Third Sunday of Easter

Catechism Links [1]
 
CCC 1346-1347: the Eucharist and the experience of the disciples at Emmaus
CCC 642-644, 857, 995-996: the apostles and disciples as witnesses of the Resurrection
CCC 102, 601, 426-429, 2763: Christ the key to interpreting all Scripture
CCC 457, 604-605, 608, 615-616, 1476, 1992: Jesus, the Lamb offered for our sins

“The Supper at Emmaus”
by Le Nain brothers 1645

 
Readings for the Third Sunday of Easter [2]
 
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible [3]
 
Readings and Commentary: [4]
 
Reading I: Acts 2:14, 22-33
 
On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
 
"You who are children of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:
 
I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.
 
My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he poured forth the promise of the Holy Spirit
that he received from the Father, as you both see and hear."
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Commentary on Acts 2:14, 22-33
 
This is the first of the six professions (“kerygmas” or proclamations) in Acts about the resurrection set immediately following the Pentecost event. In this proclamation, Peter, speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem (many of whom would have been in the crowd that saw Jesus crucified), first tells them that: “This man (Jesus)” demonstrated, through “signs and wonders,” that he was the Christ. He then makes the accusation: “you killed,” and concludes with, “but God raised him up.” He reminds them that David had been promised an eternal dynasty (quoting Psalm 16:8-11), and  that promise had been fulfilled in the resurrected Messiah, Jesus.
 
CCC: Acts 2:22 547; Acts 2:23 597, 599
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Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
 
R. (1) Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you."
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
 
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Keep me safe, O God; you are my hope.
or:
R. Alleluia.
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Commentary on Ps 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
 
Psalm 16 is a song of thanksgiving that has become prophetic. It speaks clearly of the resurrection accomplished in Christ. It is a hymn of trust in God. Each strophe ends with an affirmation of faithfulness. Key, in the context of the Easter season, is the idea of trust in God who has conquered death and offers the same gift. ("Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.") The psalmist prays that God will shield the faithful from harm, and expresses confidence in the Lord’s salvation; closing the passage with praise for God’s loving mercy.
 
CCC: Ps 16:9-10 627
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Reading II: 1 Peter 1:17-21
 
Beloved:
If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially
according to each one’s works,
conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
 
He was known before the foundation of the world
but revealed in the final time for you,
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.
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Commentary on 1 Pt 1:17-21
 
This selection is concerned primarily with the call of God's people to holiness and to mutual love. St. Peter encourages them to act in accord with their call, and through those actions accept their redemption through the blood of Christ.
 
At the beginning of the passage, St. Peter cautions the faithful: “If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially […] conduct yourselves with reverence.” “Refers to addressing God as ‘Abba’ or ‘Father’ in prayer (Matthew 6:9; Romans 8:15; CCC 2780-82).” – “impartially: i.e. with absolute fairness. Because God exercises perfect justice, he cannot be bribed to show favoritism toward some and not others (Deuteronomy 10:17) according to his deeds.”[5]
 
The “unblemished lamb” is a clear reference to the Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7) whose blood caused death to pass by (Exodus 12:1-14), the expression of God’s salvation.
 
CCC: 1 Pt 1:18-20 602; 1 Pt 1:18-19 517; 1 Pt 1:18 622; 1 Pt 1:19 613
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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 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.
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Commentary on Lk 24:13-35
 
This story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is found only in Luke’s Gospel. It is the first appearance of the Lord following his resurrection in Luke.  There is a mention in Mark (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 seven and eighteen miles from Jerusalem. The focus of the story is the unrecognized Jesus (similar: in John 20:11-18, Mary Magdalene thought he was a gardener). 
 
It appears these disciples thought the unknown stranger joining them was "ignorant of events." They begin to explain their understanding of events.  Here, one of the travelers is named "Clopas." This is likely to be Luke's source for the event, and it was probably his wife who stood by the cross in St. John's Gospel. (John 19:25) [6] It is clear from the disciples' dialogue that they do not understand the true mission of the Lord, nor that he was the long-awaited Messiah whose mission is the redemption of mankind. 
 
"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." [7]
 
Jesus interprets Scripture and then he is recognized in the breaking of the bread (the Eucharistic reference). Luke uses the exact phrase used at the feeding of the five thousand (Luke 9:12): "he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them." Their reaction in recognizing him mirrors St. Peter's reaction immediately following as he confesses the Lord to be "The Messiah of God." (Luke 9:20)
 
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; Lk 24:34 552, 641
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Reflection:
 
Emmaus – The story that was proclaimed in the Gospel of St. Luke today mentions the village by name.  Yet if you look at a map, even the earliest maps of that region, you would not find it.  Yes, there are references to it in early manuscripts and there is speculation that places it between 8 and 17 miles northeast of Jerusalem.  But as a physical place you could not go visit it if you took one of the pilgrimages to the Holy Land, except by speculation and extrapolation.  Emmaus does not exist today in a physical sense.  Yet, as a destination, it is a place we are all seeking at our own pace and in our own way.
 
The disciples who were traveling that way on the day the Lord was revealed in the resurrection were probably traveling there in fear.  They had seen the Son of God beaten, mocked, crucified, and then skewered with a lance as he slumped dead against the cross.  The long-awaited Messiah was no more.  They had seen his body hastily laid in a tomb. 
 
We hear echoes of the emotions they felt in the passages from the Acts of the Apostles, and the First Letter of Peter.  In Acts we heard the apostles boldly using the gift of the Holy Spirit they had just received at Pentecost, as they told their Jerusalem audience: “This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.”  We can almost see St. Peter pointing his finger at the members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership.  And then in St. Peter’s First Letter the apostle says:
 
“Conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.”
 
We hear the awe and reverence of the apostle as he recalls the Savior bleeding upon the cross, the innocent Lamb of God, offering himself as our sacrifice of atonement.
 
Those disciples on the road to Emmaus were not just frightened; they were crushed, fleeing to a place of safety perhaps.  One record of the journey by these disciples to Emmaus, found in the manuscripts of Eusebius of Caesarea, refers to a church in the house of Cleopas in that village.  It is stated that Cleopas was one of the disciples who traveled that road.  Putting the pieces together, we can speculate that they were headed for the house of Cleopas to sort things out.  As our two fleeing disciples traveled, they are joined by a stranger (we wonder if they thought he was a gardener as Mary Magdalene had just done).
 
It is such an easy analogy; isn’t it?  How often do we find ourselves fleeing to places of safety when we are faced with trials or difficult situations?  How often do we seek the help of God and travel that road in fear seeking answers to the things in our lives that make no sense?
 
And how like those frightened disciples are we?  How often do we seek answers only to find out later that the Lord has already answered us and we just did not recognize it? He was walking with us and we did not know it.
 
We can go further too.  When the disciples finally recognized the Lord in his Eucharistic celebration, they suddenly regained their courage.  They found the strength that had left them in the fear of the moment and ran back to Jerusalem to tell the others who they had encountered. 
 
Yes, the village of Emmaus does not exist on any map, but it is certainly the destination we who hope to follow Christ are constantly seeking.  We travel a path that leads to a place where the Lord will reveal himself to us in his glorified body, sitting at a table with us, and giving us the sudden knowledge that he has been walking with us the whole way, and we didn’t even know it.
 
Our journey this Easter season is still ahead of us as we look toward Pentecost.  As we travel that road may we all be comforted in knowing that the Lord was with us, even when we did not know he was there, and even in our isolation.
 
Pax
 

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[1] Catechism links are taken from the Homiletic Directory, published by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, 29 June 2014.
[2] The picture is “The Supper at Emmaus” by Le Nain brothers 1645.
[3] S.S. Commemoratio
[4] 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 republication is not authorized by USCCB and is for private use only.
[5] Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, New Testament (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA © 2010),452.
[6] Gadenz, Pablo T, The Gospel of Luke (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids MI © 2018), 395.
[7] The Navarre Bible, Gospels and Acts (Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002), 513.