3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima
Theme: You are my witnesses
Readings: Acts 3:13–15,17–19; 1Jn 2:1–5a; Lk 24:35–48
Dear brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus has resurrected and has continued to appear to His disciples. The Gospel of last Sunday told us that he appeared to the disciples, gave them the message of peace and made them messengers of forgiveness and mercy. Today, we have another story of His appearance to His disciples. After giving them the greeting of peace, he spent time discussing and eating with them. At the end of His stay with them, He gave them a mission to be His witnesses to the world. The gospel of today ended with this beautiful verse: ‘you are witnesses to these things.’
In the first reading, we saw the mission of witnessing to Christ in action in the life of Peter. Peter did not forget to tell the crowd that he and the other disciples of Christ are witnesses to the great events of the life of Jesus. He said: ‘to this we are witnesses.’ As Christians, we have also received the same mandate to witness to Jesus through our baptism. Jesus has mandated us to go and tell our friends and the whole world that he has risen from the dead. He has commissioned us to tell our friends of the goodness of his name. He has sent us to tell our friends that to follow Him is the best of all choices. But then, how can we do all these if our lives do not show that Jesus is the Lord? How can we reflect the light of Christ if our lives still bear traces of darkness? How can we witness to the light if our life is still the abode of darkness? What, then, are the best ways to fulfil this task of being witnesses to Christ?
Dear friends, the first step towards witnessing to the risen Christ is by repenting of our sins. The reason for this is very simple. It is this: If your actions contradict what your mouth says, you are not a true witness. To convincingly witness to Christ, our actions and our words must be saying the same thing. In fact, friends, the best witness to Christ is through our actions, through our behaviours, both in the church and in the society. This was the lesson of the second reading of today. It says: “and by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know him’ but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected.” We cannot be Christ’s witnesses if we disobey his commandments.
Hence, the big task for all of us who have received the mandate to witness to Christ is to know the extent the resurrection of Christ has influenced our lives; to know if the resurrection of Christ has changed us personally or whether we are still living our old life. Let us change any behavior in us that does not reflect the power of Christ’s resurrection. Let us repent of our own sins so that we can invite others to repent.
Another step towards witnessing to Christ is by being courageous. The courage of Peter and the other apostles in their mission should be our model. In the first reading, Peter stood up before the very people who condemned and killed Jesus and told them their sins to their faces. He told them of the wrong choice they made by requesting that a criminal be released, and that Jesus be crucified. This is the courage of a true witness to Christ. This is the courage that we need before our friends and the entire community if we want to be true witnesses. Most of the times we are afraid of being criticized, of being insulted, of losing our friends and acquaintances, and then, we prefer to close our mouths when we face occasions to defend our faith.
Friends, we must be ready to suffer criticisms and insults if we want to be true witnesses of Christ. Let us imitate the courage of Peter and the other apostles. With prudence and courage, let us go out and win our friends for Christ, this is the mission handed to us by the Risen Christ.
Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima