· III Easter (B), April 30, 2006
· Theme: Witness to the Power of the Resurrection

· “They offered him a piece of baked fish, which he took and ate before their eyes.”
· If the powerful witness of the Gospels is to be believed, around 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ died, was buried and three days later rose again.
· This is not an image; not a picture; not a movie; not a ghost story.
· This really happened.
· Ghosts don’t eat fish.

· We continue our Easter Celebration with today’s liturgy
· The Gospel is taken from Chapter 24 of Luke’s Gospel.
· Today’s scene occurs just after Jesus meets the two on the Road to Emmaus, and
· Just before the Ascension and the end of Luke’s Gospel
· The Disciples are in the upper room hiding out after the crucifixion;
· They were deathly afraid of what might happen to them,
· They were ashamed and guilty for having abandoned Jesus,
· They had no idea of what life had in store for them.

· Things had not turned out as the Disciples had planned
· They had hoped to sit in glory with Jesus when he came into his earthly kingdom.
· With all his miracles and victorious confrontations against the religious authorities, with the crowds flocking to him, he looked like a “Sure Thing” to his followers.
· But they really were not his followers yet, they had only accommodated his message to fit their own personal dreams and expectations.

· Suddenly things changed:
· The women said that they had seen the empty tomb
· Then their friends came back from Emmaus and said that they had seen Jesus.
· Now the Resurrected Jesus was in their midst, and their lives would never be the same.

· “Peace be with you,” Jesus says.
· The peace that the Risen Jesus brought was a release from the shame and failure of the Disciples:
· The peace that transformed Peter from the coward who denied Jesus three times to the hero who preached to the crowds as we heard in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
· The peace that transformed the Disciples into missionaries and martyrs

· It is very interesting that the appearance of Jesus to the Disciples in Luke’s Gospel occurs in the context of a meal.
· Family meals are important moments for all of us human beings.
· Eating together was important to Jesus’ community as well
· This meal scene has obvious links to our Eucharistic Meal,
· In sharing Eucharist together, we get the energy we need for our mission:
· To preach to all nations, Repentance For The Forgiveness Of Sin
· Repentance for Violence, War and Ethnic Rivalries for the Forgiveness of Sin

· Let’s get back to that baked fish:
· Jesus asks for something to eat, So as to calm down the Disciples who were still in shock at seeing him.
· In addition, this detail in Luke’s Gospel affirms the bodily presence of Jesus.
· Jesus is not just an “immortal spirit,” but is found in flesh and blood.
· Our faith in Jesus is not just concerned with “spiritual matters,” but involves the body and all that is material, concrete, “the here and now.”
· Luke stresses witnessing to the risen Christ in all the aspects of life:
· The mandate to preach the forgiveness of sin to all people, takes us into every aspect of our human existence

· Last Friday we hosted a event sponsored by the Steering Committee for Drug Free Communities. (I serve on the Steering Committee)
· A joint project of Children’s Hospital and L. A. Bridges
· The purpose is to educate children and parents to the dangers of the use of illegal drugs and underage drinking.
· The mandate to preach the Good News takes on every aspect of our human existence.

· Monday, May 1 March, The Feast of St. Joseph the Worker:
· Comprehensive Immigration Reform
· Safeguard our borders
· Compassionate treatment of all immigrants with our without documents
· Guidelines for March – LA Archdiocese
· Go to School
· Go to Work
· Go to the March
· 4:00 PM downtown
· 5:00 PM Selma park
· There is no area of human existence that the Gospel does not touch.

· Jesus has conquered sin and death
· Let us witness to God’s gift of Peace in our lives.
· Let us ask God to deepen our faith, and
· To give us courage to witness to God’s love in all the facets of our lives
· Amen

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