Kent Beausoleil, S.J.

Homily – Third Sunday of Easter – April 6, 2008 (First Communion)

Readings: Act 2:14, 22-23; Luke 24: 13-35

It was a hot muggy day on the baseball diamond in gym class that fifth grade year at Hyde Park elementary. Although I was okay in other sports, I was lousy playing baseball. Through the years of gym class I became used to the jeers of teammates, the chortle of the gym teachers, and the cat-calls of the opposing team. While batting I often heard "Hey batter, batter, swing!!!" The sarcasm of "Ahhh, another strike, too bad!" "Hey Beausoleil's up again everyone move up." While in the outfield, Hey Beausoleil, you got it? You got it? Ah, he ain't got it!" I became used to and believed in these messages that I was a lousy baseball player. So, one day I am standing in the batter's box, get into my usual batting stance – way choked up on the bat, butt way out in the air, and eyes closed, and I get ready to swing.

After two failed swings that resulted in strikes, reinforcing once again the message of my lack of baseball skill, someone from my team ran up behind me, grabbed the bottom of my shorts and 'pants-ed' me. With gym shorts around my ankles, the laughter of the crowd was met by my nervous laughter. After pulling up my shorts, bemused, confused, and distracted by what had just happened, I tried to regain my composure. The pitcher pitched. I swung. And blessed grace I connected with the ball and hit a triple. Distracted from the messages that made me believe I was a lousy ball player, the breaking of the bat hitting the ball shattered those old beliefs, those barriers that kept me from excelling, and a new belief took hold – a belief that maybe with practice I could actually become a good ballplayer.

The problem, before us then, is barriers. In Acts today we hear of problems that developed between those who believed Jesus as the risen Messiah and those who could not. For Peter, those who could not believe set themselves apart. They crucified themselves from Christ and crucified themselves from the possibility of Christ alive in the community. So the community's division became the outward sign of people's barrier to the unconditional love of God. A barrier to love that led to discrimination, division, false perception, mis-judgment, and mis-understanding.

Jesus, in Luke, uses the action of the breaking of the bread to crack through those barriers that keep us once again from fully grasping the love of God that he embodies. In their failure to see Jesus inviting them on a journey of faith, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus are confused. They cannot get their minds around the resurrection and would rather believe that the cross was Jesus' final end. In their blindness to love's presence they kept the cross, kept the crucifixion, alive in their hearts. They don't yet see, and fail to see, until the action of the breaking of the bread, the real truth that Jesus' love removes all barriers.

We all have internal barriers that keep us from fully realizing God's love for us. How like the unbelievers in Acts and how like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus we can all be. We have barriers that keep us from fully embracing our dignity and worth as individuals. We allow our hearts, minds, and souls to be filled with barriers that keep us from truly loving one another in solidarity. We pre-judge, form false opinions, make fun of, discriminate, and object to anyone whom we deem as different and so keep the reality of true communion a far distant fantasy. We keep alive in our hearts, for example, the many barriers to love that racism, sexism, ageism, and any other 'ism' represent. We are quick to condemn others and crucify them rather than bringing the new life of love to all relationships.

We are called in our liturgy of the word this day to wake up. We are called to remove those barriers that continue to crucify Christ alive in the world and alive in one another. We will shortly move to the Eucharistic table, and in the breaking of the bread, we allow Christ's love to knock down all that keeps us from love, from loving ourselves, from loving our neighbor, from loving God. We need to allow Jesus to surprise us, like a friend on a baseball field who does something unexpected, into a new way of seeing and believing.

The truth of our faith flows from our belief that the burial clothe of Jesus' crucifixion has been transformed truly into the altar clothe of Christ's resurrected love. In a few moments this altar cloth will be placed on our Eucharistic table. As we witness in the breaking of the bread Jesus' everlasting love, Christ looks to us this Easter day and asks us if we can truly hear the love he proclaims, if we can see and believe in the beauty of that love alive here in this place? Jesus calls out to us, hey brother, hey sister, do you got it, you got it? This Easter season as we approach Pentecost, may we in praise and thanksgiving respond to Jesus' true love by proclaiming "we got it", "we got it" – "we believe".

Peace,