Easter Sunday 3 - B

In 1960s in China, when the Christians lived their faith in secret, there was a catechist who was captured, tortured and killed by the communist police. One of his catechumens sold him for a sum of money like Judas did to Jesus. Then the Christians took his body to be buried. While they were washing his body, they found in his pocket a note written: Luc 24, 39 “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself” Jesus was recognized by His disciples through His wounds, he said, and so His disciples will be recognized through their wounds as well. This was the belief of the catechist, that people will know him as a follower of Jesus through his wounds and suffering. He got that.
Now my question is: what is your belief? How do people know that you are catholic?
Maybe some peoples will say that the sign of the cross is our identity. But I found in my country, where catholic is only 2% of the population, many Catholics were ashamed or afraid of the making sign of the cross in public. For example when they have lunch in a restaurant, they will make the sign of the cross under the table … or in secret.
In John 13, 35 Jesus said, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” So according to Jesus, the mutual love is the characteristic of our discipleship. But talking about love, Jesus doesn’t ask us to love only our brothers and sisters who love us, but also our enemy. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them,” Jesus said in Luc 6, 32.
Now we can see the relation between the belief of that Chinese catechist and Jesus teaching. According to the catechist, wounds are the characteristic of Jesus’ followers. Who made the wounds? It was our enemies and also it often happened that it was our loved ones, who ate at the same table or who slept in the same bed, your husband or wife or our parent, who hurt us! But anyhow we have to love them, even though it hurts us in our heart, even though they wounded us.
The wounds that will be our discipleship characteristic must not be bleeding anymore because they were cured by our love for those who did it. They still leave a scar, a mark left on the skin after a wound but they did not hurt anymore. Do you have this kind of wound? A mother may have this scar when she bore her child with surgical operation; this is a sign of love too. But more than this physical wound, we also have mental scars because of rejection, curse or evil words, because of being despised etc.
I want to share you my experience about this kind of wound. When I was in the seminary, I realized that there was something wrong with my emotional life. I was very vulnerable. My friends said that they had to be careful with me because I was like a cracked mirror. If someone touched it, it would break with a loud strike. It means that I could easily get angry when someone harassed me. I realized that I had too much anger, my reaction was not normal, but I didn’t know why. The time came, when I attended a healing retreat, I found the source of my over-reaction to anger. I remembered what happened one evening, when I was six or seven, my parent quarreled and my Mom cried. I heard why, because that morning my Dad was asked to come to my grandmother’s to slay a pig for the feast of her anniversary. There was my Grandma’s younger brother. He despised my father saying, poor son-in-law is coming for meals early in the morning! When my father heard that he returned home soon without doing his job, without coming to the feast. My mother knew about this incident in the evening when we were home, and I heard them talking about the incident. This really made me hurt and I was very angry and I kept this anger and hurt for years. I hated that man who despised my parent. I was wounded.
So I carried the wound for years. Every time someone touched the wound in any way I felt hurt … I knew that I had to cure the wound by forgiving that man. I prayed and I prayed to Lord Jesus. It was difficult for me to forgive him but I asked Jesus to forgive him. I could not do that but Jesus could. Little by little I found peace in my heart. After a few years I returned home for my first mass, I visited that man … and at that time I realized that I had no anger for him anymore. I had forgiven him. The wound was healed. My friends could see that I was changed. The wound didn’t hurt me anymore. But the scar is still here as a sign of love and forgiveness.
So I understand the Chinese catechist’s belief that we will be recognized as disciples of Jesus through our wounds, but the wounds are not bloody anymore. Jesus showed the wounds in his hands and his feet. At that time, because of His love for us, the wounds were drying and did not hurt Him anymore.. He had no anger but peace. The peace He gave to his disciples: “Peace be with you!”
We do receive this peace if we also have no bloody wound but only scars of the wounds. Let us thank Jesus. He wants us to keep His peace in our life, He wants us to forgive everyone that hurts us, and He wants us to be free, free from our wounds and free to love and to serve Him in our brothers and sisters in peace. That is the fruit of resurrection. We are raised with Jesus. Amen