Easter-Sunday 3B / 2nd after Easter (22.04.12) !!!

As a Christian Community in 2012, united as people which have decided to keep
the resurrection of JvN real, we are on the outlook of resurrection-traces....
Because we like to be reasonable; our decision is based on experiences; traces... Lukas is in the same situation (24.35-48); he tries to convince his readers: Jesus is the risen Lord! It seems his strategy is, to show us how JvN he himself tries to convince the disciples - and the strategy of JvN? Coming himself among them (with his biography).
At the end Lukas states: "You are the witnesses to this". It seems this is important: to be witness of the resurrection of JvN. Today, how do we witness the resurrection? Do we call the finger-print group? No way!  The only "prove" is our decision: For us JvN is the risen Lord and therefore we act accordingly. Everybody who draw consequences out of his / her resurrection-decision is such a trace...

Don't forget: before your decision once somebody came to you und told you JvN is the risen Lord; exactly this was his coming among us, it was an offer - maybe you reacted like the disciples: agitated, with doubts rising in your hearts... and it needs more than one coming; it needs also to see his hands (the historical works of Christian people!), sometimes it needs much more...
But then once you decided (as a re-action to the message): Yes I'm here to take up this message and to live it, to materialise it.I keep HIM alive as I become part of his risen Body; in modern language: we are Church!

As the risen Body of JvN, we the Baptised are somehow "instrumental" to do his redemptive deeds today. Look at the Saints... look at people you know - some of them have a Life-style born out of the resurrection-decision. They are traces...
(not "prove" in the narrow sens).
"Resurrection is a conviction" the Christian Churches bring into the lives of many;
but this "conviction" is convincing only as it can be shown as life-designing, life-changing, life-shaping, life-fullfilling... and the addressee may hopefully make a positive decision!
In middst of our daily hard experiences it's not easy to keep the resurrection-decision / conviction" alive. In this regard the Church-Community is often our
empowerment.