Homily for 21 Apr 2016

21 Apr 2016

A couple thousand years ago, Jesus was “good news.”  He was the fulfillment of what people were waiting for; he was the answer to their questions; the answer to the prayers.  And he kept a seamless continuity between the old and the new.  Jesus’ coming onto the human scene—everything from his birth to his death and resurrection—was really “good news.”

But, somewhere along the line, we humans stopped asking the questions in life for which Jesus is the answer.  It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that our proclamation of the gospel—the sharing of our faith—falls on deaf ears.  After all, we’re trying to give people the answer to questions they’re not even asking.  They’re not interested in Jesus—he’s not the answer to what they’re looking for.

And so, it seems, the most we can do is to continue to be sent by Jesus into the world—not necessarily to speak his name (after all, people have already heard his name), but to be his presence; a presence that pokes and prods people to get back on track and to ask those basic human questions about life and death; questions about the meaning of life and faith . . . questions for which Jesus is the answer.

With the right questions in the human heart, Jesus shows himself as the answer; Jesus reveals himself to be truly “good news.”