Third Sunday of Easter (A)

Acts 2:14, 22-33
Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
1 Pt 1:17-21
Lk 24:13-35

The two disciples in next Sunday's Gospel reading did not recognize Jesus until after they heard him explain the scriptures and then broke bread with him. It was a two-part process. First, while listening to him teach about the scriptures, only their hearts recognized him ("Were not our hearts burning within us?"). Their eyes didn't become open to his true identity until Jesus took the bread of a shared meal, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them to eat.

When we celebrate Mass today, we're on a similar journey with Jesus. First, we have the Liturgy of the Word, during which we hear the scriptures and a homily that explains them. This is a time of listening with our hearts.

A well-trained reader will speak the words of scripture with meaning and emphasis so that our hearts can recognize Jesus. A well-trained priest or deacon will teach us about the scriptures so that our hearts on set on fire as if Jesus himself were teaching us. But even if the reader or homilist does a poor job, our hearts can tune in and hear what Jesus is saying to us.

Then we move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist. When the presiding priest consecrates the bread and wine, it is Jesus himself who is actually doing it, using the priest's hands and vocal chords. Jesus is doing for us what he did for those two disciples at Emmaus.

If we have opened our hearts to Jesus during the first part of Mass, and if we are still paying attention, we see much more than a wafer of bread and a chalice of wine. We see Jesus. We recognize him with our hearts AND our heads. We know beyond all doubt that the resurrected Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.

Questions for Personal Reflection:

Where does Jesus seem to be absent from your life? Did you ever feel like he was missing? How can the Mass help you recognize Jesus and feel his closeness? What else can you do to discover the presence of Jesus where you otherwise have not been able to sense his nearness?

Questions for Group Faith Sharing:

When did you discover that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist? How do you know that the bread and wine change into the substance of Jesus while retaining their original form (which is called "transubstantiation")? Is it always easy for you to recognize Jesus in the Eucharist?

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In human life, there’s no substitute for daily, lived experience, no matter how much “book learning” you’ve had.

On these Sundays of Easter the Church teaches the newly baptized—and all of us—how to live Christian life day by day. Selections from the First Letter of Peter and the Acts of the Apostles stress our witness to Christ in the real world. The Easter Gospels highlight how the Holy Spirit supports and guides the Church in that task.

Today’s Gospel, perhaps the most powerful of the Resurrection stories, portrays what Christians have experienced in Eucharist since the beginning of the Church. Two disciples full of grief after the death of Jesus, flee Jerusalem to escape the tragic events of Good Friday.

On the road to Emmaus, the risen Lord meets them, explains the Scriptures, and they recognize him in the breaking of the bread.

Our experience, like Christians down through the ages, is identical. In the midst of human life—no matter where we find ourselves—Christians gather to share their common needs and gifts, strengths and weaknesses, fears and joys. We break open the Scriptures so that Jesus may teach us. We break the bread and recognize Christ present. From the Eucharistic table we go out as the Body of Christ, ready to witness.

In the Sundays that follow, our Scriptures will help us understand the consequences of that witness.

Scripture:

•God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured him forth, as you see and hear. (Acts 2:32,33)

•You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. (Psalm 16:11)

•…who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:21)

•Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to
them in the breaking of bread. (Luke 24:35)

Reflection:

•Where do the two disciples experience of Jesus? How do they describe it?

•Where does the Psalmist find Jesus? How is it described?

•Where does Luke find Jesus? What is the experience like?

•Where did Mary of Magdala and the disciples find Jesus? What do they say about it?

•In the first few days after the resurrection, when the disciples are experiencing the resurrected Jesus first time, none know quite how to describe this new presence. Have you ever encountered this newness in experiencing Jesus again for the first time? What was it like? How are you like the disciples in trying to explain the experience?

Many men in the past have been loved with extreme intensity—Socrates by his disciples, Julius Caesar by his legionnaires, Napoleon by his soldiers. But today these men belong irrevocably to the past; not a heart beats at their memory. There is no one who would give their life or even their possessions for them even though their ideals are still being advocated. And when their ideals are opposed, no one ever thinks of cursing Socrates or Julius Caesar or Napoleon, because their personalities no longer have any influence; they are bygones. But not Jesus; Jesus is still loved and still cursed; men still renounce their possessions and even their lives both for love of him and out of hatred for him. No living being is as alive as Jesus.