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James Martin, S.J.April 23, 2018
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Easter, as I mentioned last week, is a whole season. Because it takes us a while to celebrate the Resurrection. You know, one reason it was probably so hard for the disciples to even begin to understand the Resurrection is that no one had ever experienced it before! They didn’t know what they were experiencing.

You can see traces of that in the Gospels. In some appearances the Risen Christ seems physical. He eats solid food and says, “Touch me and see that I’m not a ghost.” In others, he seems non-physical. He can, apparently, walk through walls. In some appearances, it’s quite clearly Jesus, in others the disciples can’t recognize him at first. To me, this is a reminder of how difficult it is to explain powerful religious experiences: the disciples probably had a hard time communicating what they had seen. But just because you can’t explain something doesn’t mean it’s not real. This week you might ask yourself if you’ve had any experiences lately that are inexplicable, but also meaningful.

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