Second Sunday of Easter April 11, 2010 Reflections on Acts 5: 12-16 Revelation 19: 11a, 12-13, 17-19 John 20: 19-31 by SisterPatricia Crowley, OSB

I. Introduction:

The Resurrection is an experience of the Living God.

“If you have understood it, it is not God.” That is St. Augustine speaking (from Sermon 117.5 quoted in Elizabeth Johnson’s Quest for the Living God, 2008.)

In Benedictine life, we claim a charism of seeking God. Unless what we seek is the living God, it will get detoured over and over again to a stagnant image, and unchanging sense of the Divine!

Elizabeth Johnson describes today’s quest for the living God in her book by that title. I have just begun to read this new book of Beth’s and, as I spent time with today’s readings this past week, my thoughts kept returning to her book.

II. What happens to us, human beings, when we encounter the living God and we seek that God who is alive?

The Easter readings give us clues as to what happens when we touch into the experience of the living God. They help us to get a sense of what the people experienced as they began to put their memories of Jesus among them and their experience of the Resurrection and subsequently their profound experience of changing within their very selves - together. I want to look at some of the clues given us in the scripture readings for the Octave of Easter.

A) In Acts last Monday we heard one clue – that by learning to reflect well on history and especially what is written about God within that history, we can get some insight to this dynamic God. The story of the day of Pentecost shows Peter and the disciples beginning to make connections among their sense of history and the many diverse experiences they had of Jesus before and after the Resurrection. The Spirit moves.

B) On Wednesday we heard the Emmaus story from Luke which shows us that people listening well to story and to the events of the time can lead to a new awareness of what is already present.

C) Later in that same story, we see that in the breaking of the bread at this table and in our lives together, we touch into the wonder of the Risen One, the living God.

D) In the synoptic accounts of Mary at the tomb (read on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday), we see that when a human being faces her fear and moves ahead even when others don’t believe what she is telling them, the reality of the living God can become apparent in unexpected ways (in someone Mary thought was just the gardener.)

E) In John’s version of the Mary at the tomb story, read on Tuesday, another human experience becomes clear. When we are able to own our own sense of loss as Mary did at the tomb, we may be able to recognize anew the living God in your midst.

F) Today is Mercy Sunday, a long time tradition (from the time of Augustine, I believe) focuses us on the centrality of reconciliation, repentance, sorrow for sin etc., and emphasizes the deep relationship between the Paschal Mystery and the human experience of forgiving and being forgiven. Nowhere else in human experience is the vitality of God so evident!

G) Friday’s scriptures shared two human experiences that could set the scene for even keener awareness of the living God:

i) In the process of doing good deeds for others and of courageously facing the consequences of those deeds, as Peter did in Acts, we might be opened to new sacred realities.

ii) In John’s gospel account of the night of unsuccessful fishing, we see that sometimes when we feel called to do something that appears completely illogical and kind of silly, that going against all expectations, frees us to experience a full sense of the living God.

H) Yesterday, we heard a selection from Acts that when we have the courage to speak out in the name of God, that God is manifest in profoundly new ways, that God is alive!

….and today???

A) In the gospel story from John

A favorite story for many - for Thomas is so very human. I will believe it when I see it!

…and then, Thomas, by touching into the wounds of the living Christ, the living God, throughout the world, we, as Thomas, come to believe at a new level.

We know that profound changes occur in our lives when we are able to touch into our own woundedness and when we have the privilege of touching into the pain and hurt of those in poverty, those being rejected by others, those who are hungry, etc.

After the earthquake in Haiti, I felt glued to the TV news at night and found myself deeply moved at the sight of Haitians pulling each other out of the rubble and of praying and singing in the streets. The profound experience of the cross in today’s world can open us to God.

B) In the first reading from Acts

Another clear way that human beings experience the living God is found in the story of Peter (in the first reading) where Peter reaches out to others and is able to give them a healing touch.

When we reach out to others, we too may be able to be a healing presence and may come to know the power of the living God.

C) In Revelation

In the second reading, we see John exiled to the isle of Patmos because he was the resisting the dominant culture of the Roman Empire. In his exile, he writes and encourages others to resist the parts of the society that does not allow the living God to become fully present. Today we might ask ourselves what is it in our world that squelches the sense of the living God – war, violence, racism, injustice, prejudice etc.

Our experience

A) Last Saturday night I left here shortly after our Easter Vigil had ended to go over to Madonna de La Strada. As I pulled out of the driveway, I realized that the rest of the world was passing by seemingly oblivious to the sacredness of that night.

B) It was the same kind of feeling that has engulfed me when I have been in deep grief and suddenly, I realize that the whole world had not stopped. It had just continued as usual even though there was a huge hole in my experience of the universe.

C) I think the experience of the living God is like that. It catches us by surprise. It sometimes seems almost impossible to hang on to….as the rest of life continues in its ordinary way.

Conclusion

A) The Easter experiences give us but a glimpse.

B) The fact is that the experience of the living God and how that reality comes into our lives is a mystery beyond compare.

C) The early Church, at times, thought it grasped that living God (we had an example of that in the portion of Chapter 3 of Ephesians which was part of our Vigil last evening). Writers poetically describe the reality of the living God but history shows us that God can never be contained. The fullness of this dynamic God unfolds each and every day.

D) Let us continue to see that God who is alive in our midst!

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