WE ARE ALL WITNESSES OF THESE THINGS Todays readings are all about recognition, and knowledge of who Jesus

Christ REALLY IS, and then being witnesses. In the 1st reading...Peter tells the people out of ignorance you failed to recognize Jesus Christ...the Holy, Righteous One. You had a murderer released to you, and you murdered the Author of Life. But God raised him from the dead; of this we are all witnesses. In the second reading...John recognizes Jesus as the righteous one an Advocate with the Father, when anyone sins. He says the way we can be sure that we know who Jesus Christ REALLY IS...is to keep his commandments. And he's got some strong words for those who say, "Oh, I know him," but don't keep his commandments...John says...they're liars... In todays Gospel we find 2 disciples telling the other apostles about their breaking bread with Jesus at Emmaus. When all of a sudden Jesus appears to whole group. They're startled and terrified. IT MUST BE A GHOST! But Jesus wants them to know it's REALLY HIM! He shows them his hands and feet and then to make sure they know it's really him. He says Man, I'm hungry...have you got anything to eat? Then he expands their knowledge of Scriptures that He really is the one who fulfilled the Law of Moses, what the psalms said, and what the prophets prohesied...Then He commissions them to preach what he had just taught them to all the nations of the world... As we know, The disciple weren't the only ones who had difficulty in recognizing who Jesus really was...Doubting Thomas certainly did in last week's gospel. On Easter morning Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was a gardener when saw the risen Lord. No doubt there were others. After all, wasnt He supposed to be dead? When He appeared to them they couldnt believe their eyes. To everyone it was all quite unbelievable. All of this presents us with the question of whether or not we recognize the presence of Christ in our own lives, in our world...When do we recognize Him? Where do we recognize Him? As Catholics we believe our risen Lord comes to us in the Holy Eucharist hidden under the outward form of the consecrated Bread and Wine. Do we really believe? Do we really want to recognize His nearness or do we prefer to keep Christ in some safe and remote distant heaven? Are we really interested at all?

Another problem for many people of our time, as it was in Jesus' time, is that Jesus Christ identifies Himself with the poor, with aliens and immigrants, and in those other people...we dont particularly like. Its disturbing for us at times that Jesus is exactly where He said He would be. Today, I want to suggest to you that recognition, and knowledge of who Jesus Christ REALLY IS is something thats deeper than mere perception. It means seeing with understanding. Something far deeper than merely seeing with our eyes. Isnt that the gift our Lord Jesus Christ is giving His disciples following His Easter resurrection from death into new life? The full knowledge of his human life filled with divine life. Isnt that that one of the gifts that God is giving us in the Resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Eucharist that keeps him with us forever? Those first Christians who saw the Lord after His resurrection were a shattered, broken, grieving people who had lost everything. They had the shared experience of seeing Jesus betrayal, followed by His trial, torture and horrible crucifixion. They were frightened and no doubt mistrustful, perhaps even of each other. One of the subtle messages of what we've heard today is by the end of the events in todays gospel we find that shattered and broken community of grieving people had been transformed by the gift of seeing with understanding. They were sufficiently changed enough so that Our Blessed Lord could commission them to go out into the whole world to bring the Good News of Gods mercy and forgiveness, the Good News of Gods New Creation...The Good News that God is nearer to us than we dare to think... and that He can fill us with His very inner life...the gift of Holy Spirit. Many of you here have your own stories of experiencing the presence of God in your own personal lives. Each of us, as a matter of fact, has had our own encounters with our risen Lord. Some of us have yet to recognize Christs coming to us. Perhaps our risen Lord has come to some of us already. but we have yet to recognize what happened. Some of us have been loved far more deeply than we have realized and have yet to recognize just how deeply and how wonderfully we have been loved. Some of us have suffered terribly. Perhaps we have known the despair that Judas experienced. Who among us here today has not had their own agonies? Our own moments of darkness, pain, loss, and suffering. My message to you

today is that there are times when unexpectedly we encounter the risen, living Christ and our faith can renewed and strengthened. Just as each of us has arrived here this morning by different ways and with different stories, we, like those disciples we heard about in todays Gospel, will journey on in different ways in our own lives and in the lives of others. Remember, WE ARE ALL WITNESSES OF THESE THINGS. Deacon Gerry Mattingly All Saints Church, Taylorsville, KY and Saint Francis Xavier Church, Mount Washington, KY Permission given for redistribution with arribution.