GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY IN EASTER OCTAVE, 23 APRIL 2025

The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Luke 24:13-35.  On the evening of the day of Jesus’ resurrection two people set out to return to their village, Emmaus, seven miles away.  Much had happened in Jerusalem over the Passover weekend, including the crucifixion of Jesus after a trial that had drawn much attention and now rumours that he had risen from the dead.  The couple of people were Cleopas and another, likely his wife who discussed all that had happened that weekend.  Were they confused?  Likely so.  Were they unsure whether to be sad or rejoice?  Likely so.  Were they downhearted, thinking that now it was all over?  Possibly.  They had heard rumours of resurrection but were not direct witnesses.  As they walked a ‘stranger’ joined them on the road and engaged in their discussion “opening the scriptures about himself” concerning from the only bible they knew, what we now call the Old Testament.  It was getting very late, so the stranger was invited to have supper at the home of Cleopas.  As a guest he was asked to say the blessing over the food.  As he held up the bread and broke it, in a flash of recognition they recognised exactly who the stranger was!  In great excitement Cleopas and his companion rushed back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples what had happened, saying “didn’t our hearts burn within us as he opened to us the scriptures!”  They had just experienced the risen Lord in his own resurrection body, in the Word of God, and in the breaking of bread!

This gospel reading tells us how Jesus in the fullness of his presence makes complete sense of things, not only in his words, but in his deeds and the events of his life.  When our hearts, the very depths of our beings, are fully open to his word and his presence in the breaking of the bread then too he may be present in the “burning in our hearts” – not just intellectually, nor just emotionally, but in the depths of our beings.  That is where we know God in his presence to us in faith and love, that is where we can resist him in our confusion, and it is where we may depart from him in sin.  At every Mass we have the immense privilege of knowing him in the Word of God and in the breaking of the bread; that is where he is fully present to us and where we may ‘burn within our hearts’ in deep conviction, faith, and love.