Easter changes everything. Easter makes the healing power of resurrection available to confront and to overcome everything that afflicts mankind. Yet we live as if that power is still sealed in the tomb. We converse and debate about the more abstract meanings of the life of Jesus but we often miss him when he draws near.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
We resemble the crippled man at the beautiful gate. We have been scrapping by for so long begging for alms that we can't raise our expectations to anything greater.
And a man crippled from birth was carried
and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day
to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.
But there is more for the man and there is more for us. How do we find it? Let us listen to Peter:
But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
and said, “Look at us.”
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
The man looks to Peter and John and sees not just them, but representatives of Jesus. He looks through them to connect with the presence of Jesus in his Mystical Body. It is by means of this relationship that Peter heals him.
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
We are called to be able to recognize the presence of Jesus as the cripple does. We are called to recognize his presence as the disciples on the road to Emmaus recognize it.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
When we are slow to see him in the Eucharist and in his body what should we do? We should open ourselves to his Word. His resurrection power is present in the Eucharist the most profoundly, but it is also present in his Body, and in his Word. And they all feed into one another and strengthen our ability to recognize him in all of his forms.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta tells us:
"All of us know that unless we believe and can see Jesus in the appearance of bread on the altar, we will not be able to see him in the distressing disguise of the poor."Jesus wants us to recognize him. He wants our hearts to burn within us when he speaks. Even when we don't fully recognize him (which, on this side, is always) let us plead with him, "Remain with us LORD". For the longer we spend in his presence the better able to behold him we are, to the degree that we don't even realize fully how much better until he goes.
Like the crippled man at the gate we won't just be healed. We will leap to our feet, walking, jumping and praising God. So let us look at Jesus. Let us keep looking until our eyes are opened.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
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