HOMILY A Challenge To Intimacy

HOMILY A Challenge To Intimacy Father Larry Richards Moderator, Bread of Life Community Homily for Third Sunday of Easter Cycle A Father Larry's 10th Anniversary as a Priest READINGS: Acts 2:14,22-28; 1 Peter 1:17-21 Luke 24:13-25 As I reflect on what happened today in the gospel, it's about Christ. This is the Sunday after Easter for the people on the way to Emmaus. The very first thing Jesus did after He rose is say Mass. He said Mass. There was the breaking open of the Word of God, and then there was the Breaking of the Bread. I remember being in first grade with Sister Delores, a Divine Providence sister at St. Ambrose parish, where I was from. She told us to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I can still remember very clearly drawing a picture of a priest with his hands up in the air, holding up the Blessed Sacrament. The Mass, for some reason, was such a focus point for me, even in first grade. What's the Mass about? What is it about for us? The Mass and what happens at Mass is so important for our lives. Every day of our lives should be a Mass, right? It should be where we encounter Jesus. The whole point of Mass, the whole point of living the Christian life is to have an encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. It's knowing Jesus is alive! He's not just some story, I'm not just a member of the Catholic Church, I don't just go through some ritual every week, I am IN LOVE with a person who is ALIVE, with whom I enter into intimacy every day. According to today's gospel, there are three primary ways in which we enter into this intimacy with Jesus. If you have your Bibles, open to Chapter 24 of Luke, verses 13 and following - this is the Road to Emmaus. As they were walking, notice that there are two disciples walking. One of the promises of Jesus is, "Wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in their

midst." So, here are two of the disciples walking, and suddenly Jesus is with them. That's His promise. "Wherever two or three are gathered, there I will be." So, they're discussing about Jesus, and He appears, as He does when any of us gather together and proclaim the Name of Christ, and we discuss Jesus. Jesus Christ is present when we come together in His Name, as we are now. Jesus is truly present here, as we talk about Him, we honor Him. We have to acknowledge that reality, that Christ is present when we discuss Him. Then, as they go on, He asks them what they were talking about. They say to Him, "Are you the only one who doesn't know about what happened to Jesus?" He said, "What things?" They go on and on and on, and they still didn't understand, they still didn't recognize Christ. So often, we don't recognize Jesus either, when He is present. Sometimes we don't know it until after it has happened. You know, how Jesus touched me yesterday, but I didn't recognize Him when He was doing it. I recognize it today, in hindsight. So Jesus says, "What things?" Then He goes on..."what little sense you have...(i love that line)...how slow you are to believe the prophets. Did not the Messiah have to undergo this?" He goes on in verse 27, "Then beginning with Moses and the prophets, He interpreted for them every passage of Scripture." So, we now see that Jesus is truly present in the Word of God. Their eyes slowly began to open, in the Word of God. Now, think about it. How often do you get into the Word of God? This isn't just some nice book that you pull out every once in awhile when you're depressed. It's how you come to know Jesus. It's the Living Word. St. Jerome said, "Ignorance of the Bible is ignorance of Christ." So, the first question I want to ask you is, "Do you have your own Bible?" YOURS - one that you can read - one that kind of looks a little shabby because it's been read. Or, is your Bible nice and shiny clean, and you haven't looked at it, and if you open the gold-leafed pages it's kind of hard to open them because they've been stuck together for so long? Do you know Christ in His Word? Do you have your own Bible? If not, the first thing I want you to do is, tomorrow, go buy one! The New American Bible for Catholics is a good one - I don't really like the new translation much, but it's still God's Word. So, you go out and you buy your own Scripture, and you commit to spending time with it. "No Bible, no breakfast, no Bible no bed," is what I like to say. That means you don't eat breakfast in the morning until you've read one or two verses out of the Bible, and you don't go to bed at night until you've read one or two verses, or a chapter or a paragraph out of the Bible. This is God's Word to you - to me! This is how you come to know that Jesus Christ is alive, and not just some story that you may believe or you may not, (or one religion is as good as another) - here is where you get to know Him. Here is what you have to invest in - it will cost you $20, or you can get a nice leather one for $40. Very good.

It's cheap! I took someone out for dinner last night and it cost $40. After an hour, it came right back out the other side! I spent $40, and it went right on through. That's terrible, isn't it? But, the Word of God stays inside of you, and then transforms you. So, if you spend $40 on God's Word, you have it for eternity. Just a thought! So, do you recognize Christ in His Word? More than that, it says that if I start reading the Word of God prayerfully, then my heart will start to burn. The Apostles say that - "Were not our hearts burning as He opened the Word for us!" If you pray before you read the Word every day your heart will start to BURN in love with Jesus Christ! That's what it's about. It's about being in love with Jesus, the Person. Now we go on to the second place we find Christ. The Apostles say to Christ in verse 28, "Now they were near the village to which they were going, and acted as if they were going farther. But they pressed Him, "Stay with us. It's nearly evening. The day is practically over." This is hospitality. It was very important, especially to the Jews. The Old Testament says that when you entertain strangers, you entertain angels. This is even more intimate that that. When you reach out to strangers, you reach out to Jesus. The Bible says very clearly in John, "If you say you love God, whom you cannot see, and you hate someone whom you can see, you're a liar." It's that simple. If you say you love God, whom you can't see, and you hate someone whom you can, you're a liar. We need to treat every person as Christ. Matthew Chapter 25 says it very clearly. "Whatever you do to the least of My brothers and sisters, you do to Me." It's that simple. I need to treat every person I meet, whether I know them or don't know them, as Christ - to see in Christ in them. You've heard me quote Dorothy Day often. This is a quote that I use at every retreat I've ever given. "We love God as much as the person we like the least." Say that with me. "We love God as much as the person we like the least." One more time. "We love God as much as the person we like the least." Now, I want you to think about that person you just can't stand. You know, that person you wish would have had crib death right after Baptism! Are you thinking of that person? Do you have an image of that person in your mind? That's how much you love Jesus. That's how much I love Jesus. There's no separating that. Jesus is very clear. However we treat others, whatever we do unto them, that's how we treat Him. By them saying, "Stay with us, Lord," by them reaching out to what they thought was a stranger, that was rewarded by intimacy with Jesus. When we reach out to strangers, when we reach out to people we don't know, that will be rewarded by intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's important. That's why in this church we embrace strangers, because we know it's Jesus coming in the door. It's Jesus here. We've got to treat Him as Jesus, and acknowledge Him.

Finally (and this is what's great about being a member of this parish), we go to Chapter 24, verse 30 and 31. "When He had seated Himself with them to eat, He took bread, pronounced the bread, broke the bread, and began to distribute it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him." They recognized Him in the Breaking of the Bread. I just got finished with another Confirmation retreat, my last for this year. We always end with Mass, after my talking to them all weekend, and talking about this relationship with Jesus Christ, etc. Then, I'm saying Mass, and as I hold up Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, and I'm looking around, saying, "Take this all of you and eat it..." I could still see that most of the people in there hadn't a clue. They did not recognize Jesus. Go to any church sometime on a Sunday. On this very day, in this very place, right here, on this very altar, I'm going to take some bread, say some very powerful prayers over it, and then this bread, which will look like bread, taste like bread, smell like bread, will become Almighty God. God Himself! WE WILL BOW BEFORE ALMIGHTY GOD! As much as I say that and by God's grace I've held Him in my hands for the last ten years, I still sometimes think, "I am holding the King of the Universe, who holds all things in the Palm of His Hand, in my hand." When you come up to Communion today, and we say, "The Body of Christ," you will say "Amen." Do you know what Amen means? That means I stake my life, I would stake my life on the reality that what you just said is true. So, when I say, "The Body of Christ," and you say, "Amen," you say "I would die for what you just said, Father. I would die for the Blessed Sacrament." He is truly alive. The only thing I ever wanted to do before I got ordained was to say Mass. My prayer was, "Lord, just let me say one Mass. If I say one Mass, then you can take me home." By God's grace, He didn't do that. I had my first Mass next door (At the Carmelite Monastery), and I thought I was going to die on the way over to the reception! That was my whole prayer - "Lord, just let me say one Mass. Let me be intimate with you in that way just once, Lord." The Mass has always been the biggest part of my priesthood. Even when I was in the hospital with pneumonia, I said Mass every day in bed. I can't imagine someone not going to Mass on Sunday. I can't imagine someone not going to Mass every day! If you are in love with Christ, and you truly believe that what's going to happen is that you're going to see Almighty God on this altar, and God is going to humble Himself to come to you, how could you not go to daily Mass? How could you not? I can't understand that!! If you really believe it's Almighty God that you're receiving...a lot of times you just go up, you put Jesus in your mouth, (you've got your vitamin pill for this week), you go back and sometimes

walk right out the door. But to be intimate, to think, "I get to receive you, Lord Jesus." That intimacy - we've got to recognize Jesus today, and every day of our lives in the Breaking of the Bread. Some people say, "Where is God?" I say, "Where isn't God?" He's in every person you meet. He's in the Word of the Lord, every time you hear it. He's in the Eucharist every time you go to Mass. Every time we come together He is present when we acknowledge Him as Lord. God wants to be intimate with you. I just want to encourage you - before you leave here this day - if you don't know Jesus intimately, personally (not ABOUT Jesus, everybody knows ABOUT Jesus), but if you don't know Jesus, really know Jesus in your heart, as your Friend, then don't leave here today until you do. Don't leave here today until you say, "Jesus, I really want to know You, recognize You in others, recognize You in the Breaking of the Bread, know You intimately in Your Word - I promise you, Lord, I am going to buy a Bible, I am going to start spending time with You every day - because I spend time with the TV, I spend time with my friends, I spend time with every body else, and Jesus, I want to spend time with You." Let today be a new beginning, a new commitment, for all of us. I, too, desperately need to spend more and more time with Jesus, and to know Him more intimately as My Friend, and not just go through the motions. So, that s my challenge today. Get to know and love the Lord Jesus as He knows and loves you. May each of you know his love today and forever. Amen.