All week long we are celebrating Easter! Alleluia! How wonderful is the name of the Lord in all the earth! It is so wonderful to be able to say that, not just because Jesus rose from the dead, but because Jesus suffered and died in fulfillment of prophecy. It is not just about a miracle. It is about a promise! Miracles happen all of the time, maybe not so often as we would like them to, but they happen. But only once did Jesus suffer and die. I believe, however, that he is resurrected in our lives over and over again, each time we repent of our sins and celebrate the promise of the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus’ suffering and death is the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with our ancestors. The resurrection is the raising up of God’s servant that frees us from our sins and turns us from our evil ways. Freeing us from our sins is a much taller order than just raising someone from the dead. It puts Jesus way up there on the pay scale. He did more than just suffer and die…he did it to fulfill the promise God made to Abraham and to us.
So as I turn to the Gospel readings in Luke for today in reflection on the significance of the resurrection in my life, I find something more than I found the last time I read this story. The disciples were talking about how they had come to recognize who Jesus was when he broke the bread for the Last Supper. Here’s the part that got clearer to me. That is when he appeared in their midst. They saw him when they began to talk about how it was the brokenness of his body that made him the Son of God. They were recounting that story, for the first time, but certainly not the last. Telling that story became their mission. They set about institutionalizing the Last Supper and recounting that story over and over again in the formation of the church. The next thing that happened was just as important. Jesus asked them to recognize his humanity by giving him some food. So the disciples institutionalized that active response by organizing communities that sought to meet the bodily needs of humanity.
So it is clearer to me now that when we recognize who Christ is in the breaking of the bread, he is fully present to us. And when we see him for who he is, as the risen Son of God and also fully human, he opens our minds to understand the Scriptures. He brings peace. We repent, and we receive forgiveness. How glorious is his name! This Easter season, I have a renewed appreciation of what really happens between us and God, and certainly among us, when we receive the broken body and blood of Jesus. God is present. That is more than a miracle! That lets us get on with the work of the church. Alleluia!
Barbara Dilly
I came to Creighton in 2000 and retired in 2020. My twenty years of teaching, research and service in the Jesuit tradition enhanced my own life. It was an exciting time of celebration. I loved teaching and interacting with Creighton students because they responded so eagerly to the Ignatian pedagogical emphasis on the development of the whole person. It is this spirit of whole person development and celebration of life that I hope to infuse in my reflection writings.
My academic background is eclectic, preparing me well for the Liberal Arts academic environment at Creighton. I earned my BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA in 1988 and my Ph.D. in Comparative Cultures from the University of California, Irvine in 1994. My research focused on rural communities in the American Midwest, Latin America, and Australia. I taught Environmental Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Social and Cultural Theory, and Food Studies courses.
I retired to Shell Rock, a small rural community in Northeast Iowa where I enjoy gardening, cooking, quilting, driving my 65 Impala convertible an my 49 Willys Jeepster. I have lots of fun playing my guitars with friends from the Cedar Valley Acoustic Guitar Association. But most importantly, I am still working to make my community and rural America a better place. I host a community quilt studio and serve on the Mission Board of my church. I also serve as the Climate Committee Chair and on the Executive Board of the Center for Rural Affairs.
