3rd Sunday of Easter 2021

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels 
April 18, 2021

My brothers and sisters in Christ,¹

In our Gospel passage today, that we just heard, we are “invited” into the upper room with the first apostles and disciples. 

As I said before, I think it is very useful for us — when we read the Gospels — to make ourselves present and contemplate those things because that helps us to understand our Christian vocation. 

So today we are invited into the upper room with the first apostles and disciples. 

And as we heard, suddenly the Risen Jesus appears in their midst. So we should ask ourselves today — what would that have felt like? To be talking about Jesus and then, suddenly, he is standing right there next to us.

Our Gospel today tells us that the disciples were afraid, they were thinking that he is some kind of ghost. 

And Jesus calms their fears. He says: “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see …”

Then, I guess again to their surprise, he asks them for food and he eats a piece of baked fish right in front of them. Of course, Jesus is making the point that ghosts do not have flesh and bones or appetites. 

Jesus is alive! He is truly Risen. He died, but now he is alive and he walks with us on the journey of our lives! We can have a close friendship with him! 

This is the beautiful reality that we celebrate in this Easter season, my dear brothers and sisters.

The resurrection does not wipe away the marks where the nails have been. Those sacred wounds in our Lord’s hands and feet, the holes where the nails were driven in to hang him on the cross — these are the “proofs” of his love. 

What he’s saying to us today is, “Look at my hands, look at my feet. You saw me die on the cross. That’s how much I love you!” That is really what Jesus is saying to us today. 

It was all for us, my brothers and sisters. As St. John tells us today in the second reading that Jesus died as “expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.”

It is so amazing, Jesus’ personal love for each one of us, his love for every person in the whole world. 

So when we reflect on that, Jesus’ love for us and his dying and rising, we can understand better the mystery of God’s plan for history, the history of salvation. 

And it is beautiful how today, in the passage of the Gospel, Jesus explains that history to the first disciples. And he is also explaining to each one of us. In the Gospel he tells us that he had to suffer, and that he had to rise from the dead on the third day. 

And he says: 
“Everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the psalms and in the prophets must be fulfilled,” 

So during this Easter season, every year in the Easter season especially, we must open our hearts, our lives, our souls to the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our own personal lives. 

As he did on those days after the first Easter, Jesus stands before us today and invites us to reflect on his hands and feet, on the beautiful promises of sacred Scriptures. 

He is calling us now to be a new creation, to be “Easter people,” new men and new  women living in a total new way. 

But Jesus tells us today that Easter is not over. The story of his death and resurrection must be told to all the nations and to every person. Repentance and forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed in his name 

My brothers and sisters, this is our mission. He gives us this mission as he speaks  personally to you and to me, once again he says to us: “You are witnesses of these things.” as he said to the apostles and the disciples at that beautiful time.

So let’s reflect on that beautiful call. We have to try to see how we can make it happen in our lives. 

In the first reading of today’s Mass we hear about how the apostles were living their vocation. And they were going out and telling people about Jesus Christ, 

So we need to tell the world what we know about Jesus, we need to speak about his love for us and the promise of salvation that he has made to every person. 

Like those first disciples, again, Jesus is sending us out into the world — into our homes, into the places where we work; into all our conversations and encounters with other people. 

And my brothers and sisters, it is so essential that we continue to “touch” Jesus, to remain in his presence, like those disciples in today’s Gospel. 

The surest way to stay close to Jesus, as we know, is to do what we are doing today, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. 

In the beginning of the Gospel today, the disciples are speaking about how “Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread.” So they are talking about the Eucharist. 

So like those first disciples, like the Christians of every age, we need to make the Eucharist the center of our lives. 

Because in every celebration of the Mass, we have that encounter with the Risen Jesus, just as those first disciples met him in that upper room. 

Jesus comes in the Mass to open our hearts and minds to understand the beautiful promises of the sacred Scriptures. We hear the words of Moses and the prophets and the psalms. And then we hear our Lord’s own words in the Gospels. Every time that the Mass is celebrated.

And then, in every Mass, after he opens our minds to understand the Scriptures, Jesus is “made known to [us] in the breaking of bread.” 

So every Eucharist is a new Easter! The Risen Lord again comes into our midst, and he speaks to us of his love. And then he shows his love for us — all over again — offering us his Body and Blood for us in the bread and wine, giving himself to be our food.

I know this past year has been very challenging for all of us because it was difficult to be present for the celebration of the Eucharist. But now as little by little things are getting better, it is time for us to look forward to the celebration of the Eucharist every Sunday and whenever possible every day. 

So today, let us ask for the grace to live this week and always with a new awareness of the gift of salvation that we have been giving through the dying and rising of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God help all of us to open our hearts and minds to know the great love that he has shown us and to receive that love in the breaking of the bread.

1. Readings: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; Ps. 4:2, 4, 7-9; 1 John 2:1-5a; Luke 24:35-48.