Sixth Sunday of Resurrection Homily Help

Sixth Sunday of the Resurrection: Appearance to the 12

Saints of the day : Sts Constantine and His Mother Helena, Confessors

“When you begin to read or listen to the Holy Scriptures, pray to God thus: “Lord Jesus Christ, open the ears and eyes of my heart so that I may hear Thy words and understand them, and may fulfill Thy will.” Always pray to God like this, that He might illumine your mind and open to you the power of His words. Many, having trusted in their own reason, have turned away into deception.”
— St. Ephraim the Syrian

Reading: Letter to the Romans 10:1-13.
Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
I can testify that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened.
For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness.
For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law, that ‘the person who does these things will live by them.’
But the righteousness that comes from faith says, ‘Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ down)
‘or “Who will descend into the abyss?” ’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him.
For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

I. Biblical Exegesis

[10:1–13] Despite Israel’s lack of faith in God’s act in Christ, Paul does not abandon hope for her salvation (Rom 10:1). However, Israel must recognize that the Messiah’s arrival in the person of Jesus Christ means the termination of the Mosaic law as the criterion for understanding oneself in a valid relationship to God. Faith in God’s saving action in Jesus Christ takes precedence over any such legal claim (Rom 10:6).

[10:4] The Mosaic legislation has been superseded by God’s action in Jesus Christ. Others understand “end” here in the sense that Christ is the goal of the law, i.e., the true meaning of the Mosaic law, which cannot be correctly understood apart from him. Still others believe that both meanings are intended.

[10:5–6] The subject of the verb says (Rom 10:6) is righteousness personified. Both of the statements in Rom 10:5, 6 derive from Moses, but Paul wishes to contrast the language of law and the language of faith.

[10:7] Here Paul blends Dt 30:13 and Ps 107:26.

[10:9–11] To confess Jesus as Lord was frequently quite hazardous in the first century (cf. Mt 10:18; 1 Thes 2:2; 1 Pt 2:18–21; 3:14). For a Jew it could mean disruption of normal familial and other social relationships, including great economic sacrifice. In the face of penalties imposed by the secular world, Christians are assured that no one who believes in Jesus will be put to shame (Rom 10:11).

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24;36-48.
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’
They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’
And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’
They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.

I. Biblical Exegesis

[24:36–43, 44–49] The Gospel of Luke, like each of the other gospels (Mt 28:16–20; Mk 16:14–15; Jn 20:19–23), focuses on an important appearance of Jesus to the Twelve in which they are commissioned for their future ministry. As in Lk 24:6, 12, so in Lk 24:36, 40 there are omissions in the Western text.

[24:39–42] The apologetic purpose of this story is evident in the concern with the physical details and the report that Jesus ate food.

[24:39] The Resurrected Body of Christ: The nail marks demonstrate that Jesus’ risen body is the same body that was crucified only days earlier (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 645). The evidence for this rising becomes incontroveritble as it mounts from his disappearance (empty tomb), to his various appearances, and now to a direct examination of his wounds.
Anagogically (St. Ambrose, In Lucam): Jesus’ resurrected body prefigures the resurrected bodies of the saints. By convincing us of his own Resurrection, he likewise assures us of the physical nature of our own resurrection on the Last Day.
Jesus’ risen body is truly physicl but nolonger earthly, since his humanity is now incorrubtible and indowed with spiritual qualities. He for ever reigns in a human body, but one that can pass through locked doors, vanish at will, and is nolonger subject to the limitations of time, space, and the laws of nature (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 646, 659).

II. St. Ephrem on the Human Body of Jesus

The facts themselves bear witness and his divine acts of power teach those who doubt that he is true God, and his sufferings show that he is true man. And if those who are feeble in understanding are not fully assured, they will pay the penalty on his dread day.
If he was not flesh, why was Mary introduced at all? And if he was not God, whom was Gabriel calling Lord?
If he was not flesh, who was lying in the manger? And if he was not God, whom did the Angels come down and glorify?
If he was not flesh, who was wrapped in swaddling clothes? And if he was not God, whom did the shepherds worship?
If he was not flesh, whom did Joseph circumcise? And if he was not God, in whose honour did the star speed through the heavens?
If he was not flesh, whom did Mary suckle? And if he was not God, to whom did the Magi offer gifts?
If he was not flesh, whom did Symeon carry in his arms? And if he was not God, to whom did he say, “Let me depart in peace”?
If he was not flesh, whom did Joseph take and flee into Egypt? And if he was not God, in whom were words “Out of Egypt I have called my Son” fulfilled?
If he was not flesh, whom did John baptise? And if he was not God, to whom did the Father from heaven say, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased”?
If he was not flesh, who fasted and hungered in the desert? And if he was not God, whom did the Angels come down and serve?
If he was not flesh, who was invited to the wedding in Cana of Galilee? And if he was not God, who turned the water into wine?
If he was not flesh, in whose hands were the loaves? And if he was not God, who satisfied crowds and thousands in the desert, not counting women and children, from five loaves and two fishes?
If he was not flesh, who fell asleep in the boat? And if he was not God, who rebuked the winds and the sea?
If he was not flesh, with whom did Simon the Pharisee eat? And if he was not God, who pardoned the offences of the sinful woman?
If he was not flesh, who sat by the well, worn out by the journey? And if he was not God, who gave living water to the woman of Samaria and reprehended her because she had had five husbands?
If he was not flesh, who wore human garments? And if he was not God, who did acts of power and wonders?
If he was not flesh, who spat on the ground and made clay? And if he was not God, who through the clay compelled the eyes to see?
If he was not flesh, who wept at Lazarus’ grave? And if he was not God, who by his command brought out one four days dead?
If he was not flesh, who sat on the foal? And if he was not God, whom did the crowds go out to meet with glory?
If he was not flesh, whom did the Jews arrest? And if he was not God, who gave an order to the earth and threw them onto their faces.
If he was not flesh, who was struck with a blow? And if he was not God, who cured the ear that had been cut off by Peter and restored it to its place?
If he was not flesh, who received spittings on his face? And if he was not God, who breathed the Holy Spirit into the faces of his Apostles?
If he was not flesh, who stood before Pilate at the judgement seat? And if he was not God, who made Pilate’s wife afraid by a dream?
If he was not flesh, whose garments did the soldiers strip off and divide? And if he was not God, how was the sun darkened at the cross?
If he was not flesh, who was hung on the cross? And if he was not God, who shook the earth from its foundations?
If he was not flesh, whose hands and feet were transfixed by nails? And if he was not God, how was the veil of the temple rent, the rocks broken and the graves opened?
If he was not flesh, who cried out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me”? And if he was not God, who said “Father, forgive them”?
If he was not flesh, who was hung on a cross with the thieves? And if he was not God, how did he say to the thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”?
If he was not flesh, to whom did they offer vinegar and gall? And if he was not God, on hearing whose voice did Hades tremble?
If he was not flesh, whose side did the lance pierce, and blood and water came out?And if he was not God, who smashed to gates of Hades and tear apart it bonds? And at whose command did the imprisoned dead come out?
If he was not flesh, whom did the Apostles see in the upper room? And if he was not God, how did he enter when the doors were shut?
If he was not flesh, the marks of the nails and the lance in whose hands and side did Thomas handle? And if he was not God, to whom did he cry out, “My Lord and my God”?
If he was not flesh, who ate by the sea of Tiberias? And if he was not God, at whose command was the net filled?
If he was not flesh, whom did the Apostles and Angels see being taken up into heaven? And if he was not God, to whom was heaven opened, whom did the Powers worship in fear and whom did the Father invite to “Sit at my right hand”. As David said, “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, etc.”
If he was not God and man, our salvation is a lie, and the words of the Prophets are lies. But the Prophets spoke the truth, and their testimonies were not lies. The Holy Spirit spoke through them what they had been commanded.
+ St. Ephrem the Syrian, Excerpt from the Sermon on Transfiguration

Sample Homily

Paul reminds us in his Letter to the Romans that we are not justified by acts of the Law, but by faith in Christ, that lives in our hearts and is spoken on our lips. We cannot save ourselves, but we have been saved by Him in whom we have faith, Jesus Christ, true God and true man. He has united us together in His Church, where the distinctions of Jew and Gentile are erased, for all are one in Christ, all are equally in need of his salvation, all partake of the same Baptism into his death and Resurrection, and all share in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist at the Divine Liturgy.
Our faith is Apostolic in nature, and in the Gospel reading we see how the faith of the Apostles is confirmed and strenghtened, in that, they are allowed to see the Risen Lord. The Biblical passages that speak of the Apostles encountering the Resurrected Jesus are some of the fascinating in Sacred Scripture. How does one put into writing their experience of the Resurrected Lord. Our human language is limited by the space, time, physical world in which we live our daily lives – the Resurrected Jesus is nolonger subject to the limitations of those categories that make up our daily human lives. Yet, they convey to us the truth of his victory of death, and they convey to us that those who believe in him will share in his victory, will share in his Resurrection. It is the same Jesus whom they followed through his three years of public ministry, it is the same Jesus who was born of Mary, the same Jesus they saw crucified and buried – who now stands before them as the the Lord of Life.