{"id":3676,"date":"2011-05-07T09:35:02","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T13:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=3676"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:27:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T21:27:30","slug":"homily-for-may-8-2011-3rd-sunday-of-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/05\/homily-for-may-8-2011-3rd-sunday-of-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily for May 8, 2011: 3rd Sunday of Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The writer Amy Welborn lives in Alabama, near Birmingham, and she spent part of this past week volunteering at a call center, helping people whose lives had been turned upside down, literally, by the tornadoes that tore through the region.\u00a0 She wrote about her experience on her blog, and described what people were doing for one another.<\/p>\n

She said about half the calls were from people seeking help \u2013 and the other half, from people seeking ways<\/em> to help.<\/p>\n

A woman called from Florida. \u201cI\u2019ve got a group and we want to come up this weekend \u2013 where can we go to help?\u201d<\/p>\n

A fellow called from Mobile, saying he had two friends from Michigan who were going to come down for a week on their vacation time. Where could they be best used?<\/p>\n

A woman said she was a nurse and had just gotten off work and \u201cI have a strong back and I can lift heavy loads \u2013 can I go somewhere this afternoon?\u201d<\/p>\n

And it went on and on.\u00a0 As Amy described it:<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you go to a store here in Birmingham these days, here\u2019s what you see: people pushing carts full of water bottles, packs of underwear and socks, and packs of soup, stew and fruit, boxes of batteries. They\u2019ll load them up, go drop them off at a church or some other center, and many of them will return tomorrow, ready to buy some more.\u201d<\/p>\n

I read that and was deeply moved.\u00a0 It says something about human nature.\u00a0 But it also describes something powerful, something that is at the heart of our lives as Christians.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s at the heart of this Sunday\u2019s gospel, and all the gospels we\u2019re hearing in these weeks after Easter.<\/p>\n

The readings serve as a reminder that so much of our faith isn\u2019t individual. \u00a0It is looking out for one another, praying for one another, praying with<\/em> one another.<\/p>\n

It is communal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Look at the scriptures from Easter onward.\u00a0 Christ didn\u2019t appear to his followers one by one.\u00a0 The encounters with the resurrected Jesus all happened in groups: the two women at the tomb; the many disciples gathered in the upper room; and now, two disciples traveling on the road to Emmaus.\u00a0\u00a0 That meeting leads not only to communion \u2013 the breaking of the bread \u2013 but to a deepening desire, a need, to spread the news to the community of believers.\u00a0 The disciples who met Christ couldn\u2019t continue on their way, they couldn\u2019t just pick up where they left off on the path they\u2019d been following.\u00a0 They had to go back and tell others.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned at Easter, so much of the resurrection story is about telling that story \u2013 spreading the word.\u00a0 And we see it here once again.\u00a0 It\u2019s a story that cannot be contained.\u00a0 The good news has to be shared.<\/p>\n

And it has to be that way.<\/p>\n

Our life as Catholic Christians is not only about communion.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also about community.<\/p>\n

Too often, people forget that.\u00a0 We saw that at Easter: hundreds of people crowded the church for all the masses.\u00a0 It was Standing Room Only.\u00a0 Where are they the rest of the year?<\/p>\n

Some will tell you \u2013 and this is a common refrain \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t need to go to church to pray.\u00a0 I can pray at home on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n

True enough.\u00a0 But there is so much more to being a Christian.<\/p>\n

To miss this weekly celebration is to miss something fundamental to the faith: a\u00a0 sense of being part of something greater than yourself, of being part of the Body of Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s to miss the shared experience of God\u2019s grace, that same experience that compelled the men at Emmaus to run back to Jerusalem and tell others what they had encountered.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t something meant to be kept to ourselves.\u00a0 It\u2019s meant to be lived, practiced, prayed with others.\u00a0\u00a0 What we have here is an extraordinary gift.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not something we should take for granted.<\/p>\n

The Church understands that, and it\u2019s one reason why her timeless teaching hasn\u2019t changed: it\u2019s still a grave sin to intentionally choose not to go to Mass.\u00a0\u00a0 But part of the reason for that is because of what happens here.\u00a0 Around this table, we encounter Christ in the breaking of the bread \u2013 just like the men on the way to Emmaus.\u00a0 To reject that, to walk away from it, is to reject The One who is at the center of our celebration.<\/p>\n

It is to reject Jesus.<\/p>\n

Obviously, I\u2019m preaching to the choir this morning.\u00a0 The people who need to hear this aren\u2019t the people who are already here.\u00a0 But you probably know some of those who aren\u2019t here.<\/p>\n

When we leave here this morning, we need to be like the disciples who met Christ on that road. We shouldn\u2019t just walk out the door and continue on your journey like nothing happened.<\/p>\n

Something is about to happen here.\u00a0 Something transcendent, and transformative.\u00a0 And when it is over, we need to go tell others.<\/p>\n

We need to tell it not only with words, but with our lives.\u00a0\u00a0 We need to bring the Christ we have received out into the world.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know if those disciples ever reached Emmaus.\u00a0 But we do know this much: their travels were interrupted and the direction of their journey was changed, because of an encounter with Christ.<\/p>\n

In some way, that is every Christian\u2019s story.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not one we should keep to ourselves.<\/p>\n

Our faith is about communion.\u00a0 And it\u2019s about community.<\/p>\n

It is meant to be shared.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The writer Amy Welborn lives in Alabama, near Birmingham, and she spent part of this past week volunteering at a call center, helping people whose lives had been turned upside down, literally, by the tornadoes that tore through the region.\u00a0 She wrote about her experience on her blog, and described what people were doing for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[11175],"class_list":["post-3676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","tag-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\nHomily for May 8, 2011: 3rd Sunday of Easter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The writer Amy Welborn lives in Alabama, near Birmingham, and she spent part of this past week volunteering at a call center, helping people whose lives\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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