Homilies

A grain of wheat looks almost weightless in the hand. It is small enough to be overlooked and dismissed. Yet inside that small thing, God has hidden a path from from human hunger to eternal life.

One of the great tragedies of modern life is that we have learned to see creation as flat. A tree is wood and leaves. Water is a chemical substance. Useful things, perhaps beautiful things, but sealed off from any deeper purpose or meaning. The world becomes a collection of facts, and we become people who know how to use things without knowing how to see them truly and experience them.

To forget a face is to lose more than a memory. The face mediates relationship. It puts flesh on the spirit. To forget a face is to lose a relationship. It is to lose love.

When sin entered the human story, the face of God grew dim in us. We had been made in his image, made to reflect the living communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The image remained, because God does not abandon his own work, but the likeness became blurred. Choosing our own will over the will of God, we lost sight of the One we were made to resemble. Once God’s face became harder to see, humanity itself became harder to understand.

A locked door seems like wisdom when fear has taken hold. The disciples know danger. The crucifixion is still fresh in their minds. Every noise outside could mean discovery. So they stay behind the door, and for a little while the room feels safe. But the longer they remain there, the more that safety will consume and claim them.

Then the risen Christ appears. He stands in the middle of the room, among men who know they are weak. They had scattered when courage was needed. Out of anxiety that it would come for them, they could not watch while evil did its work. Now the Lord stands before them, with the marks of the cross still on his body. He does not speak to their fear.