2024

April 14, 2024

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It seems strange that reference is made to conversion in the Easter period, but it seems to me that this Sunday’s liturgy focuses on this word. Jesus’ disciples must be converted first of all, to accept without a shadow of a doubt the mystery of the resurrection (Gospel). The people of Israel must be converted, because not accepting the risen Jesus as the Messiah practically means self-destruction (first reading). Christians must also convert, they must live in a permanent state of conversion, to avoid being dazzled by the gnosis and thus separate dogma from morality, religion from Christian existence, in contrast with Jesus Christ’s way of life (second reading).

DOCTRINAL MESSAGES

Jesus’ disciples certainly were not heroes in the long hours of the Passion and death of their Teacher. Nor did Jesus’ Resurrection occupy any place in their mind. Not even in their imagination or in their memories. They were obtuse and blind to the mystery. They were shaken by their failure and looked to the future as a return to the past. They needed to be converted, to change their attitude, to get back onto the right track. To do this they required Jesus to give them a hand, presenting himself as the living Jesus, the same one they had loved and followed for a number of years. They needed to see Jesus again, to listen to him, to touch him. They needed him to explain to them the meaning of the recent sad events, which had been previously announced in the Scriptures (the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms). They needed Jesus to once again instill confidence in them and assign them the mission with a new impulse: "You are my witnesses." Before such an overwhelming proof of Jesus’ love and obliging attitude, the process of conversion begins to take place in the soul of the disciples, and Jesus opens their minds so that they may understand the Scriptures. The conversion of the disciples did not begin of Jesus’ own initiative, but with the action of the risen Christ in their minds and hearts.

Before Peter’s healing of the crippled man, the Jews were left speechless. Peter takes advantage of this favorable time to bear witness to Jesus and to his Resurrection. It’s as if he were saying to them, "It is not admiration that should invade your spirit, but rather repentance and conversion." It is true that they have acted out of ignorance (although their ignorance seems to be guilty rather than innocent), but what they did is very serious: "…Jesus whom you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate after he had given his verdict to release him. It was you who accused the Holy and Upright One, you who demanded that a murderer should be released to you while you killed the prince of life." Not only did the Jews do something very serious, but they also did something displeasing to the eyes of God, since Jesus, the suffering Messiah, rises again from the dead. What should they do before their guilt and God’s vexation on account of their behavior? Should they close themselves up in their guilty ignorance? Should they consider Peter’s witness as ridiculous and groundless? But then, how do we explain the healing of the crippled man? Peter shows them the real way: "Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out" (firST READING)

Christian means converted to the way of Christ, to faith in Christ. However, conversion is not something that happens at a given time; rather, it is constant and lasting throughout one’s life. Our conversion and our faith may be distorted, they may be in jeopardy in the face of new ways of thinking and behaving; they may suffer the pernicious contact of ideas and attitudes that do not come from Christ, but from the father of lies. This is what was happening to the Christians to whom John addresses his first letter. Their faith was in danger of being contaminated by the virus of the Gnostic movement. Perhaps they thought that having been enlightened by the risen Christ, they had attained the highest degree of knowledge (gnosis), and by virtue of this, they believed that they had been saved, thus separating their faith in the risen Christ from their moral conduct. John goes out to meet them, warning them against the danger: "Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ without keeping his commandments, is a liar." It is not enough to believe; it is absolutely necessary to combine works with faith, to keep the commandments as a requirement of the knowledge that we have received from the risen Christ.

PASTORAL SUGGESTIONS

For those that are blind or whose eyes are closed, it is impossible to see reality. They cannot see the beauty of light and colors, they cannot see the obstacles in their way, they cannot see a smile or the tenderness in a friend’s gaze. If we are blind in faith or our eyes are deliberately closed, we will never be able to understand the wonderful works of God, the history of salvation carried on by the Spirit, the mystery of the death and Resurrection of Christ, the presence, witness or action of the Church among all men. Like the disciples, we need the risen Jesus Christ to open our minds so we can understand the Scriptures. Ask yourself why you do not understand certain things about the Church, certain truths of the Catholic doctrine, certain moral behaviors that the Church proposes to its faithful; ask yourself why you do not understand the presence of evil in the world if God is good, why you don’t understand those who commit unjust acts and crimes, those who harbor hatred... Might not a living, authentic, firm and vigorous faith help you to understand all of these things? Ask the risen Christ to open your mind. Ask him, once your mind has been opened, to make you a witness to what you have seen.

The Church needs witnesses more than teachers, as Pope Paul VI teaches us. Every Christian, immersed in the mystery of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ through baptism, is called to be a witness. All Christians, as a community of faith, must say like Peter, "We are witnesses." Being a witness means that you are willing to certify with your own life what you say and especially what you do by virtue of your faith in Jesus Christ. As a Christian, I must be willing to place the witness of the risen Christ, of the infinite and fatherly love of God, of the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the hearts of men, above the interests of my own life. I will also place my religious beliefs above my passing whims, giving priority to my absolute moral values, my deep attitudes before life, the world and God. If all of us Christians, or at least the majority, are witnesses of this sort, then little by little, we will really be able to change the mentality, attitudes and behaviors that support and animate the life of our contemporaries. Do you want to be a witness of Christ? Do not wait to really be a witness of Christ. Begin today.

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Pope Francis
Homilies

Look, Touch, and Eat

18 April 2021 | Saint Peter’s Square

Three very concrete verbs characterize this Gospel passage. In a certain sense, they reflect our individual and community life: to look, to touch and to eat. Three actions that can give joy from a true encounter with the living Jesus.

To look. “See my hands and my feet”, Jesus says. To look is not only to see, it is more; it also involves intention, will. For this reason, it is one of the verbs of love. A mother and father look at their child; lovers gaze at each other; a good doctor looks at the patient carefully… Looking is a first step against indifference, against the temptation to look the other way before the difficulties and sufferings of others. To look. Do I see or look at Jesus?

The second verb is to touch. By inviting the disciples to touch him, to verify that he is not a ghost — touch me! — Jesus indicates to them and to us that the relationship with him and with our brothers and sisters cannot remain “at a distance”. Christianity does not exist at a distance; Christianity does not exist only at the level of looking. Love requires looking and it also requires closeness; it requires contact, the sharing of life. The Good Samaritan did not limit himself to looking at that man whom he found half dead along the road: he stopped, he bent down, he treated his wounds, he touched him, he loaded him onto his mount and took him to the inn. And it is the same with Jesus himself: loving him means entering into a communion of life, a communion with him.

And thus, we come to the third verb, to eat, which clearly expresses our humanity in its most natural poverty, that is, our need to nourish ourselves in order to live. But eating, when we do so together, among family or friends, also becomes an expression of love, an expression of communion, of celebration… How often the Gospels present us with Jesus experiencing this convivial dimension! Even as the Risen One, with his disciples. To the point that the Eucharistic Banquet has become the emblematic sign of the Christian community. Eating together the Body of Christ: this is the core of Christian life.

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Witnesses

19 April 2015 | Saint Peter’s Square

In the Bible Readings of today’s liturgy the word “witnesses” is mentioned twice. The first time it is on the lips of Peter who, after the healing of the paralytic at the Door of the Temple of Jerusalem, exclaims: You “killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15). The second time it is on the lips of the Risen Jesus. On the evening of Easter he opens the minds of the disciples to the mystery of his death and Resurrection, saying to them: “You are witnesses to these things” (Lk 24:48). The Apostles, who saw the Risen Christ with their own eyes, could not keep silent about their extraordinary experience. He had shown himself to them so that the truth of his Resurrection would reach everyone by way of their witness. The Church has the duty to continue this mission over time. Every baptized person is called to bear witness, with their life and words, that Jesus is Risen, that Jesus is alive and present among us. We are all called to testify that Jesus is alive.

We may ask ourselves: who is a witness? A witness is a person who has seen, who recalls and tells. See, recall and tell: these are three verbs which describe the identity and mission. A witness is a person who has seen with an objective eye, has seen reality, but not with an indifferent eye; he has seen and has let himself become involved in the event. For this reason, one recalls, not only because she knows how to reconstruct the events exactly but also because those facts spoke to her and she grasped their profound meaning. Then a witness tells, not in a cold and detached way but as one who has allowed himself to be called into question and from that day changed the way of life. A witness is someone who has changed his or her life.

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