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| “Supper at Emmaus" by Hendrick Terbrugghen, c. 1621 |
Reading 1: Acts
3:1-10
Peter and John were going up
to the temple area
for the three o'clock hour of
prayer.
And a man crippled from birth
was carried
and placed at the gate of the
temple called "the Beautiful Gate" every day
to beg for alms from the
people who entered the temple.
When he saw Peter and John
about to go into the temple,
he asked for alms.
But Peter looked intently at
him, as did John,
and said, "Look at
us."
He paid attention to them,
expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, "I have
neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give
you:
in the name of Jesus Christ
the Nazorean, rise and walk."
Then Peter took him by the
right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and
ankles grew strong.
He leaped up, stood, and
walked around,
and went into the temple with
them,
walking and jumping and
praising God.
When all the people saw him
walking and praising God,
they recognized him as the
one
who used to sit begging at
the Beautiful Gate of the temple,
and they were filled with
amazement and astonishment
at what had happened to him.
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Commentary on Acts 3:1-10
This dramatic
cure of the lame beggar begins a group of events that place the disciples in
the footsteps of Jesus. In this first
action, the beggar is cured in the name of Jesus and immediately he is led into
the temple area. The symbolism here is
Jesus heals us and leads us to faith.
This event also
serves a secondary purpose. In addition
to demonstrating the power of God’s intense love invoked through the name of
Jesus, it also serves to draw a large crowd to hear the kerygmatic discourse of
St. Peter which follows.
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm
105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
R. (3b) Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD,
invoke his name;
make known among the nations
his deeds.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous
deeds.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that
seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek
the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his
strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that
seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You descendants of Abraham,
his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen
ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his
judgments prevail.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that
seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He remembers forever his
covenant
which he made binding for a
thousand generationsB
Which he entered into with
Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that
seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
The song of
praise exhorts us to praise the Lord constantly and to remember his covenant
with Abraham and Isaac. We praise him also for the new covenant in Jesus, for
which the Son of God became the sealing sacrifice. It emphasizes the saving power of the name of
the Lord. In using the name of God, the
speaker implicitly gives glory to God for the blessings that follow.
CCC: Ps
105:3 30
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Gospel: Luke
24:13-35
That very day, the first day
of the week,
two of Jesus' disciples were
going
to a village seven miles from
Jerusalem
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 the bread.
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Commentary on Lk 24:13-35
This story of the
disciples of the road to Emmaus is only found in Luke’s Gospel (and is used as
an alternate for Mass on the evening of Easter Sunday). There is a mention in Mark
16;12 that is vague but
probably refers to this event. The actual location of Emmaus is not known but
it is estimated that it was between 7 and 18 miles from Jerusalem
“In the course of
their conversation with Jesus, the disciples' mood changes from sadness to joy;
they begin to hope again, and feel the need to share their joy with others,
thus becoming heralds and witnesses of the risen Christ.”[4]
CCC: Lk
24:13-49 1094;
Lk 24:13-35 1329,
1347; Lk 24:15 645,
659; Lk 24:17 643;
Lk 24:21 439;
Lk 24:22-23 640;
Lk 24:25-27 112,
601; Lk 24:26-27 572,
652; Lk 24:26 555,
710; Lk 24:27 555,
2625; Lk 24:30 645,
1166; Lk 24:31 659
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Reflection:
The disciples on the road to
Emmaus were almost assuredly giving up.
They had just seen the Lord, for whom they had such high hopes,
crucified and killed by the Romans. Now
they were headed toward Emmaus for some unknown reason. It has been speculated that they were going
home or perhaps, fearing further violence against Jesus’ supporters, they were
simply running away. Whatever their
reasons might have been, the most likely purpose for their trip was to be
headed away from the Lord rather than toward him.
The story tells us that Jesus
joined them as they walked and, first hearing them explain how they perceived
events that had taken place, he proceeded to break open the Law and Prophets,
citing all of those instances that predicted what had unfolded in Jerusalem
three days prior (remember, this is taking place at almost the same time as
Mary if finding the empty tomb).
Intellectually the disciples must have been thinking all of this made
sense (in retrospect they would look back and remember how that revelatory
conversation had caused their hearts to burn).
Still they did not recognize
him until he recreated the Eucharist for them at the meal. How blessed they were, who were shown Jesus
in the Eucharist in such a way. And how
sad it is that many of us today have failed to do the same, even when we are
told, countless times, that Jesus left us his body and blood in just that way.
The beauty of the story of
the disciples on the road to Emmaus is that we can all put ourselves in the
place of the disciples. Sometimes on
that dusty road we are frightened sometimes we feel like we know it is the Lord
that is walking with us. At times we are
very close and at times we feel like those disciples must have felt at the
beginning of their journey; that they were running away. We place ourselves at different times, in
different places on that road and pray that we always recognize the Lord in
those that travel with us. We most
especially pray that in this Easter Week we recognized the Lord in the Bread
and Wine, his Risen Body broken for us.
Pax
[1]
ALTRE
[2]
The picture used is “Supper at Emmaus" by
Hendrick Terbrugghen, c. 1621
[3]
The readings are taken from the New American Bible with the exception of the
Psalm and its response which were developed by the International Committee for
English in Liturgy (ICEL). This
re-publication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[4]
The Navarre Bible, “Gospels and Acts”, Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, ©
2002, pp. 513
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