Sunday Meditation: On the Road to Emmaus

For the Third Sunday of Easter in Year A we have the notable “Road to Emmaus” passage.  It is the Sunday of the Resurrection, and two disciples, dejected and unbelieving that Christ has risen, are walking from Jerusalem to a town seven miles away called Emmaus.  Suddenly a man joins them on the route, and in dialogue the man explains to them how the scriptures had foreshadowed a messiah who would undergo suffering and death and resurrection.  Who are these two disciples?  The passage names one as Cleopas but leaves the other unnamed. Among the theories of the identity of the unnamed disciple, I favor the other being Mary the wife of Cleopas.  Mary the wife of Cleopas is mentioned being at the crucifixion in three Gospels: Jn 19:25, Mt 27:56, and Mk 15:40.  It would make perfect sense that Cleopas would be traveling home with his wife.  Fr. Geoffrey Plant will developed this further in his homily below.

One important aspect of this passage is that it depicts both the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist together.  I don’t think there is anywhere else in the New Testament where the two are so brought together.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

That very day, the first day of the week,

two of Jesus' disciples were going

to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,

and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,

but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

He asked them,

"What are you discussing as you walk along?"

They stopped, looking downcast.

One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,

"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem

who does not know of the things

that have taken place there in these days?"

And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"

They said to him,

"The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,

who was a prophet mighty in deed and word

before God and all the people,

how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over

to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;

and besides all this,

it is now the third day since this took place.

Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:

they were at the tomb early in the morning

and did not find his body;

they came back and reported

that they had indeed seen a vision of angels

who announced that he was alive.

Then some of those with us went to the tomb

and found things just as the women had described,

but him they did not see."

And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!

How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things

and enter into his glory?"

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them what referred to him

in all the Scriptures.

As they approached the village to which they were going,

he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

But they urged him, "Stay with us,

for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."

So he went in to stay with them.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,

he took bread, said the blessing,

broke it, and gave it to them.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,

but he vanished from their sight.

Then they said to each other,

"Were not our hearts burning within us

while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem

where they found gathered together

the eleven and those with them who were saying,

"The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"

Then the two recounted

what had taken place on the way

and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

~Lk:24:13-35

 

 

Fr. Geoffrey Plant provides a thorough exegesis of this passage, including proposing that the unnamed disciple is Mary of Clopas.

 

Fr. Geoffrey:

Let us briefly consider two important themes that have emerged here. Firstly, the risen Lord is neither a spirit nor a ghost; he has a physical body that can be touched. And secondly, the risen Lord emphasizes that his death and resurrection are the fulfilment of Scripture. The Gospels of Luke and John stress the physical reality of the risen Jesus in strikingly similar ways, especially through the themes of touch and eating, as we have heard in today’s Gospel. Jesus invites the disciples to touch him, and he then asks for something to eat. And yet the risen body of Jesus is not simply restored to ordinary earthly life. Jesus is not merely resuscitated, like Lazarus was. The body of Jesus is transformed, belonging to the new creation. He is no longer subject to the ordinary limitations of space and time.

 

This second theme — the fulfilment of Scripture — runs through Luke’s whole work. The overall design of Luke’s two-volume narrative — the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles — is to show that the story of Jesus constitutes the fulfilment of the story of Israel. God has bound himself to Israel and can therefore be trusted to rescue his people and bring his saving purposes to completion. In Luke’s Gospel, the idea that Scripture is being “fulfilled” means that what God promised long ago is now actually happening — and to express this idea Luke often uses the Greek verb πληρόω (plēroō), which means “to fulfil, to fill up, or to bring to completion.”… God’s plan has been unfolding across centuries, and in Jesus the promises of Scripture reach their goal. But Luke is not only telling us what  God has done; he is also shaping his Gospel so that we learn how to see what God is doing.

 

And so, when you see the parallels of between the eating of the bread in this passage with that of eating the fruit in the Garden of Eden (“their eyes were opened”), does it not make sense that the unnamed disciple was a woman, the wife of the man?

For the pastoral homily, let’s once again turn to Fr. Greg Friedman OFM who provides a homily for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 

Fr. Greg:

The 24th chapter of Luke's gospel might have been written by a busy pastor and his pastoral team. There the biblical author presents the very first Easter day as one of non-stop action. It begins with the women then Peter coming to the tomb.  Next, today's gospel story of the road to Emmas. The two disciples walk 7 miles from Jerusalem, share a meal with the risen Jesus, then head back to Jerusalem. There all the disciples are visited by the Lord. But the day doesn't end. Jesus leads them out to Bethany where he blesses them and is carried up to heaven. If you read it straight through, the action seems to take place all on one day. Now, that's what I call a busy Easter. While we're focused today on that well-known story on the road to Emmas, allow me to reflect a bit on Luke's long Easter day. Why would the evangelist choose to group all the stories about the risen Jesus together into what appears to be 24 hours?  Well, I suspect Luke isn't concerned about real time here. Rather, his non-stop Easter Day takes place in salvation time, sometimes called by the Greek word Kairos.  Thanks to the resurrection of Jesus, his disciples are experiencing through faith and teaching what life as church is all about…Luke does have a point by inviting us to live our lives in a timeless Easter day.

 

What a wonderful insight.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: "Were not our hearts burning within us

while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"

 

This was played at my parish today.  “Two Were Bound for Emmaus.”

 

Two were bound for Emmaus, disheartened and lost

All their hope for the future had been nailed to a cross

Love unknown then walked beside them, come back from the dead

And they knew he was risen in the breaking of bread

 

On the Sea of Tiberius, when the night was nearly gone

And their toil seemed so useless, not one fish had they caught

From the shore, the stranger called to them

"Cast your net, friends, once more"

And they filled it to bursting, but the net was not torn

 

Then they knew it was Jesus and they hastened in to shore

Bread and fish for their breakfast from the hands of their Lord

"O Peter, if you love me you must care for my sheep

If you follow your Shepherd, then a shepherd you'll be"

 

When the road makes us weary, when our labor seems but loss

When the fire of faith weakens and too high seems the cost

Let the Church turn to its risen Lord who for us bore the cross

And we'll find our hearts burning at the sound of his voice

 

Two were bound for Emmaus, disheartened and lost

All their hope for the future had been nailed to a cross

Love unknown then walked beside them, come back from the dead

And they knew he was risen in the breaking of bread

 

 

Sunday Meditation: Receive the Holy Spirit

For the Second Sunday of Easter we have the same Gospel passage every year, though the other readings change with the liturgical calendar.  Every year we hear how the Apostle Thomas doubted Christ’s bodily Resurrection only to have Jesus show up and let Thomas touch the wounds.  In the year 2000, Pope St. John Paul II instituted for the Second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday.  Last year we were in mourning over the passing of Pope Francis who had died Easter Monday.  Pope Francis had a very strong devotion to Divine Mercy. 

The Gospel reading is famous for the Doubting Thomas story, but perhaps more important is the fact that the Risen Christ breathes on the apostles to pass on the Holy Spirit.  “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he tells them and with that He creates them anew.  This of course is an allusion to Genesis chapter 2, “Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7).  Man is formed with the breath of life in Genesis, and Jesus reforms them with the breath that is the Holy Spirit upon His resurrection.  Jesus’s Resurrection begins the new creation. 

 

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

 

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

 

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

 

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

~Jn:20:19-31

 

There is a lot going on in this passage.  Resurrection, breath, peace, wounds, faith, Fr. Cajetan Cuddy O.P. of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Theology pulls it all together.

 

Fr. Cajetan:

“Nothing can be a barrier to union with Jesus.”  “The Gospel reveals that nothing can prevent Christ from reaching those He loves—not fear, not suffering, not even sin. In His mercy, Jesus passes through every barrier and gives Himself to us, especially through the sacrament of confession.”  “The wounds of Christ are not signs of defeat, but of a love that transforms all things. Even our brokenness can become a place of healing when brought to Him.”  “It is in the sacrament of penance that Jesus gives us mercy, His peace, reconciliation to Him.”  “Whatever Jesus touches, bears, becomes holy.”  “The wounds Jesus bore show that He can transform any disorder.”  “He assimilated the pain and suffering of the world so that when we go through pain and suffering our pains and sufferings in Jesus can become a means of sanctification, of holiness, and of salvation.

 

Listen to it all. 

 

For the pastoral homily, let’s turn to a Franciscan, Fr. Greg Friedman OFM who appropriately quotes Pope Francis.

 

Fr. Greg:

Grace always precedes us, Pope Francis declared, and takes on the face of mercy that affects our reconciliation and pardon. God makes us understand the great love for us precisely when we recognize that we are sinners. Grace is stronger than sin. It overcomes every possible form of resistance because love conquers all.  I think Thomas realized his need for Jesus at that moment in the story. His humble prayer says it all. My God and my Lord. We who hear this gospel centuries later are included in this scene as well. Jesus blesses us who have not seen and yet believe. Our faith assures us as Pope Francis said that in our risen Lord, love conquers all.

 

What grace Thomas received.  What peace Thomas must have felt when Christ allowed him to put his fingers into Christ’s wounds.  What Divine Mercy.  And what grace we have by believing.  What Divine Mercy.

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “Peace be with you.”

 

 

I have played this lovely song before, “Divine Mercy Flood My Soul” by Annie Karto.  I have to post it again.  It seems so perfect.

 

All I could see, all I could feel

Was swept away in a river of his love

I felt so weak I rested in his arms

Washed clean, His gaze now feels so warm.

 

Divine Mercy like a river

Oh flood my soul

Wash me clean

And make me whole.

 

Finally we had a special praying of the Divine Chaplet at our parish at the three o’clock hour with the Blessed Sacrament exposed.  Off to the side we had a first class relic and beside that our replica of the Divine Mercy painting.  Let me share pictures.

For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Personal Note: Tiger Turns Eleven

Our wonderful little cat, who we found as an estimated five-week-old kitten on May 14^th, 2015 turned eleven years old yesterday.  We date her birthday from five weeks before adopting date, which would put it on April 9^th.  He is still vigorous and outgoing, unlike our eleven-year-old Rosie.  I’ll post on Rosie’s old age in the near future. For now this is Tiger’s day.  He’s still a little devil and the king of this household.  Here are some recent pictures.

He still loves to climb.

He kind of matches our living room décor.  Here he is trying to get Rochelle to feed him early.

 

I recently found him sitting on my desk chair, looking kittenish and cute.

Being silly in the bathroom sink.

On occasion he will turn penitent for all his cat sins.

 Is there a feline priest to give him absolution?  But then again he can reign in his kingdom in the best of comfort.

If you wish, you can look at past posts of Tiger through the years. 

Happy birthday Tiger!

Sunday Meditation: Easter Sunday, The First Day of the Week

For Easter Sunday of any year in the lectionary, there is a choice in Gospel reading: either the empty tomb passage in the Gospel of John or the empty tomb passage in the Gospel of that year’s lectionary.  In Year A, as we are in, it’s the empty tomb passage in the Gospel of Matthew.  However, given that the Gospel of John is the emphasized reading, every year we tend to read Jn 20:1-9.  That is what I will include below.

There are commonalities and differences between the four Gospel Resurrection passages.  Fr. Geoffrey Plant’s homily for today, which I will not embed here but you can find here, provides a nice summary of the similarities and differences.  But I want to point out a very important detail that all four Gospels point out.  The Resurrection occurs on “the first day of the week.”  Check out Mt 28:1, Mk 16:2, Lk 24:1, and Jn 20:1.  Each Gospel goes out of its way to declare the Resurrection occurred on the first day of the week.  Why is this important?  We know from Genesis that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day.  Christ’s Resurrection starts creation anew.  We are newly created in Christ, and so the new creation starts on the Eighth Day, “the first day of the week.”  All four Gospels want to make this emphatically clear.  From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 2174-5:

 

2174 Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week."  Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eighth day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday:

 

We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. [St. Justin, I Apol. 67]

 

Sunday- fulfillment of the sabbath

 

2175 Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ: [I Cor 10:11]

 

Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death. [St. Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Magn. 9]

So do not think that Sunday is the Sabbath.  As Catholics, we don’t really have a Sabbath; we have a day of worship, which is considered the eighth day or the first day of the week.

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

On the first day of the week,

Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,

while it was still dark,

and saw the stone removed from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter

and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,

“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,

and we don’t know where they put him.”

So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.

They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter

and arrived at the tomb first;

he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.

When Simon Peter arrived after him,

he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,

and the cloth that had covered his head,

not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.

Then the other disciple also went in,

the one who had arrived at the tomb first,

and he saw and believed.

For they did not yet understand the Scripture

that he had to rise from the dead.

~Jn:20:1-9

Archbishop Edward Weisenburger takes us through the Lenten to season to culminate with the real meaning of Easter.

 

 

Archbishop Weisenburger:

You see, an Easter without a Lent, a resurrection without a crucifixion would be empty, empty of meaning, devoid of grace. In short, the cause of our Easter joy rests in Jesus’ triumph over death, not his escape from it. He was not an ancient Robin Hood who slipped through their wicked hands and lived to preach another day. No, he was crushed. He was crucified. But we're made joyful today. A joy that can't be robbed from us because the very arms stretched out on the cross are now raised to baptize, to confirm, forgive, embrace, to heal, to lift up, and above all to feed us with his body and blood. A body and blood shattered and shed on Golgotha but made whole on Easter Sunday. Brothers and sisters, again, today's celebration, the real Easter, is not about happy go lucky baskets of colored eggs or bunnies or being spoiled at grandma's house, pleasant and good as many of those things may be. But no, in the end, they're not the real Easter. And for the adults  listening, for those, as Jesus would say, who have the ears to hear and the eyes to  see, well, you'll never really get Easter until you first realize again that Jesus  did not make a journey around betrayal, suffering, and death, but rather a journey  that overcame betrayal, suffering, and death, going right through them all the way to  a radically new way of life that we call resurrection.

 

We are certainly joyful today but let us not forget how we came to this.

 

For a pastoral homily on Easter Sunday, I found Fr. Joseph Mary of the Capuchin Friars to be superb.

 

Fr. Joseph Mary:

Why is the Christian hope founded on the resurrection?  Because Jesus Christ has not simply been reanimated. He's destroyed death itself.  He swallowed up the grave in the victory of Jesus Christ. Suffering sin, loss, grief, and death and no longer have the final word.  There's something waiting for us beyond the gray rain curtain of this world.  There's an unapproachable light waiting for us that no pain or loss or terror of death can ever diminish.  But do we live? Do we live out of the power of the resurrection? Do we truly live with the freedom of the children of God?  Or are we like those little birds living like slaves, never realizing that we're free?  If as St. Augustine said the faith of Christians is the resurrection of Christ. Then we should have a joy and a peace nothing in this world can rob from us because every suffering, every sadness, every loss, every injustice and fear, every struggle with weakness and sin, every conflict, it's all temporary. The night will end, and we'll see that the darkness was only a passing thing like a fog blown away by the light of morning.  Even death has no power over the Christian.  And so as you die and your life slips away, as you draw near that brilliant light, who will come to meet you? The grandparents you mourned? Those brothers, sisters, and friends whose loss brought you such grief. Those children you never had the joy to bear, they'll come to meet you on the threshold of heaven. And there will be tears, tears of unrestrained joy. For the old order has passed away,

 

“For the old order has passed away.”  Make sure you listen to all eight minutes and fifty seconds of that brilliant homily.  It is well worth it.

 

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed."

 

 

This is a great Easter hymn, “Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia.,” performed by King’s College Choir, Cambridge.

 

 

Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!

Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!

Who did once, upon the cross, Alleluia!

Suffer to redeem our loss, Alleluia!

 

Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia!

Unto Christ, our heavenly King, Alleluia!

Who endured the cross and grave, Alleluia!

Sinners to redeem and save, Alleluia!

 

But the pain which He endured, Alleluia!

Our salvation hath procured, Alleluia!

Now above the sky He's king, Alleluia!

Where the angels ever sing, Alleluia!

 

Sing we to our God above, Alleluia!

Praise eternal as His love, Alleluia!

Praise Him, all you heavenly host, Alleluia!

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Alleluia