April 15, 2018

While Fr. Reutter is recovering from surgery on his shoulder this week, I am writing in his place as a guest columnist.  My prayers for this article are not only that you may gain some spiritual benefit from my efforts, but also that Fr. Reutter recovers promptly so that you are no longer deprived of his insights!

    The Gospel this week offers a helpful question to reflect and pray upon:  How is Jesus Christ present to me in my life?  At this point in the Easter season, we may feel that our relationship with Jesus is becoming lukewarm as the initial excitement of our celebrating His Resurrection gradually wears off.   If this is the case, the Gospel offers some good news:  The disciples have doubts and fears as well, but Jesus patiently encourages them by being concretely present to them.  As we briefly look at how Jesus calms their fears and dispels their doubts, we learn how Jesus can be more present to us in our lives today.

  Even though Jesus was made known to His disciples in the breaking of the bread, a reference to His True Presence in the Eucharist, they mistakenly believe Jesus is a ghost when He appears to them.  As a ghost, Jesus would have been understood as a vague, shadowy memory of who He was before His death.  But Jesus corrects their misunderstanding by showing them His hands and feet and allowing them to touch Him.  Jesus clearly demonstrates that He is truly and physically present to them.  In the same way, Jesus’ True Presence in the Eucharist is far more than a vague memory of past events; rather, Jesus is Sacramentally present to us—body, blood, soul and divinity.  The more we encounter Jesus in the Sacraments, the more He becomes real and tangible in our lives.

After having allowed His disciples to touch Him and see His hands and feet, Jesus asks them for food.  By doing this, Jesus gives them the opportunity to give Him food in return for His feeding them.  In other words, Jesus asks them to love Him in an act of authentic thanksgiving:  Giving something good in return for good that is received.  Just as electricity cannot flow without the simultaneous interaction of positive and negative charges, love cannot operate without both giving and receiving what is truly good in a relationship.  We were made for love in this way,  the more we love God and each other in response to the love God has given us, the more fully we find our meaning and purpose. In turn, the more God becomes present to us.   

Jesus is present to His disciples in a third way, by opening their minds to understand the Scriptures.  His disciples have faith mixed with doubt, and Jesus patiently teaches them how He fulfills God’s plan as it is revealed in Sacred Scripture.  As faith seeks and gains understanding, it becomes stronger.  We cannot love what we do not know, and as St. Jerome has observed, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”  Thus, our relationship with God will improve as we know Him better through His revelation to us in Sacred Scripture.  Just as Jesus was present to His disciples in enlightening their minds and dispelling the darkness of doubt, He becomes more present to us as we pray and encounter Him in Sacred Scripture.

Briefly reflecting on this Gospel has revealed three ways that Jesus can be more present to us in our lives:  Through receiving the Sacraments, through works of mercy, and through praying with Sacred Scripture.  All three of these elements are essential to living authentically as a disciple of Jesus Christ and fulfilling our purpose as a Christian.  With these three things in mind, we can examine our lives and find practical and concrete ways of strengthening our relationship with Jesus.  By doing this more each day, we develop a clearer answer to our initial question:  How is Jesus Christ present to me in my life?