Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Pentecost is approaching and the word already speaks to us about the Holy Spirit. Next Sunday is the Ascension of the Lord into heaven and then comes Pentecost. There is a song that the Jewish people sing at Passover that says if you are hungry come and have Passover with us, if you are needy come and have Passover, if you are slaves under the power of a Pharoah tomorrow you can be free in the Kingdom of God. It is not just others who are hungry or needy or in slavery; we are also in this state. If you are not hungry or needy or in slavery how can the Lord do Easter, how can he make a Passover with us? The psalm says the sea was turned into dry land and they crossed by foot. If we can walk over a river on dry land that is Easter. Each of us has a Red Sea in front of us. The sea is a sign of death and the land a sign of life.
Jesus did so much of his ministry walking along the shore, have you noticed? He loved to walk along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, thinking, praying, speaking to the Father. I imagine he was thinking of what he needed to say to the apostles. When he calls them, he was along the shore, often when he was preaching, he was along the shore, and he would go out a bit from the shore in a boat so people could easily listen. We are all along the shore which is neither sea nor land. It is a middle ground between death and life. The sea is death, and the land is life, the promised land. At times we get closer to death if we are stuck in our selfishness or other times, we are closer to the land if we have confessed our sins recently or heard a word that gave us peace.
The Lord invites you not to stay on the shoreline since it can be dangerous. He invites you to cross the sea and he will transform it into a land; this is Easter. What sea do you have in front of you, what suffering did you come with today? Jesus can make Passover with you today because every Eucharist is an Easter, a Passover. In every Eucharist the Lord comes to rescue you because he dies and rises again for you and for me. This is the deepest sign of the Eucharist and when do we see this dying and rising? When you receive the Body and Blood of Christ, the body symbolizes death and the blood is his resurrection, and this creates communion. You enter into communion with the others. You are united with the death of Christ and also with his resurrection.
I like very much today’s psalm and the gospel because they say you will ‘know’ God. Knowing in the Scriptures is a very deep love. Whenever the word appears it refers to a deep, intimate, and personal relationship. So close that it appears almost sexual. Knowing Christ is to have such a deep relationship with him that is nearly sexual. A priest mentioned to a group of his friends that on the first night of his ordination he took the crucifix and put it next to him and he hugged it. It was a little painful because of the sharp edges of the crucifix so he left it at his side when he went to sleep, like a little kid who slept with his stuffed animals.
It seems like nonsense, but it helped him a lot. A priest is married to Christ. The cross was only a piece of wood, but it helped him to sleep with an image of Jesus Christ. To know Jesus Christ is to have a deep intimacy with him. When spouses unite, they become one flesh and we can do the same with Christ. This is why he said to those who don’t believe him that they don’t know him. It is necessary to have this deep, personal relationship with him. To be united with him. You cannot do it on your own; he is the one who has to be one with you. He is one with you in your hell, in your suffering, he loves you in your hell, that is an experience of Easter. You cannot love what you do not know. He promises to reveal himself to you.
At times we use very sweet and beautiful language since we are in the Church and we are all Christians and good people, but we camouflage our sins with these pretty words. We are very good at talking about ourselves and making it seem like we are converting. When you listen to some you think they are perfect, but you have to see their life and see that there is a discrepancy between what they say and how they live. But we don’t witness to Christ by mere words. We bear witness to Christ by our lives.
Then you can say like the psalm: Come and see the works of God, his tremendous deeds that he has done for me. He did something. He brought you out of death, true hell. It is not like saying one day I was sad and then I prayed, and I was happy again, no, no! I was really in hell, in a lot of trouble and then he took me out of it. You Can give witness not with words, but with your life because your life is an absolute reflection of your faith. The moon always reflects the sun; it does this every night unless there is an eclipse. A Christian will do the same; he will reflect the light of Christ. Even if he doesn’t want to, even if he thinks he cannot do it, he reflects Jesus Christ.
Let us ask the Lord to grant us this gift, brothers and sisters, that we be Christians this time of Easter. Don’t demand it of yourselves; the Lord will do it.