Sunday Meditation: After the Road to Emmaus

We all recall the Road to Emmaus passage where two disciples, on the road to Emmaus having just come from Jerusalem where Christ was crucified, encounter the Risen Christ, do not recognize Him, walk with Him while He explains the scriptural passages of the Messiah, and finally recognize in the breaking of the bread whereupon He vanishes.   That’s in Luke 24:13-34.  Today’s Gospel reading continues that story with what happens afterward.  Those same two disciples rush back to Jerusalem to tell the others what happened.

 

The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way,

and how Jesus was made known to them

in the breaking of bread.

 

While they were still speaking about this,

he stood in their midst and said to them,

"Peace be with you."

But they were startled and terrified

and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?

And why do questions arise in your hearts?

Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.

Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones

as you can see I have."

And as he said this,

he showed them his hands and his feet.

While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,

he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"

They gave him a piece of baked fish;

he took it and ate it in front of them.

 

He said to them,

"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,

that everything written about me in the law of Moses

and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And he said to them,

"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer

and rise from the dead on the third day

and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,

would be preached in his name

to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things."

~Lk 24:36-48

So Jesus appears to all of them as the two from the road to Emmaus meetup with the other disciples.  And just as in last week’s reading of Thomas being shown the wounds in the hands (Jn 20:19-31), Jesus shows all the physical wounds of His physically resurrected body.  What does this all mean?  Bishop Robert Barron gets to the heart of it this week.

 

What this means is that we Christians believe in the bodily resurrection because Christ has shown us the way. 

Sunday Meditation: "Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

I have been listening to John Michael Talbot songs again.  He is just wonderful.  This one connects with today’s Gospel reading, “I am the Resurrection.”

 

Perhaps I will include a song with these Sunday Meditations that coordinate themes.  Is that something you would enjoy?