Third Sunday of Easter, cycle b

LUKE 24:35-48
WHEN I WAS ABOUT FIVE, I REMEMBER MY GRANDPARENTS GAVE MY PARENTS A LARGE BIBLE. IT HAD GREAT ILLUSTRATIONS – FAMOUS PAINTINGS. EACH BOOK STARTED WITH BEAUTIFUL LETTERING. THERE WERE MAPS OF PALESTINE IN THE TIME OF JESUS, AND MOSES, AND ABRAHAM. I REMEMBER HOW I USED TO OPEN IT UP AND LOOK AT IT WITH WONDER. AND IT SAT ON OUR COFFEE TABLE, AND IN ABOUT TWO OR THREE MONTHS, IT WAS NOT BEING OPENED UP AT ALL BY THAT CURIOUS FIVE YEAR OLD, AND I DON'T THINK IT HAD EVER BEEN OPENED UP BY MY PARENTS. EVENTUALLY IT GOT MOVED TO THE TOP SHELF IN MY PARENT'S CLOSET SO THAT IT WOULDN'T BE RUINED. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO IT TO THIS DAY.
I MIGHT HAVE NEVER KNOWN WHAT THE INSIDE OF A BIBLE LOOKS LIKE HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR A MORMON. IN THE SUMMER OF MY 17TH YEAR I WORKED WITH A MORMON GUY MY AGE. WE WERE BOTH GOING OFF TO COLLEGE, ME TO CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, AND HIM TO BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY IN UTAH. WHEN WE TALKED ABOUT RELIGION, WE BOTH KNEW WHAT OUR RESPECTIVE CHURCHES TAUGHT, BUT HE COULD BACK UP HIS STATEMENTS BY QUOTING SCRIPTURE. MY GRANDMOTHER GAVE ME AN OLD BIBLE SHE HAD, AND MOST EVENINGS I WOULD READ FROM IT. BY THE END OF THE SUMMER, I AT LEAST WAS ABLE TO GO BACK TO THE BIBLE AND FIND THAT A LOT OF WHAT HE SAID WAS TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT.
TODAY WE HEAR THE APOSTLES INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE FOR THOSE TO WHOM THEY WERE PREACHING. THEY WERE SPEAKING AS IF THEY KNEW SOMETHING, WITH AUTHORITY. AND IN THE GOSPEL, WE FIND OUT WHERE THIS CAME FROM. JESUS, APPEARING IN THEIR MIDST AFTER HIS CRUCIFIXION, OPENED THEIR MINDS SO THAT THEY COULD UNDERSTAND SCRIPTURE. AND WHY DID HE WANT THEM TO UNDERSTAND SCRIPTURE? SO THAT THEY WOULD BE WITNESSES TO THE FACT THAT “THE CHRIST HAD TO SUFFER AND RISE FROM THE DEAD ON THE THIRD DAY SO THAT REPENTANCE, FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, WOULD BE PREACHED IN HIS NAME TO ALL THE NATIONS, BEGINNING FROM JERUSALEM.” JESUS KNEW THAT THE APOSTLES, WHO WERE PRETTY SIMPLE PEOPLE, WERE OVERCOME WITH SURPRISE AND WERE EXPERIENCING GREAT JOY AT WHAT WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE – THAT JESUS, WHOM THEY HAD SEEN NAILED TO A CROSS, WAS ALIVE AND AMONG THEM. BUT THE ONLY WAY THE APOSTLES COULD MAKE SENSE OF THIS AMAZING FACT, THE ONLY WAY THEY COULD COMMUNICATE THIS TO OTHERS, WAS TO KNOW WHAT IT MEANT, AND THAT REQUIRED THAT THEY UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES PROPERLY, THAT THEY UNDERSTAND THEM IN THE LIGHT OF THE TEACHINGS, LIFE, DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS.
THE SCRIPTURES TO WHICH JESUS REFERRED WERE THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE LIVING CHURCH EVENTUALLY TOOK OTHER WRITINGS, AND AFTER DEBATE AND PRAYER AND SOMETIMES ANGER AND BITTERNESS AND EVEN EXCOMMUNICATION, THEY SETTLED ON THE BOOKS OF THE SO-CALLED NEW TESTAMENT. EACH BOOK HAD TO MEET CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS; IT HAD TO HAVE BEEN APOSTOLIC – TRACEABLE TO THE APOSTLES OR AT LEAST THOSE EARLY CHURCH LEADERS WHO HAD BEEN TAUGHT BY THE APOSTLES. IT HAD TO BE UNIVERSALLY RECOGNIZED BY THE MAJOR CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES AS BEING INSPIRED. IT HAD TO HAVE BEEN USED IN LITURGY – THAT IS, READ ALONG WITH OLD TESTAMENT BOOKS DURING THE CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST; AND IT HAD TO BE CONSISTENT WITH WHAT THE LIVING, BREATHING CHURCH KNEW TO BE TRUE. SOME BOOKS FOR EXAMPLE WERE REJECTED BECAUSE THEY IMPLIED THAT JESUS WAS NOT REALLY A HUMAN BEING; SOME WERE REJECTED BECAUSE THEY IMPLIED THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WAS A FORCE, NOT A PERSON.
DOWN THROUGH THE YEARS, THE BIBLE HAS ALWAYS BEEN CENTRAL TO CHRISTIANITY. IT HAS BEEN THE ONE THING ALL CHRISTIANS AGREE UPON, BUT IT HAS ALSO BEEN THE MOST DIVISIVE THING IN CHRISTIANITY. WHY IS THAT? ST. JEROME SAID THE IGNORANCE OF THE SCRIPTURES WAS IGNORANCE OF CHRIST. I THINK WE SEE THAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY ADD THE PHRASE, PROPERLY INTERPRETED, TO THAT STATEMENT; WE NEED TO HAVE OUR MINDS OPENED BY JESUS IF WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES PROPERLY.
FUNDAMENTALLY, THE BIBLE IS A LENS WHICH ALLOWS US TO SEE JESUS, AND TO KNOW HIM AND UNDERSTAND HIM. THE OLD TESTAMENT IS THE UNIVERSITY WHICH FORMED HIM; AS A JEW, HE LEARNED TO READ AND WRITE AND REASON, HE LEARNED MORALS AND HUMAN WISDOM, HE LEARNED THE HISTORY OF GOD'S LONG LOVE AFFAIR WITH MAN FROM THE SCRIPTURES. AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHOSE ORIGINS ARE WITH THOSE WHO WITNESSED THAT HE HAD RISEN FROM THE DEAD, TELL US ABOUT THE COMMUNITY THAT CAME TOGETHER SO IMPROBABLY, SO MIRACULOUSLY, AS A RESULT OF HIS LIFE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION; THE COMMUNITY THAT CONTINUES TO PREACH REPENTANCE AND THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
YES, WE HEAR SOME OF THE SCRIPTURES READ EVERY SUNDAY. YES, WE ENCOUNTER THE RISEN LORD IN THE SACRAMENTS, ESPECIALLY THE EUCHARIST. YES, WE OURSELVES ARE LIVING BIBLES, SHOWING JESUS TO OTHER PEOPLE, AND SEEING JESUS IN EACH OTHER. BUT THERE IN THE PAGES OF THE BIBLE LOVINGLY AND THOUGHTFULLY READ, PONDERED, AND PRAYED OVER, WE SEE MORE AND MORE OF THE RISEN LORD, OUR OLDER BROTHER, OUR HIGH PRIEST, AND OUR SHEPHERD. AND AS WE SEE MORE, WE KNOW MORE, AND AS WE KNOW MORE, WE FALL MORE AND MORE IN LOVE.
DOES YOUR BIBLE GATHER DUST ON THE SHELF? HAVE YOU EVER SAT DOWN AND READ EVEN ONE BOOK IN THE BIBLE FROM BEGINNING TO END? DO YOU KNOW WHY CHRISTIANS HAVE BECOME DIVIDED OVER CERTAIN THINGS IN SCRIPTURE, AND HOW THE CHURCH SPEAKS TO THOSE DIVISIONS? DO YOU PRAY WITH THE PRAYERS THAT JESUS AND THE APOSTLES USED, THE PSALMS? DO YOU PRACTICE “LECTIO DIVINA”, THE TIMELESS WAY OF MEDITATION THAT IS SO MUCH RICHER THAN ANYTHING FROM THE RELIGIONS OF THE EAST? IF YOU ANSWER “NO”, YOU ARE DEPRIVING YOURSELF OF SOMETHING INFINITELY RICH.
PRAY TO JESUS THAT HE WILL OPEN OUR MINDS TO THE SCRIPTURES, SO THAT WE CAN BE BETTER WITNESSES OF HIS RESURRECTION.