“LOOK at my hands, and my feet, that it is I, myself. Touch me and see me… he showed them his hands and his feet.” This was how the Disciples recounted Jesus’ appearance to them after he resurrected from the dead. They were words of intimacy and connection, words of assurance and love. He had not left them – He was alive!
He came into them where they were – in their troubled and fearful lives – and granted them his peace. Reassuring them that it was really him who was standing in their midst, he sat down with them, expressed his hunger, and served himself with a “piece of baked fish.”
During these intimate moments, he revealed to them again, the mystery of his passion and death that “he would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” He related to them what was going to happen in the ages to come: “repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all nations.” They were going to be witnesses of these things.
What further intimacy could transpire than to tell his closest associates – his “friends”, not just disciples – all that had happened and will happen to him? He shared with them his deepest secrets and longings. He told them that they were going to be his closest partners in fulfilling his innermost desires.
A few days ago, I celebrated the funeral Mass for my 3rd grade teacher. I shared with her children how their mother, who lived a solitary life in her later years, manifested a deep faith in God. I spoke to them about her volunteer work as catechist, how she taught little children about Jesus and our Catholic faith. Most of all, I spoke to them about the way she dealt with her solitude: she connected profoundly with God through prayer.
It is God’s strongest desire that we establish an intimate relationship with him. When our health fails, when our family and friends are not with us, when we get old alone, when we are troubled and anxious, when everything fails, we only have God to assure us that, while all things in this world pass, His personal love and mercy for us will endure forever. His Spirit will always be with us.
Christ’s resurrection was the assurance that we have a destiny awaiting us all, that is, an eternal life with God by which we become fully united with him and all his creation. In that destiny, we would experience an incomparable feeling of peace, wholeness, and joy.
Meanwhile, we lead our lives in this world trying to achieve this kind of peace. We create projects or become part of a movement to have a better world; we exercise a type of spirituality, join a faith community or a prayer group, hoping that this would give meaning and direction to our lives. However, there is nothing more fundamental than what God asks each one of us: he calls us to grow in deeper love and intimacy with him through a life of prayer!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
