Homily
for the
3d
Sunday of Easter
April
18, 2021
1
John 2: 1-5
Acts
3: 15-19
Luke
24: 35-48
St.
Theresa, Bronx, N.Y.
Holy
Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.
“Jesus Christ
the righteous one is expiation for our sins” (1 John 2: 1-2).
That Jesus
Christ has taken away our sins is stated in all 3 of our Scripture readings
this morning. St. John states that he
expiates our sins. To expiate means “to
purify by erasing what separates one from God,” “to make one pleasing to God,”
“to allow oneself to be reconciled by God.”[1] Jesus offers the sacrifice that sets us right
with God.
In the Old
Testament, the Jewish people offered many sacrifices for that
purpose. We who belong to Jesus offer
only one sacrifice, which is Jesus himself. His offering of himself to his Father is the
perfect and eternal sacrifice that takes away all our sins, “and not our sins
only but those of the whole world” (2:2).
Jesus is our reconciliation with the Father.
At the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and wine and consecrated them as his body given for us and his blood poured out for us in sacrifice. He commanded us to continue to offer the sacrifice of his body and blood in memory of him—the same body and blood that he offered on Calvary, the very same sacrifice—and to eat his body and drink his blood. So we participate in his sacrifice of expiation for our sins and thru him are reconciled with God.
Preaching to
the people of Jerusalem after having healed a cripple in the name of Jesus, St.
Peter 1st tells the people that they, their leaders, and Pontius Pilate bore
responsibility for killing Jesus, “the holy and righteous one,” for setting
free, instead, a murderer, a criminal (Acts 3:13-14). Jesus died instead of a terrible sinner. That is an image of his expiating our sins,
paying the price of our rebellions against God.
But St. Peter goes
on to invite the people to repent:
“Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away”
(3:19). Jesus, who was put to death, has
risen (3:15). His self-sacrifice so
pleased God that the death penalty he suffered, undeservedly, has been
cancelled also for us, for all sinners who repent and strive to change their
ways.
To change our
ways: our harsh and unkind treatment of
our spouses, our children, our parents, our co-workers, our neighbors, everyone;
our abuse of God’s name; our lying, stealing, and cheating; our sexual
unfaithfulness in or out of marriage; our indifference toward the poor and
those in trouble; our toleration of abortion and society’s sexual depravity;
our racial discrimination; our failure to take care of the environment; and
other form of injustice.
All our sins
are wiped away when we give them over to Jesus in repentance. He is our expiation.
The risen
Jesus appears to his disciples, as recounted in the gospel, on Easter nite. Cleopas and another disciple, probably his
wife, whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus and who recognized him when they
broke bread together at the end of their journey (Luke 24:13-35), have hurried
back to the upper room in Jerusalem where the apostles and others are in hiding. When Jesus appears to them, he reminds them
that his death and resurrection fulfilled the Scriptures: all that Moses, the psalms, and the prophets
had said of the Messiah (24:44). And he
commands them to pass on to the whole world this good news, that he’s alive and
they should preach “repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (24:47).
To this day,
this is the mission of Christ’s disciples, his Church: to participate in the breaking of the bread,
the sacrifice of his body and blood, the Eucharist, and to offer humanity God’s
forgiveness. In the Eucharist we
recognize Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” our
sins, when we repent of them—when we’re sorry for them and resolve to turn away
from them and to “keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3), and we let God’s love
work in us instead of doing the works of darkness.
The Church,
which includes you and me, bears witness (Luke 24:48) that Jesus expiates our
sins and opens for us the way of forgiveness and eternal life.
[Renew baptismal promises
in place of the Creed.]
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