A colleague of mine back in New York called and said "I believe in the resurrection.  I can't wait to see some people --" and he mentioned a couple of the names, marvels of moral purity and rectitude of virtue undisputed "-- and I can't wait to avoid them." I believe in the resurrection.  If it's not what we just heard, if it's not reliable history, then what is it? Is it some dumb, made-up mystery?  What I just read to you all and you politely listened to, if it's not reliable history, is it a dumb, made-up mystery?

A group of guys from this parish, I'm told, this week gathered together and they sat down.  They get together once a week.  And they ask the question "Was there really a Christ and did he rise from the dead?"  How refreshing, how honest.  If it's not reliable history, is it a dumb, made-up mystery? The acronym for today is PEW, P-E-W, the pew upon which you now sit with different emotional reactions. P, Peace; E, Eat; and W, Witness.  Three words from our Lord's mouth.  Peace, okay.  First thing our Lord says to these guys is -- he doesn't say, you treacherous toads who dump me the night I was arrested, which is what I would say -- our Lord says, "Peace."  I'm told inArabic it's beautiful; it has about four syllables. Peace, relax, take a deep breath.  Peace, relax.

Now, in 1958, we were studying proofs for the resurrection of Christ in the seminary, Apologetics. It's a Greek word which means "reasons to believe."  It doesn't mean saying you're sorry.  It's a great science. It's a directional science in theology.  Are there real reasons to believe the resurrection?  Anyhow, it was, we were studying it for weeks in the hot, hot spring.  The guys in the class, about 70 of us, and it was hot and the course went on for several weeks on the resurrection.  If it's not real history, what is it, some dumb mystery?  It was good, solid stuff.  Now, in my own life, which I'll spare you the details, my own family was falling to pieces.  I'm talking money and jail and dope and booze, at home, and I'm sitting safe in the seminary.  And I'm listening to the resurrection. Christ died in agony and he rose from the dead and he says "You're going to rise" and "You're going to rise" and "You're going to rise."  And suffering isn't some sick joke, some sad riddle, and we're all going to be dust.  We're all going to rise.  Suffering is not meaningless.  I looked around at the other guys, the other 69 guys -- it was hot and they were all kind of dozing.  I remember a fly was buzzing -- and I was outraged at them because I thought, don't you jerks know how important this is?  If Christ didn't rise from the dead and we haven't got some valid facts to back it up, then the whole thing, everything, all miseries and sufferings and people you loved who died, the whole thing is awful.  They were just kind of dozing.  I hated them, just smug, middle-class, comfortable.  Good priest that I was going to be.  I think you know what I mean. It is important if he rose and said "You are going to rise and we'll see each other again."

Anyhow, I'm going to give you statistics -- now, they're very boring and there aren't very many of them, and they're very important, especially if you've got kids in college, going to college -- about famous people, Caesar, Cleopatra, King Tut, the Egyptian pharaohs, the Roman emperors.  And nobody disputes they existed. Nobody says they're made up.  Nobody.  For those people, we have about for each of them, at most,  20 documents, about 20.  And the documents that we have in museums and vaults and various archives throughout the world were written a couple hundred years later from scraps and bits of evidence.  But nobody says there's no such thing as Caesar.  Nobody says there's no such thing as Caligula or Cleopatra.  About the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ -- and I had to do a lot of research on this, I'm not making it up -- we have 5,400 Greek documents, 8,000 Latin documents, all of them dating less than 50 years after Christ lived.  There's no more overwhelming evidence about any human being from antiquity than there is about Christ.  5,400 Greek documents, 8,000 Latin documents in various museums throughout the world, and they were written less than 50 years after he walked on earth, less than 50 years.  Now most people say, okay, but I believe everything about Jesus except the miracles.  Now, because miracles don't happen and guys don't climb out of coffins, so throw that stuff out.  We have documents that are valid history.  We don't have to be ashamed and creep around, I'm just a happy surf who believes a lot of superstitious junk.  I wish Apologetics were still taught; it's very, very, very good, solid evidence.

Now we're up to "E," Eat.  Our Lord says, "You got anything to eat?"  You just heard me, in my own melodramatic way, but it's so important.  "Have you anything here to eat?"  It's in the gospel.  It's not something fantasized by some saint in the 16th Century. And they give him some fish and he eats it.  He says, "I'm not a ghost.  A ghost doesn't eat as you see me eat."  Now, there's no mystery, there's no faith.  He had a body that materialized and dematerialized at will.

You've listened to the gospel since you were a little kid, so you can come and go.  At the same time, you've got something to eat, there's something marvelous and incredible about the gospels.  He's got this body that can materialize and dematerialize, and yet, he asks for food.  The whole point about "Eat" is things that are important.  Candles and flesh and kissing somebody you love and wood and wine matter.  It's a big thing in theology we don't talk much about.  God came as a baby, grown-up man.  Matter counts.  It's not disgusting. "The body is disgusting, and I'll be glad when I'm really pure and dead."  I know you know what I'm saying and I'm trying to say it so fast because time is running out.  (Laughter).  The risen body that Jesus had was recognizably He, but it was, indeed, a body that transcended time and space, as yours will be.  And you'll see people you love.  We'll recognize each other. If we don't have that, let's all go out and have a double martini.

And the "W" is Witness.  Witness.  Our Lord says, "You're witnesses of this."  That's how the gospel ends.

Go out and talk about it.  Okay, now I talk -- I was lucky enough to teach for most of my life.  I love teaching.  It was the one thing I was good at.  I couldn't sharpen a pencil accurately, but I could teach and I loved it.  And I loved the fact that kids fell in love with Christ.  But, even now, I talk to kids who graduated from Notre Dame or Georgetown, all those years of Catholic education, and I'll quote Jesus and I'll say "Who said that? Oh, let's see, Lincoln?  No.  Gandhi? No."  And it wasn't Harry Potter either.  Christ said that, all.

This is repetitious -- bear with me.  Jesus Christ was either a con artist, crazy as a coot, or the Christ.  We can't pat him on the head, nice little Jesus.  Some of the things he said are so outrageous, so crazy, that unless he really was who he said he was, we should just -- yaack (phonetic).  He was crazy as a hoot owl, he was a con artist, trying to get votes, or he really was what he said he was.  I know most of you believe that, but I have to say it out loud because I see too many people patronizing Jesus, nice brotherhood week, nice little Jewish guy.

Now, I have a man who's teaching me scuba.  I know that's highly improbable, but a man is teaching me scuba.  And when he picks me up to take me for my scuba lessons -- he has discovered Christ.  Married man, has his own company, a couple of kids.  He recently discovered Christ -- I get in the car and he assaults me with quotes from Jesus Christ.  He's says, "What an incredible person."  And I said, "Well, yes."  And then do I want to get into the theology?  Huh-uh.  No, don't have to.  He quotes Christ as if I'm hearing it for the first time.  The Sermon On The Mountain, what a revelation.  Okay, but he's a witness to me.  Our Lord says "Be witnesses."  That scuba instructor, who's also a painter and a conservationist, he witnesses to me.

The second is Thomas Merton, who is a great convert, as you know.  He was in Corpus Christi Church, where I grew up as a kid, and he was kneeling there -- he didn't know he was going to be a Catholic -- and he looked across the aisle and there was a lady kneeling.  Hundreds of books he read about Catholicism, and the way the lady was kneeling was witness.  "I want to get baptized."

And, finally, there are some movies some of you may disdain.  But I've met so many people who saw "The Passion Of The Christ" a few years ago.  I know the director is in trouble and all that.  But "The Passion Of The Christ," I still meet people who are, ahh, give me the gospels.  It's a witness.  Any witness we can get, hurray!

And the final witness I heard a few years ago right  here, out there where you greet people, but I couldn't escape quick enough.  I saw a little girl and she was  out there, "Jelly beans and Jesus risen.  Jelly beans and Jesus risen."  Now, that wasn't profound theology, but what a great witness she was.  I chuckled all the way home.  "Jelly beans and Jesus risen."  Her priorities were a little mixed up, but considering her age, it was enchanting.  "Jelly beans and Jesus risen." If it's not reliable history, what is it, some dumb, made-up mystery?

Okay, I'm going to shut up now and for a couple of minutes, just a minute or two, and we'll be quiet.  If there's a good hard bone of skepticism in some of you about the resurrection, will you just pretend with me, just in the quiet, that you're going to meet someone after death in the face, a risen body, somebody you never had the chance to say how much you loved her or him, and just think of it.  Even though you're skeptical, just think of how that might be.