Weekly HOMILY for April 26, 2009: Great Expectations

3rd Sunday of Easter, Cycle B
Our Lady of Grace
April 26, 2009

Great Expectations
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Great Expectations

When I was in high school, 1954 to 1959, I remember reading the classic Great Expectations.

I’m sure that most of us have read this somewhere along the way. Great Expectations was written by the English novelist Charles Dickens.

In the story, a young woman named Miss Havisham is about to be married. All the preparations for the wedding have been made.

On the day of the wedding, the guests arrive. They wait…and wait. But the groom never arrives.

Miss Havisham is devastated. When the guests have all left, she draws the shades on the windows, stops the clocks, and leaves the table exactly as it had been set for the wedding breakfast.

And, from then on, for the rest of her life, Miss Havisham never leaves her little house. She just sits in her loneliness – dressed in her wedding finery.

Miss Havisham and the Risen Christ

Miss Havisham is a tragic figure.

She never realizes that it is through dealing with life’s injustices, disappointments, and losses that we grow. She never realizes that it is through dealing with these realities that we come to understand what the gift of life is all about.

In today’s Gospel, the risen Christ challenges the disciples to recall what he has taught them and what they have experienced. Suffering is a reality for all of us.

But, we can still learn and grow from this inevitable suffering. In fact, we can even come to fuller life from this.


Our Expectations

Let’s just look at our own experience.

There are injustices in life. When I was a young adult my best friend John died of liver failure at the age 21 and I remember saying to myself that “Life isn’t fair.”

And it dawned on me, “No, life isn’t fair!” There are injustices – being unfairly evaluated by your boss, having your house robbed, being misunderstood or rejected by others, and on it goes.

And there are disappointments, failures, and frustrations that come to us all. It might be failing an exam, not getting a job, not making the first string or varsity team, and so on.

And yes, there are losses throughout our lives. It might be the death of a parent or spouse or child, a divorce, the loss of eyesight or hearing, and on and on goes that list.


The Risen Christ

Jesus, as the Risen Christ, calls us to deal with all of this differently from the way that Miss Havisham does in Great Expectations.

He calls us actually to confront the pain and suffering, to meet it head on. He calls us not to deny it or pretend that it has not happened or to say how unjust it all is, but to own it.

And then, Jesus, as the Risen Christ, calls us to acceptance – to accept what is and what we cannot change, and then to live – to live on. I keep saying “Jesus as the Risen Christ” because he, as risen, gives us hope and power.

The Risen Christ gives us the hope of resurrection after physical death. And he also gives us power; he empowers us to live and to live on or to live fully right now.

He empowers us not just to turn in on ourselves in the suffering and pain. He empowers us not to become or remain a victim.

Instead, he empowers us to learn and grow from suffering. He empowers us to forgive and not be vengeful, to be loving and not bitter, to be positive and not negative – in other words, to live and live on and live even more fully.


Conclusion

American author Pearl Buck says so insightfully: “We learn as much from sorrow as from joy, as much from illness as from health, as much from handicap as from advantage – and indeed, perhaps more.”

The Risen Christ makes us capable of re-creation, transformation, and even or own resurrection.