I encourage you, please, in your life humble yourself and say, “Lord Jesus I don’t just want to know about you I want to know you. I want to meet you. I want to encounter you.” Then, everything changes. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be sinless, but everything changes after we encounter Jesus Christ!
It seems like people are now more and more and more opening their heart for Christ. Thank you so much, every Sunday Mass you come to worship him.
You know sometimes we feel like we want what makes me happy… right? All of us we feel like we want what makes me happy. If we just change the question what makes Jesus happy… it’s not all about us, right? Life is not all about us, life is about Jesus and what makes Jesus happy… to see your face!
We don’t know why he was wounded with love before the resurrection or why after resurrection. Why? Why he loves us this much, we have no idea. From the beginning… from Adam and Eve in the creation story – they were not faithful to him. They turned their back to him and generation after generation after generation. We were not faithful to him. Why he falls still in love with us, we don’t know.
Hopefully, one day when we pass from this life to heaven, we will understand, and we will thank him!
Thank you, Jesus, for your love. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me. Thank you, Jesus, for opening the gate of heaven for me! What amazing love! What wondrous love! Before resurrection and after resurrection!
One of my friends… my best friends, he has a radio station all over the country. He lives in Boston. He used to tell me all these men, the disciples, were wimps! It took a woman to go to the tomb… always takes a woman, right? Women, you know how to express your affection and your love more than us, for some reason. Men, we hold it… we hold it to our heart. Women are always expressing their love to their children, to their family, to Jesus. You know, every parish you go, the number of women and the number of men… women are more in number.
So this Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning without knowing he rose from the dead. What brought her there? She didn’t know he rose from the dead. What brought her to the tomb… her love! You know she was also wounded by Jesus’ love. Once Jesus touches your heart with love, where you going to go? Nowhere… no turning back! Everyone is touched by his love! Not only just Mary Magdalene, even creation. Creation is groaning to Jesus who is at the right hand of the Father! Why? Even creation was redeemed!
Thank God! What amazing love! Not only did he reconcile just us with the father, you know even in the tomb… in the tomb when everything was silent on Holy Saturday, you know what he did? He went to the nether world to bring the people who died before him – the just! What amazing love! So as far as his resurrection, he chose to do it out of love!
We have nothing to do with that objective truth! Except our part is to celebrate, celebrate and enjoy. Enjoy life! Really life shouldn’t be always burdened. He rose from the dead, hallelujah! Enjoy life, eternal life, abundant life! Living water he poured out in our heart! What love he brought to us so what is our part really? let’s be honest, our part is to celebrate the Easter celebration and to get rid of the old self! Saint Paul reminds us get rid of that old malice and live with a new life, a new beginning, a new creation, new life in Christ! That’s the only thing we are responsible for! We don’t want to live that old malice or our old self. We need to die for ourselves and live for Christ!
You know when we start to live with Christ, now we become really Easter people! So I don’t think we have to wait the next year to celebrate Easter. Every day is Easter if we live with Jesus. He wants us to live a risen life! A life that, that is in abundance! You know it’s not God’s will for us always to be poor me, poor sad poor me. I am a sinner, we know that. He loves you and he loves me!
So today, just briefly, I will comment on what is going to change our life… what changed the disciples life. Those who were fearful, what changed their life? They encountered the Risen Christ! Once they encountered Christ, they were healing, delivering demons, showing people forgiveness! Those wimp disciples became bold! Why? They met the Risen Christ!
If we never meet Jesus Christ, we never know him and we just recite about him.
I encourage you, please, in your life humble yourself and say, “Lord Jesus I don’t just want to know about you I want to know you. I want to meet you. I want to encounter you.” Then, everything changes. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to be sinless, but everything changes after we encounter Jesus Christ!
So, three ways we encounter Jesus Christ…
Encounter Jesus in the Eucharist – Number one we encounter the risen Lord in the Eucharist. This year, the year of Jubilee, make a decision, “I will make a decision.” The Risen Christ is here in body, blood, soul, and divinity, here right now among us! Lord Jesus, help me to recognize you!
Every day we break him, we break him into pieces, we consume him… but we don’t allow him to transform us. if the Eucharist doesn’t transform us and we don’t live like him, then what’s the reason of taking the Eucharist? We don’t take the Eucharist to become a dead body or a dead bone. Ezekiel says, “You guys are dead bones.” He was saying to the people of his time.
This Eucharist transforms us inside out. Why did not the disciples know him before? Because they didn’t know what he was doing the Last Supper. The Eucharist, that same Jesus who established the Eucharist on Holy Thursday, he rose from the dead and came back. He appeared to them, and he told them, “You didn’t understand what I was doing you don’t understand scripture… I already left you my body and blood.”
Thank God! Can you imagine if Jesus just says, “I loved you, I came, I saved you, bye-bye.” That’s not Jesus. He already did it on Holy Thursday, on Good Friday he let them do whatever they want, He already did it. So why he have to worry about Good Friday? To Pilate, yes you do anything you want. Because he already left us his body and blood! Encounter Jesus, recognize him in the breaking of the bread.
Encounter Jesus in Scripture – Number two, we encounter Christ through scripture. You know one thing the disciples didn’t understand or the people didn’t understand until resurrection? They never understood what his death and resurrection mean. That’s a problem.
If we don’t understand scripture, if we don’t understand fully his death and resurrection, then we’re going to be like the disciples before the resurrection… we’re going to be afraid of sickness, we’re going to be afraid of someone, we’re going to afraid of death. Why? Because we never encounter this Risen Christ! Because of that, we don’t understand the mystery of death and the resurrection, then we will live with fear. Perfect love casts out that fear.
So, number two is in scripture. How many how many of you read the scripture. Know scripture, know Jesus. You know St. Jerome… if you are ignorant of the scripture you are ignorant of Jesus Christ. Every day even just one verse, even just two verse, even just one chapter… please read the scriptures. “Lord Jesus, this is your word!” This is the Risen Christ’s word! It’s not someone’s famous person’s word. “I want to know your word.” Encounter him with his word. That’s why we celebrate Mass, and we preach. We celebrate Mass, always Word goes with the Eucharist.
Through Personal Encounter – Number three, how we encounter Christ, a personal encounter. You know, St. Paul personally encountered Jesus, right? Not just the 12 apostles. After the 12 apostles, Paul on the road to Damascus, personally he encountered him and he saw him, but you know, in Corinthian chapter 15, he said the Eucharist, the Eucharist. He said, yes personally I encountered him but I myself received it from the lord from the risen lord. He himself received the Eucharist, so personal encounter doesn’t replace the Eucharist.
You know how many people fall into temptation and go back to their old life? They depended too much on their personal encounter. Without the Eucharist, I assure you, if you depend on only your personal encounter without the Eucharist, your journey will not last. You’re going to fall back. So personal encounter, yes we need that. I shared with you many times about my personal encounter, but my personal encounter should lead to the Eucharist. Our Catholic church is full and rich with spirituality. We have Vincentian spirituality. We have Carmelite spirituality. We have Ignatian spirituality. But all spirituality came through the Eucharist and turn them back to the Eucharist.
So Lord Jesus, this year 2025 Jubilee year, help us to know the Risen Christ in the Eucharist, we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
Hosanna to the Son of David!
Acts 10:34, 37-43 | Psalms 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23 | Colossians 3:1-4 or First Cor | John 20:1-9
Image credit” “The Resurrection” |Andrea Mantegna, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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About the author:
Father Tamiru Atraga is a Catholic priest serving in the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He previously served in Boston and is originally from Ethiopia.
He blogs at Hosanna to the Son of David here on ICL.
Check out Father Tamiru’s reflections and presentations on YouTube.
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