The Sudden Appearance of Blessing - Season of Joy

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."

Read the full gospel: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041424.cfm

Our gospel today begins with the two disciples who have just encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus and recognized him in the breaking of bread. As they are sharing this incredible news with their friends, Jesus suddenly appears again, and even though they have just seen him, they are startled and terrified. They think he is a ghost. They still don't get it.

Jesus offers them peace and asks why they are troubled and why they question who he is. He offers the tangibility of his presence. "Touch me and see." He eats fish in front of them. He is really there, really alive. The gospel tells us these two disciples are incredulous for joy and amazed.

I am reminded of the words of medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, who I spent a great deal of time with this Lent. In the visions she received from the Lord, she was struck again and again by the constancy of God's love and mercy, and the depth of his yearning for us. She wrote, “We believe that we hardly see God at all, but what He desires is for us to believe that we see Him continuously. It is through this belief that we receive His grace. He wishes to be seen and to be sought. He wants us to yearn for Him and to trust in Him.” The kind of trust Lady Julian counsels is full and complete. She says: “Actively trust Him, knowing that He is likely to appear suddenly and without warning, raining blessings upon all His lovers. Although He appears when we least expect it, He wants to be trusted.”

Doesn't this sound like the Jesus our two disciples have just been surprised by again? The sudden appearance of blessing; this is how God works. He appears when and where we least expect it. But He wants us to trust that He is always working in our lives.

My dad's friend, in his mid-fifties, is in hospice now. A sudden illness, that turned out to be bacterial meningitis, left him in a coma just before Christmas. And for the last few months he has come out of the coma against all odds, had moments of lucidity and progress, and then got worse again. His wife and two young adult daughters have hoped against hope for a miracle of healing so that he might regain his memory, recognize them, and make a full recovery. A couple of days after he entered hospice, Rod was awake for a few moments and his wife heard him whisper something amazing. “Jesus is coming,” he said, and then he began to recite the Lord's Prayer. Dozing off before he could finish it, this dying man who does not know who he is or who his wife is, or what is happening, recognized Jesus with him. He said it out loud so that his family might have the peace of knowing that their beloved husband and father knows where he is going and who is coming for him.

Even though their prayers for his healing have not been answered the way they want, God gifted them a sliver of peace to hold on to: The sudden appearance of blessing. What Jesus tells the disciples that he's appeared to again, is an explanation of what he has just done. Just as he said he would, Jesus suffered and rose from the dead on the third day for the forgiveness of sins because of his great passionate love. They, and we, can be reborn to eternal life.

And then he tells them, you are witnesses of these things. What sudden appearance of blessing have you been witness to this Lent or Easter? Jesus is coming. In fact, he has already come. Where have you seen him? Where have you sought him? Let us pray for the grace to actively trust that Jesus is there, even where we do not see him, and wait faithfully for his sudden appearance.

We have a God who will patiently appear again and again when we just don't get it, until we understand what He has done for love of us.