Fr Jack SJ MD: On Eating a Piece of Fish_Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

On Eating a Piece of Fish: Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8,9

Lk 24:35-48

The bulk of first readings during the Easter Season come from Acts of the Apostles. Acts was written by Luke, who wrote today's Gospel as well. The two books are sometime referred to as Luke-Acts to emphasize the common authorship.

Whereas the Gospel of Luke recounts the story of Jesus

beginning with the narrative of His Annunciation to the Ascension,

Acts is the story of the first years of the community that came to be known as The Church. Acts is an important story because it is our story. It is the story of us as Church. Over the next weeks we will hear of the growth of the Church and the challenges newly forming community faced. These included arguments, infighting, jealousies, and defections. There never was a so-called ‘golden age’ of unity during which the Church was free from strife. It is unlikely there ever will be no matter how many bumper-sticker like pronouncements are created.

As a happy counterbalance, we will also hear of the care given to the poor and less fortunate and the coming together as a community of those who believed in Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. It is a fascinating history.

In today’s reading from Acts Peter gives a short summary of the prophecies about Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the one for whom the world waited. He assures his hearers that they and their leaders acted out of ignorance when they crucified Jesus.

It is important to remember that this speech was some time after the resurrection and ascension. How long did it take Peter and the others who witnessed Jesus’ passion and death to truly understand the resurrection? How long did it take before they were able to internalize the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead?

How long does it take us to realize the same thing?

In the days immediately following Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, his followers' emotions were primarily those of confusion and consternation. While we know the full story, they were living these events in real time. Jesus had foretold his passion and death but none of those who heard him really understood. It is likely that they didn't truly understand until Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

There is one odd but important detail in the Gospel. After greeting His astonished disciples Jesus ate a piece of fish in front of them. He did so for a specific reason. Jesus ate the fish to prove that He had indeed risen bodily from the dead. He ate a bit of solid food to demonstrate to their uncertain hearts and confused minds that He was not a ghost, that He was not a spirit, that He was not a phantom or an hallucination. He said, “Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And then He requested something to eat to prove it to them and assuage their doubts.

Only corporal beings need to eat. Only physical beings are able to eat. By eating a piece of fish in front of them Jesus gave proof to the prophecy, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.. .”

It was not a ghost standing in front of them. It was Jesus, risen from the dead.

We have something in common with those disciples. Whenever we gather at the altar Jesus is as truly and substantially present to us as He was to His disciples in that room. Thus we too look can look upon the true and risen Christ and exclaim with the shocked Thomas: “My Lord and my God.”

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Spring is coming and the flowers are being planted on the BC campus. These are some shots from last year.