Easter Wednesday – Gospel

Commentary on Luke 24:13-35

Today’s Gospel is one of the great passages of the New Testament. It encapsulates, in a little over 20 verses, the whole Christian life. It is still Easter Sunday as the passage opens. In Luke, all the resurrection appearances take place in the vicinity of Jerusalem and on Easter Sunday.

It begins with two disciples on the road leaving Jerusalem. For Luke, the focal point of Jesus’ mission is Jerusalem. It was the goal to which all Jesus’ public life was headed, and from there the new community would bring his Message to the rest of the world.

They are on their way to a place called Emmaus, about 7 miles (11 km) from Jerusalem. Although the exact location is not now known, it does not really matter—and that is the point. They were on the ‘road’—they are pilgrims on the road of life. Jesus is the Way, the Road. The problem is that at this moment, they are going in the wrong direction.

The Risen Jesus joins them as a fellow traveller:

…but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

Why was that? Was it their presumption that he was dead? Was it their pre-conceived idea of what Jesus should look like?

Seeing their obvious despondency and disillusionment, Jesus asks what they are talking about. With deliciously unconscious irony they say,

Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?

Jesus plays them out a little more with a totally innocent-sounding, “What things?” He wants to hear their version of what happened. To them, the death was the failure of Jesus’ mission. They refer to him as a “prophet” as if, after the debacle of his death, they could not see in Jesus, the Messiah they had earlier acknowledged.

…we had hoped [Greek, elpizomen, sperabamus] that he was the one to redeem Israel.

Again, the delicious irony of their own words is lost on them. To them, “redeem Israel” meant liberation from the tyranny of foreign domination, and perhaps the inauguration of the Kingdom of God as they understood it.

They are puzzled also by the stories of the women describing an empty tomb and angels—but there is still no sign of Jesus. More irony—they are addressing these very words to Jesus!

Jesus then gives them a lesson in reading the Scriptures, and shows them that all that happened to him—including his suffering and death—far from being a tragedy, was all foreordained. Luke is the only writer to speak clearly of a suffering Messiah. The idea of a suffering Messiah is not found as such in the Old Testament. Later, the Church will see a foreshadowing of the suffering Messiah in the texts on the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.

This story emphasises that all that happened to Jesus was the fulfilment of Old Testament promises and of Jewish hopes. All through Acts, Luke will argue that Christianity is the fulfilment of the hopes of Pharisaic Judaism and its logical development. In many respects, Matthew’s Gospel has a similar theme.

As they reach their destination, Jesus makes as if to continue his journey. However, they extend their hospitality to the stranger. They say:

Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.

This echoes in Matthew’s Gospel:

…I was a stranger and you welcomed me… (Matt 25:35)

So Jesus goes in to stay with them—wonderful words. But it would not have happened if they had not opened their home to him.

As they sat down to the meal, Jesus, the visitor unexpectedly acting as host, took the bread, said the blessing over it, broke it and gave it to them. And in that very act, they recognised him. This is the Eucharist, where we recognise the presence of Jesus among us in the breaking of bread. Not just in the bread, but in the breaking and sharing of the bread, and in those who share the broken bread.

Then Jesus disappears, but they are still basking in the afterglow.

Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?

In the light of these experiences, they turn around (conversion!) and go back along the road to Jerusalem from which they had been fleeing. There they discover their fellow-disciples, excited that the Lord is risen and has appeared to Simon. And they tell their marvellous story and:

…how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

All the ingredients of the Christian life are here:

• Running away from where Christ is to be found—we do it all the time.
• Meeting Jesus in the unexpected place, or person, or situation. How many times does this happen and we do not recognise him, or worse, mistreat him?
• Finding the real meaning and identity of Jesus and his mission in having the Scriptures fully explained. Without the Scriptures we cannot claim to know Jesus. Yet, how many Catholics go through life hardly ever opening a Bible?
• Recognising Jesus in the breaking of bread, in our celebration of the Eucharist. The breaking and sharing of the bread indicates the essential community dimension of that celebration, making it a real ‘comm-union’ with all present.
• Responding to the central experience of Scripture and Liturgy by participating in the work of proclaiming the message of Christ and sharing our experience of it with others, that they may also share it.
• Recognizing the importance of hospitality and kindness to the stranger. “I was hungry… and you did/did not feed me…” Jesus is especially present and to be found and loved in the very least of my brothers and sisters.

The scene is also a model of the Mass:

Those walking together on the Road gather together and meet Jesus. First, they meet him in the Liturgy of the Word as the Scriptures are broken open and explained. Second, he is present in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where what Jesus did for us through his suffering, death and resurrection is remembered with thanksgiving. The bread that is now his Body, and the wine that is now his Blood, are shared among those who are the Members of that Body to strengthen their union and their commitment to continuing the work of Jesus.

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Easter Wednesday – First Reading

Commentary on Acts 3:1-10

Today we see the first healing performed by Peter and John. By this, they show that the work of Jesus is continuing in them. The fact that two of them are involved in the healing also indicates that the work of Jesus is being done, not so much by individuals (although that may happen), but by the community which he left to carry on his mission.

Our reading is the beginning of a longer passage with a dramatic public healing which results in a large group of people gathering to hear Peter make a gospel proclamation. Some Sadducees, taking exception to what is being said about the resurrection of Jesus (the Sadducees denied any life after death), will have Peter and John (and apparently the cured man as well) arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. There is also the matter of Peter and John teaching publicly in the Temple—something they had no authority to do. When Peter refuses to back down on the basis that he was speaking in a prophetic role, he and John should have been jailed. But because of healing the man who was well-known as “lame from birth”—a healing witnessed by many—the authorities retreated with just a warning.

We are told that Peter and John were on their way into the Temple in Jerusalem for the afternoon prayers. The three stated times of prayer for Judaism were midmorning (the third hour or 9 am), the time of the evening sacrifice (the ninth hour, 3 pm), and sunset. At this early stage in the Church’s life, the disciples maintained many of their former Jewish customs and practices. They did not see themselves as breaking away from their past, still less setting up a new religion.

Peter and John are among the most prominent of the Apostles. Together with John’s brother, James, they formed an inner circle with Jesus (attending the healing of the daughter of Jairus, witnessing the Transfiguration, brought along to give support to Jesus during his agony in the garden). Peter and John will be arrested together, and later we will see them evangelising in Samaria.

For them, Jesus was the continuation and the fulfilment of God’s promises to his people. Jesus was the Messiah long awaited by the Jewish people. Later, we will see how they began to realise that Jesus had come, not just for the Jews, but for people everywhere.

As Peter and John enter the Temple, they see this man who was unable to walk being carried in by friends. It appears that they brought him every day so that he could sit at the “Beautiful Gate” and beg for alms from passers-by. This gate was the favourite entrance to the Temple court. It was probably the bronze-sheathed gate elsewhere called the Nicanor Gate. It seems to have led from the Court of the Gentiles (open to everyone) to the Court of the Women, located on the east wall of the Temple building.

When the man saw Peter and John, he begged them for money. Peter and John both fixed their gaze on the man (as Jesus used to do) and Peter said:

I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.

And Peter raised him to his feet (a symbol of resurrection and new life, also seen in Gospel healings). Again, we note that the healing is done not by Peter himself, but in the name of Jesus. Jesus himself only healed in his own name.

The man gingerly tries out his ‘new’ legs, and is next seen bounding his way into the Temple, giving praise and thanks to God for his healing. The onlookers, many of whom were familiar with the man, were struck speechless by what they saw. The miracle has a dramatic impact: it symbolises the saving power of Christ and leads the now healed man to enter the Temple, where he hears Peter’s proclamation of salvation through Jesus.

The story clearly indicates that the power of Jesus has, as promised, been transferred to his followers.

Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. (John 14:12)

This man who was healed can also be viewed, as in similar Gospel stories, as symbolic of each one of us. We are all permanently in need of God’s help, and we stumble in our efforts to follow him. But once healed, we immediately join him on his Way.

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