Thursday in the Octave of Easter

Thursday in the Octave of Easter

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.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish; 
he took it and ate it in front of them.



Saint Luke goes to great lengths in this passage to assure us that Jesus Christ rose in the flesh from the dead. He was not simply an enthusiasm that suddenly overwhelmed the cowering disciples and drove them into the streets of Jerusalem to announce his resurrection, as some modern commentators would prefer. 

Even as they watched him eat, Saint Luke says, they were incredulous. 

As I celebrated the Easter Vigil with its candles, smoke, water, bread, wine and so forth, I was reminded that ours is not a spiritual religion. We need flesh with all its frailty, complexity and cussedness to express our faith. We cannot ignore the body's need for food, water and air; for warmth, sleep and protection, for education and health care -- and so forth. 

Some people like to say they don't believe in organized religion. Is there any other kind? If there is it cannot celebrate the Risen Lord whose body was organized not only with hands, feet and head, but also with apostles, disciples, martyrs, bishops, priests, deacons, catechists, prophets and so forth and so on. 

His is a body that enjoys itself! Risen and liberated, it goes where it wants to go, to prisons and hospitals, to homes and villages, to free and enslaved nations. It is spirited, inspired and irrepressible. 

“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”