(Third Sunday of Easter: This homily was given on April 13, 1997 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I. by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Acts 3: 13-19; Luke 24: 35-48; John 20: 19-31.)

"Being personally convinced of the Resurrection of Jesus is not enough!"

John falls in love with Mary. Each and every day he tells her, "Mary, I love you. Without a doubt, you’re the woman for me; you’re the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with." Now I’m sure for the first two months or so Mary will be thrilled with John’s declarations of love. She’ll be on ‘Cloud 9.’ But what if this goes on for 10 or 15 years, without John ever producing an engagement ring? Do you think that Mary will be satisfied? John keeps on telling her that he is personally convinced that she’s the right woman for him. But will that be enough? I doubt it. At some point Mary will either say, "John, see ya later;" or she’ll say to him, "Look, if you’re really, really convinced that you should marry me, then DO something about it--PROPOSE!"

Imagine another situation: Bill and Judy are the parents of two little boys; one is four, the other is six. They say they are personally convinced that parents need to set rules and hold children accountable for their behavior. This is the message they constantly preach to their relatives and friends. But very rarely, if ever, do they actually put this into practice under their own roof. Is it enough for them to say that they’re personally convinced of the need for rules and discipline in the home? The answer, of course, is "No." And they’re likely to find that out someday when their house either burns down or blows up--courtesy of the two little wild men living under their roof! (By the way, these are not my nephews that I’m alluding to--even though one happens to be four years old and the other six. That fact is purely coincidental.)

Actually, I use these examples this morning in order to illustrate a truth--a truth which is often ignored or denied in our modern world. The truth is this: It’s not enough to be personally convinced of something. We’ve also got to be outwardly committed. The outward commitment is what makes the difference! It’s not enough, for example, for John to be personally convinced about his love for Mary. He needs to become outwardly committed to her; and the first step in that process is to give her a ring. Nor is it enough for Bill and Judy to be personally convinced about the importance of disciplining children. They’ve got to be outwardly committed to making rules and enforcing them with their own sons. Otherwise, the fact that they’re personally convinced will have no true, practical benefit.

I raise this issue because of today’s Scripture readings. Let’s begin with this gospel text from Luke, chapter 24. The event we read about here occurred on Easter Sunday, immediately after two of the disciples had met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Beginning in verse 33 it says, "[The two disciples] got up immediately and returned to Jerusalem, where they found the Eleven and the rest of the company assembled. They were greeted with, "The Lord has been raised! It is true! He has appeared to Simon."

Then a little later Jesus appears to the whole group and confronts their lingering doubts. He says, "Why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and feet; it is really I. Touch me, and see that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do." Then he eats some fish in their presence; not because he was hungry and needed to (a glorified body doesn’t need nourishment). Jesus eats to make it clear to his disciples that he is truly present with them in body as well as in spirit.

This means that the disciples (Peter, James, John, and the rest) were personally convinced about the reality of the resurrection on Easter Sunday (or very shortly thereafter.) We know this also from the Gospel of John. St. John tells us that on Easter Sunday night Thomas was not with the group when Jesus appeared. However throughout the upcoming week the other 10 apostles kept telling him, "We have seen the Lord. We have seen the Lord." Obviously if they were telling him that they must have believed it! They must have been personally convinced that our Lord had truly risen. (And so was Thomas personally convinced, after he put his fingers and hand into our Lord’s wounds on the following Sunday.)

But, you see, the simple fact that they became personally convinced wasn’t enough. It certainly wasn’t enough to change and convert the world! And that’s the point to remember. It was only at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on these men and made them outwardly committed to Jesus; it was only at that point that they began to make a positive difference in the world. Today’s first reading from Acts, chapter 3 should make that clear enough. This is part of a speech made by St. Peter not long after he received the Spirit. And this was the kind of speech that literally brought thousands of people into the Church in a single day! You talk about making a positive difference! But incredibly, from Easter until that day of Pentecost it seems that Peter and the others kept their new faith almost entirely to themselves! Apparently their attitude was just like the attitude of many Christians today: "Yes, I believe in Jesus. Yes, I’m personally convinced that he rose from the dead. But my faith is something private; something personal. I don’t advertise it. I would never advertise it."

It’s not enough to be personally convinced. We must be outwardly committed. This is the challenging message I believe the Lord has for us today. And make no mistake about it, my brothers and sisters: the future of our families and our world depends on our taking this message to heart. In this regard, someone reminded me of an interesting statistic earlier this week. He said that there are more Catholics in positions of power and influence in this country now than at any other time in our nation’s history. And yet, amazingly, our nation continues to decay: socially, morally and spiritually. Shouldn’t the opposite be happening? If so many Catholics are in positions of influence, why aren’t things changing for the better? Perhaps it’s because too many of these Catholics are only personally convinced and not outwardly committed to Christ and his gospel. And so they tell the world, "I am a Catholic, but . . . ." I wonder how many times Senator Jack Reed has said that line in the last few years ("I am a Catholic, but . . . .") Unfortunately, he’s probably said it more frequently than I’ve said the Lord’s Prayer during the same period of time--and I say the Lord’s Prayer a lot!

Generally speaking, it seems that right now it’s the pagans who are more outwardly committed than the Christians are. I was reminded of this a couple of days ago when I saw the front cover of the latest issue of Time magazine. Did you catch that one? Comedienne Ellen DeGeneres is on the cover, smiling proudly and saying to the entire nation, "Yep, I’m gay!" How much more committed to a pagan agenda can you be than to advertise it on the front cover of one of the country’s most popular magazines?

But in the midst of the darkness, there are some bright, shining lights. For example, did you hear that the French pharmaceutical company that developed RU486 (the abortion pill) will no longer manufacture it or sell it? Why not? Because of the controversy and pressure brought on by pro-life groups. God bless all those Christians (and non-Christians of good will) who have been peacefully bringing this about! May God bless them for being so outwardly committed to saving the lives of innocent, defenseless, unborn children. That outward commitment is what has made the difference!

I found another beautiful example of this phenomenon in a letter I received a few days ago from a 68 year old Massachusetts woman, who is obviously very committed to Jesus and the Church. At one point in the letter she said this: "Fr. Ray, I would love to hibernate in some senior citizen complex, but I keep hearing in my sub-conscious the words, ‘Feed my sheep,’ and I keep thinking that if I don’t keep feeding my grandchildren (spiritually) at every opportunity that comes along, then I will be failing to be faithful to [the God who has done such wonderful things for me in my life]."

You know, some, if not all of those grandchildren will probably spend eternity saying "Thank you" to their grandmother: "Thank you grandma, for not hiding your faith under a bushel basket. Thank you, grandma, for being so outwardly committed to Jesus and the Church. Because without your clear witness--without your persistent example of faith--we would have been lost--forever."

An outward commitment to Jesus and the Church can truly make an everlasting difference! May that type of commitment be ours.