The Visible Presence of the Risen Christ

Reflection on Today’s Readings, 2nd Sunday of Easter, April 24th, 2022
Texts: Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118:2-4.22-27a; Rev. 1:9-11a.12-13.17-19; John 20: 19-31
The risen Christ did not manifest Himself to the world but to His disciples. St. Luke writes: “but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10: 40-41). He built the faith of His disciples in His resurrection and sent them to manifest Him to the world. The people He formed, the Church, became His visible presence as the risen One, the body through which He manifests Himself to the world. This is clear in today’s readings. In the gospel reading, He gave the power to forgive sins. This is to make it real in the Church the message that through the resurrection of Christ repentance and forgiveness of sins shall be preached to everyone. Now with the giving of the power to forgive sins to the apostles, it is not only preached but made real; repentance and forgiveness of sins are achieved and made manifest in the Church. The risen Christ continues to bring people to repentance and continues to forgive them their sins through the Church.  
The sacrament of reconciliation is the means through which the risen Christ continues to make His mercy present among us. Let us continue to avail ourselves of this gift of God to us in the Church. Sacrament of reconciliation is not the only Sacraments through which the risen Christ manifests His mercy. Sacrament of Baptism manifests the mercy of the risen Christ in a profound way. With sacrament of Baptism sins are forgiven and the punishment due to them are remitted. With the sacrament of reconciliation sins are forgiven and grace to resist temptation to sin is given. Unlike Baptism, sacrament of reconciliation does not take away temporal punishment. Hence, penance is given.
Today’s first reading speaks of the healing that the risen Christ wrought in the Church. This healing continues in the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. This sacrament also manifests the mercy of the risen Christ, His compassion and loving care of His people. It shows the concerns of the risen Christ for His people. It shows He understands their conditions, He feels their pains and has come to save them. Just as the risen Christ healed the people by the shadow of Peter, so also He heals now by the Anointing oil administered during Anointing of the Sick. Sacrament of reconciliation also goes along with the Anointing of the Sick. Holy Eucharist also manifests the mercy of the risen Christ because it is through the sacrament that He offers Himself to God His Father for us. In the Holy Eucharist the risen Christ gives Himself for us. At confirmation the risen Christ shows His mercy by pouring out His Spirit into us. He shows His mercy through Holy Orders by making Himself available by the sacrament. The risen Christ shows His mercy through Holy matrimony by taking it up into His love.
Today’s second reading reminds us that Jesus Christ is the centre of  the Church. The seven golden lampstands represent the universal Church with the risen Christ at the centre. The image of the risen Christ portrayed in the reading is that of man of great dignity and authority and of a high priest (Ex. 29:5). He is the dignity and authority of the Church. The Church has no dignity and authority apart from the risen Christ’s. The Church continues to be the visible presence of the risen Christ in our world. In today’s first reading, it is said, “Many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles.” The signs and wonders were wrought by the risen Christ. The mercy of the risen Christ also manifests in the ways of life of His witnesses. The mercy manifests in the activities of the Church such as Proclamation of the gospel.

God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast kindle the faith of the people you have made your own, increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed, that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose Spirit they have been reborn, by whose Blood they have been redeemed. Amen (Collect)

Fr. Andrew Olowomuke