21 April 2017
Friday in the Octave of Easter
Thankfully, Jesus is patient. We hear in today’s Gospel that “this was now the third time Jesus was revealed to His disciples after being raised from the dead.” Even this does not count Mary Magdalene telling the Apostles about the Resurrection, or Peter and John seeing the tomb for themselves. As with yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus even eats a fish to show them that He is truly risen. Nor will this be the last time that Jesus appears to them after the Resurrection. For 40 days after the Resurrection, Jesus will appear to the disciples, teach them, and help them to grow in their understanding of what has happened.
Jesus was persistent with the first disciples, and He will be persistent with us. On one level, we celebrate the Resurrection, we believe that Jesus was resurrected, and we look forward in hope to our own resurrection. But it is fair to say that none of us fully grasps it. It is an event so far beyond our ordinary experience that we cannot take it in all at once. Moreover, we will never really be done taking in this extraordinary event. Accepting the truth of the Resurrection is the work of the whole Christian life. But Jesus will help us believe. He will come to us as many times as we need, and in as many ways as we need, so that we can believe that He is risen. Jesus is patient, and will always give us faith.