirit are a game-changer. The transformation of Saul, the peace of the Church and its growth are evidence of God’s power.
The most of important lesson I have learned as a priest is that God wants us to trust and rely on him completely, like children. I learned this lesson in a particularly fraught time in 2013 and 2014, when I was serving as Delegate for Safe Environment in our local Church wounded by scandal and sin. Jesus meant what he said in today’s Gospel — without him we can do nothing, and when we abide in him, we will bear much fruit. It is often in the time of crucible — which is exactly where I found myself — that the ruse of our self-sufficiency is laid bare. But hope was there too — in the outstretched hand of the risen Christ and in the Spirit of life.
As our community and nation continue to struggle under the weight of this pandemic, persistent injustice and polarization, the wisdom of today’s readings offers us a sure path to peace: to love in deed and truth, to remain in Jesus, and to proclaim humbly and boldly the goodness of God in the gifts of the risen Christ and the Spirit of life.
Father Griffith is pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes in Minneapolis and liaison for restorative justice and healing for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He also serves as the Wenger Family Fellow of Law at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, where he teaches courses in Catholic social teaching, jurisprudence and restorative justice.
Sunday, May 2
Fifth Sunday of Easter
