“Is this it?” St. Ambrose begins one of his catechetical sermons to his newly baptized Christians as they begin their new life of faith. “Is this it?”The Christian life may not be the vision of Paradise they heard described in the scriptures. For now, Christian life is a life of signs, the signs of sacraments, and they are wondering “Is this it?”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, another of the great catechists of the early church, heard the same question in his church when he was instructing catechumens. In his catechetical sermons after Easter he told them to look for Christ in the scriptures as Jesus told his first disciples to do. The Holy Spirit will reveal him to you. he told them..

Easter time is the church s time for mystagogic catechesis, a big word for remembering and reflecting on the presence of Jesus in sacraments. When Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to his disciples and other witnesses and showed them he was alive.  Yet even as he appears to them risen, Jesus begins to wean them away from knowing him physically. His resurrection appearances are occasional. None of them are long.  All of them verify he is risen body and spirit. He’s alive. 

Those who saw him bodily had to learn to see him in another way –through signs, like bread and wine, water, gathering together to remember him, in the scriptures that speak of him, in the poor and suffering who are wounded like him, in the signs of the times that unfold before them.

That’s the way Jesus will remain with them, and that’s the way Jesus remains with us.  Ascending into heaven, he returned to the right hand of the Father, but it also ended one way of seeing him and began another.

From Easter to Pentecost this is the myste the liturgy unfolds so beautifully. In our readings these last few days we’re told we will hear the voice of the shepherd rather than see him.  On Thursday, we’ll begin reading the Last Supper discourse from John’s Gospel for the remaining days of the Easter season.

Some commentators, like those in the Jesus Seminar, question whether Jesus actually spoke the words of the Last Supper discourse in John at the Last Supper; they claim it’s a prime example of the historical inaccuracy of the New Testament.

Should we see instead John’s Last Supper discourse arising from the new presence of Jesus in sacraments, and so  an early mystagogic catechesis?

In Peter’s important discourse after meeting the Roman soldier Cornelius in Caesaria Maritime, he says: “This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” (Acts 10:$0-41)

 Peter and the others ate and drank with Jesus after his resurrection. He invites Cornelius and his household to be baptised. Doesn’t he also invite him to share in the continuation of the Last Supper meal, to eat and drink with Jesus who shares his body and blood in signs, whose voice is heard in signs?  He is present. His presence is real, a sacramental presence.