The Eyes of the Heart: Alma Mater

Do you notice how the main characters in these after-Easter appearances of Jesus – the locked room and the road to Emmaus – are guys?  In the U.S., today is Mother’s Day as well as the Third Sunday of Easter.  No doubt.

Earl the Twirl - courtesy UDM Athletics

ALMA MATER
In this morning’s Detroit Free Press is a story   that warms my University of Detroit Mercy heart.  It’s on the Sports Page.  It’s a Mother’s Day story – about a guy.  “Earl the Twirl”, we called him back in U of D’s Calihan Hall, this 6’ 9” basketball transfer who ran with his thumbs up all the time, most noticeably when he was loping across the court after scoring, like he was giving himself a thumbs-up, and maybe us, the cheering throng, too.  We guys saw him as points and rebounds, our hope to get back to the NCAA tournament after the Dick Vitale/Long/Duerod/Tyler years that gave our struggling urban university some time in the spotlight.  His mom saw him as a college student.  And she believed in him.

I think that the reason Jesus kept appearing to guys after that first Easter morning was that

Risen? It Just Ain’t Logical

Caravaggio - "Emmaus"

Puppy or baby – take your pick.  They whimper at night, alone in their place, while you are in the next room.  You peek in, comforting them, “I’m right around the corner.  I’m here.  Don’t be afraid.”  Maybe you reach out and touch them, so they know you’re really there.  And bit by bit, day by day, they begin to understand that out of sight does not mean gone.  They begin to feel better just knowing you’re near.

So Doubt Week is the first week after Easter, and during this second week we begin to enjoy a process of reminding, of Jesus peeking in again and again telling us, “I’m still here” and tucking us in, comforting us, teaching us faith.  On this Third Sunday after Easter, Jesus begins to teach us not in our heads but our hearts.  Two men are walking “conversing and debating”