Thank God for Witnesses!
Homily originally presented April 18, 2021
by Monsignor Deering

A family that lives out the rural town of Coker tells the story of the day their family was sitting outside on their front porch all enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon with many of them taking a little power nap as the crickets hummed in the fields.

And then a big Rabbit came on the property and made a dangerous mistake  ...

crossing the frontyard in plain sight of the family’s hunting dog, Blue.

As soon as Blue saw that Rabbit he was up like a shot and started running after that Rabbit ... yelping as he ran  AWR, AWR, AWR!

The Rabbit ran around the side of the house with Blue hot on his trail ...

AWR, AWR, AWR.

Now, next door there were three dogs resting on that front porch  ... and when they heard all the commotion, they came running and joined in the chase ...

        AWR, AWR, AWR .

The Rabbit came all the way around the house and crossed in front again ... running for its life .... and there was Blue behind him ... AWR, AWR, AWR

and then came the 3 dogs behind him AWR, AWR, AWR

Again the Rabbit circled the house and crossed in front ...

and again Blue was right behind him AWR, AWR, AWR!

But ...  the other 3 dogs ... weren’t there.              Where were they?  

They’d given up the chase.

Why?         How come?    

Because they never saw the Rabbit!        They ... never saw ... the Rabbit! 

They heard the commotion and they followed the lead of Blue for a while ...

but they never saw what they were running after ... so they stopped running.

Blue saw the Rabbit.

He knew there was something worth chasing.     So he ... kept on going.

2000 years ago,  Jesus was killed in a brutal execution and then buried.

3 days later, His tomb was empty!             Where did He go?

A few people said that they saw Him ... alive again!     Not many ... only a few.

And so the odds were against many others ... believing that Jesus was really alive.

All I can say is thank goodness ... that the eyewitnesses of the Risen Jesus ...

wrote down their experiences ...

so that all the following generations would know the truth. 

Today, we just heard twice from the Evangelist Luke,

• in our First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which Luke wrote
• and in Luke’s Gospel ... in a passage from the final chapter (24).

In both places, we hear the word witnesses.

In the Gospel, Luke records the Apostles seeing the Risen Jesus ...

    standing before them in His Resurrected Body ... eating a piece of baked fish.

And Jesus says to them, “You are witnesses of these things.” 

And in the Book of Acts, Luke records Peter saying to the Jews,

“The Author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead;

of this we are witnesses.”

Jesus knew that we would be like those three neighbor dogs, who didn’t believe

the Rabbit was there because they never saw it with their own eyes!

And He wanted us to know and never forget the loving work He did ...

of dying and rising from the dead ... to overcome sin and death!

The Apostle John emphasized this in our Second Reading today saying, “(Jesus) is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.”

So Jesus made sure that we would never forget this truth ...

by allowing His Apostles to be “eyewitnesses” of his victory over death.

They saw Him, touched Him, spoke with Him and ate with Him ...

after He was raised from the dead!

You and I weren’t there 2000 years ago ... but the Apostles were.

So, our faith in the Resurrection ...

doesn’t come from our own eyewitness experience of the Risen Lord.

No, our faith in the Resurrection comes from our faith in the Apostles!

They were the eyewitnesses and they handed on to us what they saw, the Risen Lord!

Being an eyewitness of the Risen Jesus was the first part of being an Apostle. 

The second part was actually being sent by Jesus to witness to the Resurrection.

The word “Apostle” comes from Greek “Apostolos” which actually means, “to send.”

So, who did Jesus choose to send out to spread the Good News?  

While Scripture says that the Risen Jesus appeared to some, such as the women at the tomb and the 2 on the road to Emmaus, He did not send them all out to preach.

No, it was only to the Eleven men in the Upper Room.

and Paul, who Jesus appeared to on His way to Damascus 3 years later ...

 that Jesus sent out to preach the Good news of His Resurrection.

Only these were eye-witnesses of the Risen Jesus and sent out by the Risen Jesus!

So, given that definition of Apostle, can we call ourselves Apostles of Jesus Christ? No!

That title applies only to those who were: (1) eyewitnesses of the Risen Jesus,

and (2) were sent by the Risen Jesus to preach the Good News of Redemption.

So, what does that make all of us ...

we ... who continue to spread the Good News of Redemption?

It makes us ... Disciples ... of Jesus Christ!

Disciple come from the Latin word “discipulus” which means “to learn”.

Disciples are those who embrace and assist in spreading the teachings of another.

So, we Christians embrace and assist in spreading the teachings of

    Christ and the Apostles.

We, the Disciples of Christ today, don’t proclaim the Resurrection …

we proclaim the Gospels!

We were not eyewitnesses of the Risen Jesus,

so we testify to the experience of the Apostles,

     who were ... eyewitnesses of the Risen Lord.

That’s why Apostolic Succession is so important to us.

The Church is built on the tradition ... that the Apostles handed on to us.

And it’s our responsibility ...  to pass that tradition on to others.

St. Paul begins chapter 11 of his First Letter to the Corinthians writing:

“I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions,

just as I handed them on to you.”

And then later in that same chapter, Paul describes the Mass, writing:

“For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus,

on the night he was handed over, took bread, and after he had given thanks,

broke it and said, ‘This is my body that it for you. Do this in memory of me.’”

This is surely one of the greatest traditions to ever be passed on ...

the celebration of Holy Mass.

Apostle Paul emphasizes this in this letter writing,

“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup,

you proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes.”

Notice that Paul didn’t say … you proclaim the Resurrection of the Lord.

No, Paul says ...              you proclaim the Death of the Lord!

You see, it was the Apostles who proclaimed the Resurrection.

What we proclaim is belief in ... the tradition of the Apostles!

For example, in our First Reading from Acts today, once the Apostle Peter ...

gave his eyewitness testimony that “God raised (Jesus) from the dead,”

did he then tell the people to go proclaim the Resurrection?

No. He simply said, “Repent and be converted that your sins may be wiped away.”

Those who did so became ... “Disciples” of Jesus Christ.

We believe the witness of the Apostles that is written in the Bible ...

And when we learn and share that truth ...

we are being Disciples of Jesus Christ!

Our faith in the victory of Jesus Christ over the power of death

   is based on the accounts that we have from the eye-witnesses who were there …

the Apostles.

Let’s give thanks for the many Resurrection appearances ...

that are recorded in Scripture by those who were eyewitnesses!

They are the basis of our faith in the saving power and mighty love of God.  

The Holy Bible, compiled and preserved by the Catholic Church,

helps us to learn, practice and hand on our faith in the Risen Lord.

Let’s be good Disciples of Jesus, especially by faithfully attending Holy Mass,

where each time we get “to proclaim the death of the Lord until He comes again.”

In this way we fulfill our important role of building up God’s Church on Earth

by learning,  living and handing on the faith ...

as Disciples of Jesus Christ.