THE WORD AND THE EUCHARIST REVEAL THE RISEN LORD

EASTER WEDNESDAY

Act 3:1-10; Ps 105:1-5,6-9; Lk 24:13-35

Recognised at the Breaking of Bread

As we mentioned, the Church guides us with the newly baptised, who received the Eucharist and confirmation through the period of mystagogia. The word is derived from Greek and refers to the period of deeper reflection and understanding of the sacraments and the mysteries of Christian life for those who underwent the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). Jesus did the same for his disciples after his resurrection. Though he had taught them for three (3) years before his passion and crucifixion, their experience of his suffering and death disoriented them completely. They could no longer piece anything he did or taught them together. The two disciples going to Emmaus reveal the mindset of the disciples of Jesus Christ after their Master’s crucifixion and death. Their disappointment and resolve to abandon the quest for salvation are evident in their response. “Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they did not find the body, they came to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.”

These two admit us to the mindset of the apostles and disciples of the Lord when he rose from the dead. As we mentioned yesterday, they failed to recognise the risen Lord because he now has a glorified or spiritualised body recognised by faith alone. Hence, Mary Magdalene's desire to see the Lord's body prepared her better than the apostles and disciples of the Lord to encounter the risen Lord. So, the risen Lord took more time to call forth faith from the two disciples. He used the word of God to arrange and orientate their shattered faith and understanding of the Lord’s passion and death. “Was it not ordained that the Christ should suffer and so enter into his glory?’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.” The disorientation suffered by the apostles and disciples is not unique to them, for every Christian goes through the experience when the reality of things seems not to correspond to what we believe to be the salvation Jesus Christ offered us. The yearly deepening of faith the Church organises for us is for clearing our common disorientation and deepening our faith.  

We must continually listen to the Lord through the scriptures to put our daily experiences of disappointments, trials, sufferings, and death in perspective in the light of the crucified and risen Lord. We noted yesterday that the gift humanity received from God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ is something deep and unfathomable to human minds. Our journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ is a gradual and deeper understanding of the gift of salvation we have received in Christ. Peter and John had understood the meaning of the gift or spiritual wealth they received to an extent. At least they understood that Jesus did not come to liberate Israel directly from the Romans or make them wealthy and powerful but to confer something of greater worth than all these temporary goodies. Thus, they offered the beggar at the gate of the Temple what they believed they had in abundance: faith in the word of God and communion with the Holy Spirit. “Both Peter and John looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us.’ He turned to them expectantly, hoping to get something from them, but Peter said, ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!’” The resurrection of Jesus Christ has given us the ability to live in communion with God through the Holy Spirit granted to us. The Spirit brings us together in the Church to encounter the risen Lord through the reading and proclamation of the word of God and the breaking of bread. These two constituted the life of the early Christians and informed their worldview and hope in the resurrection. We must never neglect any of these two activities of the Lord among us to accomplish the will of the Father in our lives.

Let us pray: O God, who gladden us year by year with the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection, graciously grant, that, by celebrating these present festivities, we may merit through them to reach eternal joys. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.