HE STILL HAS THE WOUNDS ON HIM

Here is my homily for the THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER – the readings can be found at https://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/042609.shtml.

Sorry for the delay in posting this – my computer had a melt down earlier today (the modern day version of the “dog ate my homework” excuse; except it REALLY did!!)

HOMILY:

Out of Britain came this story a few months ago. It seems that there was this large sculpture of a crucifix – the image of Christ on the cross that has been removed from outside of a church in West Sussex after one of the clergymen said it was disturbing to people. The 10ft sculpture crucifix, which had been mounted on the front of St. John’s Church since the early 1960’s was, according to parish leaders, “a horrifying depiction of pain and suffering” which was “putting people off and scaring children.” It has now been replaced with a new plain, stainless steel cross. The leaders of the Church said that in survey’s they had conducted on the crucifix the results came back with every comment about the sculpture being negative.

Reverend Souter, the vicar of the church said: “Children have commented on how scary they find it and [parishioners remarked] how off-putting they thought it was as a symbol outside the church. As the key exterior symbol for us it made people more uncomfortable rather than having a sense of hope and life and the power of the resurrection.”

So the sculpture was taken down prior to Christmas and was mounted on a wall in the grounds of a Museum. The curator of the museum observed that it was a very powerful image displayed in that sculpture of Christ in pain. He remarked “That today isn’t an image which a lot of churches want to follow. They’d much rather see an empty cross where Christ has risen,” he said.

That speaks of a reality of humanity. Everyone wants to be with the winner, the victor, the triumphant one. Few of us would know any of the people who competed against Michael Phelps in last year’s Olympics where he won 8 gold medals. American Idol celebrates the winners – they make clip shows lampooning all of the “rejects.”

Yes, the notion of winning appeals to us for obvious reasons. The idea of focusing on a crucified body is at a minimum, disturbing to us.

There’s a temptation for us in this season of Easter joy to kind of agree with our Anglican friends at that church who’ve removed the crucifix in favor of the empty cross. We are celebrating with great joy for 50 days (10 longer than Lent!!!) this tremendous feat, this history changing, eternity changing event that the man Jesus Christ who was crucified has been raised from the dead.

Hymns, scripture readings, prayers all keep repeating ALLELUIA! HE IS RISEN! JESUS HAS CONQUERED DEATH FOREVER! ETERNAL LIFE IS OUR HOPE, IS OUR PROMISE! So why would we want to look at a depiction of his crucified body?

Looking at the Gospels from the last three Sundays of Easter, we start to learn things about Jesus post Resurrection. Jesus in his resurrected body is able to do all kinds of things. He keeps getting into these locked rooms without a key and seems to appear and disappear with relative ease, sometimes without even saying goodbye, he just seems to disappear from their midst (which is why people think he’s a ghost).

Yet he makes it very clear and says to them No, I’m not a ghost – touch me and feel that I am flesh and bone; watch me as I eat (he seems to like Fish a lot). So there he is in this glorified body, that enables Jesus to do all kinds of things that we aren’t able to do. And yet, there’s one important detail we hear about –

He still has the wounds on Him.

The nail marks that pierced his hands, and feet, they’re still there. Did God forget to fix that? If you’re raising your son from a horrific death like that, you would think that you’d want to clean up all those wounds, those marks, those terrible reminders of what happened. Or perhaps there’s a reason they’re still there. Maybe there’s something that those wounds, and the image of the crucified Jesus is there to reminds us of.

In today’s Gospel, after they have kept encountering Jesus risen from the dead, we keep reading in the Gospels that the disciples are scared. They’re hiding in fear. In fact today’s Gospel has Jesus asking WHY ARE YOU TROUBLED. I wonder if any of them are as sarcastic as we can be and said “Oh I don’t know Jesus, my Lord – a few days we saw you tortured, killed and left for dead, and now you somehow are able to get around with no trouble at all…” WHY DO QUESTIONS ARISE IN YOUR HEART, Jesus asks… because the reality for us in our mortal, pre-resurrected bodies is we have troubles – we have questions…don’t we?

So the resurrected, glorious Jesus turns and answers those troubles, answers those questions as he says – look – see my hands and my feet… It’s almost like Jesus saying – I haven’t forgotten what Good Friday is like – I know you are going through your own Good Fridays. When you’re feeling abandoned, alone, abused. Like the whole world has turned it’s back on you and leaving you completely broken. I know you’re troubled. I know you have questions. I haven’t forgotten how that feels. I haven’t forgotten you.

And as our first taste, first experience of the resurrection in our own lives, he tells us when we turn away from our lives of sin, when we bring to him all the things that make us feel unloved, unworthy, he says you are Loved, you are worthy “Be forgiven.”

We look to the wounds, we look to the image of the crucified one because we can relate to the wounds, relate to the crucified one.. we who are experiencing Good Fridays in our own lives… and see that true victory is there as Jesus comes in the midst of that and offers us his peace. And as we turn to him, embracing those glorified, pierced hands of His – we are with the ultimate “winner” trusting that he is with us, we become true witnesses that from the horror of Good Friday – Easter Joy and Hope is born. So we look at the crucified one, we remember those wounds not as defeatists, but to remember that what God has done for his beloved Son, he will do for us, his beloved sons and daughters.

If we believe that and have our faith and trust in that, how could that crucifix be anything but a sign of hope and victory?