Gospel: Luke 24:35-48
The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread. While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. He said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Homily
“To experience resurrection is to experience new life.” As I reflected on this I remembered the words of that beautiful hymn “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton, a slave trader turned evangelist. On one of his slaving trips, during a particularly violent storm at sea, he fell on his knees and prayed. His ship and its cargo of human beings were saved. He recognized that it was God who had saved him from disaster and he underwent a conversion experience, an experience which was the beginning of a journey to a new way of living. Within a few years he had given up slaving, studied, became an Anglican priest and was a great influence on Wilberforce who worked for the abolition of slavery. As we continue to celebrate Easter and the new life which it brings, I remembered this hymn “Amazing Grace” because Christ’s resurrection is indeed Amazing Grace for all of us. In one way or another, the story of John Newton is the story of each one of us or it is what can be. Like Newton, we recognize having been held in the grip of some sin. For Newton it was human slavery, for others it is an addiction, be this addiction to gambling or sex or substance abuse, for yet others it is anger or lies, for others it is some secret sin of which they alone are aware.
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But then, as with Newton, Amazing Grace touched our lives. For Newton it was a storm at sea, for others it comes through some other vehicle. The result is however conversion, repentance of the old way of living, and a coming to new life. A life without addictions, a life lived without being held in the grip of sin, and like Newman we can sing “Amazing Grace… that saved a wretch like me.”
To experience new life is also to accept the responsibility of being a witness to resurrection. In this appearance of Jesus to the disciples, related in the Gospel story, Jesus tells them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. The disciples had to witness to the truth of the Resurrection and to the possibility of new life for all by their lives and by their words. John Newton witnessed by his life. He gave up slaving. He witnessed by his words, he became an Evangelist and preached tirelessly up to the year before he died, even when he had gone blind. This has been the great tradition of our church. Through all her social ministries, through her evangelizing, the church has preached her faith in the possibility of “New life for all.” I would go so far as to say that “New Life for All” is the raison d’être of the Church. Witnessing is never a private enterprise, witnesses must be seen, and so, as we thank God for those like Newton who witnessed and who witness today to the resurrection, we recognize that to be true Christians you and I have to join this authentic tradition of our Church and proclaim by our lives our belief in resurrection, our belief in the possibility of “New Life for All.”
Prayer
All powerful and ever loving God, your son Jesus rose from the dead so that we may have new life, help us to accept this Amazing Grace in our lives so that like the first disciples we may be witnesses to Resurrection and to the possibility of New life both by our lives and by our words. We ask this through Mary our mother and through Jesus who rose into New Life. Amen
