THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER: Theme: NOT A GHOST

READINGS AT MASS

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Psalm 4

1 Jn 2:1-5

Lk 24:35-48

Dear friends in Christ, N'wokafu YESU KRISTO...

Beloved, in our Gospel text for today (the Third Sunday of Easter), the Risen Lord makes it clear to His frightened disciples that He is not a ghost

The disciples are frightened by the appearance of someone they buried just a few days ago. Their fear was from their doubt and their erroneous conclusion that the one standing in their midst is not real but a ghost or a specter.

For them, just like the belief system of prevailing among the Jews, Jesus (the man standing before them) was just a spirit that had crossed over from the land of the dead to communicate with them. To them, He was not their Master and was not real because He does not have a physical body and cannot help or affect the concrete reality of the living.

To prove to them that He was not a ghost, Jesus showed them His wounds, asked them to touch and feel His flesh and bone: something that ghost and spirits lack. He also ate with them: something only the living can do. With this appearance and all the concrete evidence presented therein, Jesus cleared the doubtful and fearful minds of the disciples and proved to them that He was standing before them as a tangible and substantial reality. A Saviour, who has conquered death and is alive and stands among us bearing the marks of the wounds received for our sake.

Beloved, Jesus, the Risen Lord is not a ghost. He is not spirit crossing over from the realm of the dead just to visit and scare the hell out of us. The Risen Lord is a concrete reality. The resurrection event is not a horror ghostly story. We are talking about true Man and true God who conquered death and stands in our midst as our friend and a Saviour. The Risen Lord is a concrete reality, with flesh and bone, who understands our situation and is able to break into our reality. He draws closer to us and asks that we touch Him and feel the marks of the wounds His love for us has engraved on His body for ever.

Like always and unlike a ghost, He comes to dine with us and share Himself with us. The risen Lord is ever-present in the concrete realities of our lives.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, your resurrection from the dead has enlightened our minds concerning the mysteries and promises of God. Do not allow the darkness of ignorance to force us to descend into error and go astray. Amen.

May God bless you.

-Rev. Fr. Kenneth Debre

Sunday, April 18, 2021.

Holy Rosary Parish, Hohoe.