Firstly, Peter’s message was not accusatory as it was not a charge against the Jews for the crime of “Deicide”. Instead, it was descriptive because he placed the death of the Christ within the context of God’s plan of salvation. Whilst the Jews may have acted out of ignorance, Peter exhorted them not to remain as such. Hence, he called upon his hearers to repent of their sins in order to be saved. John’s advice balances reality of sinfulness with the possibility of forgiveness. The theme of advocacy through the Risen Christ is clearly emphasised which flows naturally into Luke’s Gospel passage. Christ appeared into their midst confirming the age-old prophecy of His Passion, Death and Resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.
Does this feel Lenten? Even though we are celebrating the Resurrection, all the three Readings mention, in one way or another, the fact of sin and the necessity of conversion.
It helps to realise that the good news of the Resurrection is not restricted to the obvious phenomenon that Jesus came back from dead. The belief in bodily resurrection must be located within the context of a sacramental life and the mission of the Church.
How so?
In the light of John’s Epistle, keeping the commandments is a sign of one’s faith in the Resurrection. Firstly, it requires a change in one’s life because conversion always has a value which goes beyond the personal. Sin is not only sickly, but it is also sticky. A soul stuck in sin does not inspire. Instead sin is a kind of sickness that sticks as it has the propensity to attract the wrong attention. In other words, it is bad witnessing. This brings us to the next point.
Faith cannot remain within the personal domain. Take a look at the two disciples. They were on an exodus to Emmaus. After their intimate encounter with Jesus on the way, they could not contain themselves as one can imagine them falling over themselves trying to give voice to their experience. From the exhortation of Peter, and from these two returnees from Emmaus, we get a sense that Mission is born of the meeting with the Risen Lord.
The Gospel announces that we now belong to the new creation of Jesus Christ. Our love for Him is the basis for our new state of life. In the context of being a Catholic, our conversion is personally associated with a sacramental life, closely tied to the Church, and intimately linked to Mission. No one is baptised to live alone. One is baptised into the Church to be animated by a sacramental life so as to share her Mission. Both repentance or conversion of life and love for Christ are two sides of a coin. The more we love Jesus, the more we will resolve to change. However,the challenge is that we all like the message of His love for us but may just fail to hear that our love for Him requires a forsaking of our sinful ways. Love for Him is built on repentance and conversion.
Today, we see how the Resurrection experience is intricately related with the kerygma. We are not just proclaiming that He is risen. We are also witnessing that there is a difference in our lives. A life enlivened by the Resurrection is itself a proclamation even if no words were uttered. Of course, in the Gospel, as the two excited disciples described the immensity of their experience, Jesus entered their midst—proof that He is never far from us when we proclaim Him. In fact, our preaching by word or by deed is the palpable sign of His presence. In that way, our lives here on earth must always exhibit a sense of heaven. What is the Resurrection but an expression of the eternal? This quality of eternity gives meaning to our struggles. Without the logic of the hereafter, we may be shouting out empty slogans.
The mission of announcing that the Lord is Risen is clarified by a life without sin or a life in which sin is defeated. Our obedience to God’s commandments becomes our signboards. The saints are not great only for what they did. They are magnificent because they, through grace and in cooperation with grace, have overcome the lure of sin. So, if we were stuck in sin, it might not be possible to direct the world to Christ because we are compromised.
Just like sitting in a bus on a long journey. The landscape can become a humdrum of passing scenery to the extent that one no longer takes notice of it. It is the same with our witnessing. When Christian behaviour is basically “normal” behaviour, no different from what is “socially acceptable”, then what is so attractive about the Christian kerygma? Our bodily resurrection is not only our guarantee of Christ’s redemption and salvation, but also our proclamation. If there is no qualitative difference in being a Christian, then the Gospel of the Resurrection is useless.
It could be that we have become so much more “tolerant” (or unimaginative) in our approach to diversity. It is often heard that all religions are the same. After all, every religion teaches its adherents to do good and each religion promises a kind of heaven. It may also be that we have become relativistic in our assumptions. But more likely, the truth is closer to the lack of conviction on our part of the Gospel proclamation. We do not fully subscribe to it and absent in our behaviour is the coherence of the entire Christian message.
Performative contradiction is the term used for stating a truth whilst differing from it through behaviour. We preach the Risen Christ but we live as if He has not risen. Perhaps risen or not, it is not that central for us. Furthermore, when we claim to represent Christ but have not repented from our sins, it makes for ineffective testimony. Even if we do not think that Christianity is one religion amongst many, weak witnessing makes it so. What has happened is that Christianity may have lost its drawing power because we are living as if heaven does not exist and the Resurrection is just a fancy idea. In other words, we may have the message but few witnesses. We may be packed with worshippers but are hesitant to embrace fully the kerygma.
So, let our sacramental worship of God, our obedience to His commandments as expressed through the Church, be our loudspeakers to announce that the Resurrection is real, that there is forgiveness of sin and death cannot be the last word in this life—even more so in this Covid era. When we witness to the Resurrection we will peril and persecution but we have come to know that the final chapter is written by Jesus, Risen and Glorious. He is the basis for our hope, the foundation of our courage even in the frightening face of mortality and the joy of our life. As in the Upper Room, here in this Eucharist, the Risen Christ is in our midst, let us forsake our sins, fix our eyes on Him so as to follow Him to our resurrection.
