Believe, rejoice, and witness. These are the exhortations that characterize the post Resurrection appearance. Each of the apparitions is in short, an invitation to open ourselves to the gift of the Risen, which must be welcomed with a remarkably simple act of faith, omitting all sorts of experimental verification and exaggerated rationality.
The Presence of the Risen Lord which on one hand invites the disciples to a kind of Faith that excludes all forms of resistance, and on the other encourages them to embrace abandonment towards something that is welcomed as a gift.
In addition to this, the experience of the Risen Lord is transformative. This transformation is also an invitation to review our inclinations and habits. The acceptance, in faith, of the gift of the Risen is a source of joy that cannot remain enclosed or jealously restricted to a few, for the simple fact that it involves us and affects our lives, strengthening our faith that we too are destined to rise up with Christ.
The First Reading highlights the Apostle Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, which gave him courage and apostolic fervor. The Risen Lord has made the Church into a communion of reborn people in which all are welcome, and their needs are satisfied. The very life of the first disciples is itself a testimony of the joy that comes from faith.
Like the disciples who recognized the Risen Lord at the breaking of bread, their sense of loss, confusion, and lack of direction was overcome with great joy. Their hearts were on fire and they could not keep the experience of the Risen Lord to themselves. They set out to proclaim the Good News. Friends, the world of today is tired of hearing arguments about Jesus saving us and freeing us. The world is anxious to see men and women who– confronted by the presence of the Risen Lord– have had their lives totally transformed. It was consistency of joy, faith and witness that caught people’s attention. They realized that the choice of the Gospel is a source of strength and conquest for those who want to undertake it. Even in the shadowy areas of our lives we should witness the trust in Jesus who conquered death, and thus know how to overcome the trials and pains of our lives in the perspective of the cross and the Resurrection. In short, believe, rejoice, and witness.
Fr. Lucas Kazimiro Simango