Third Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 46
26 APRIL 2020 A.D.


Reading 1
ACTS 2:14, 22-33

Then 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 Israelites, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazarene 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 netherworld,
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 received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father
and poured him forth, as you see and hear.”


Responsorial Psalm
PS 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.

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. Lord, you will show us the path of life.

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. Lord, you will show us the path of life.

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.

You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.


Reading 2
1 PT 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.


Alleluia
LK 24:32

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us;
make our hearts burn while you speak to us.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.


Gospel
LK 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.


Overview of the Gospel:

• Today’s gospel takes place on Easter Sunday (as do all the resurrection appearances of
Jesus that are dated in the gospels), after the appearance of Jesus to the women at the tomb
(Mark 16:1-8; John 20:11-18).

• Two of Jesus’ disciples are making their way to a town called Emmaus. One of the disciples
who is named, Cleopas, is thought to be the brother of Jesus’ foster-father, St. Joseph (John
19:25). Both may have been members of “the 72” sent out on mission by Jesus in Luke 10:1.

• Jesus, who at first conceals his identity from them, finds them disconsolate at having their
hopes dashed at recent events. That they misunderstood Jesus’ person and mission is evident
by their referring to him as merely a “prophet” (verse 19).

• Jesus chides them for being “slow of heart” to understand him and proceeds to lead them
through salvation history, showing how his whole life was foreordained by the Old Testament.
It isn’t until Jesus reveals himself in the Eucharist, however, that they truly know him for who
he is.


"Do not think of the bread and wine as mere bread and wine for they constitute the body and blood of Christ by the Lord’s own declaration. For even if your sense experience suggests this to you, let your faith rather confirm it for you." ~St. Cyril of Jerusalem

My takeways:

-Jesus was patient with his apostles, even after his death.
-He spent time with them until they were ready to know Him
-we should spend time with  Jesus if we want to know Him (scriptures, prayer, Eucharistic adoration)
-if you think that you are waiting on God for something, He may be waiting on you to be ready for it

That last point is one that has become powerfully clear to me this Lent and  Easter season.

Absolutely love the painting of Christ with the apostles.

I actually watched the Maronite Mass this weekend. It was the Greek Orhodox Easter but the readings aligned.
The priest offered the following insight which I found interesting.

The Douey Rheems version uses a more "correct" interpretation from Luke. It uses the phrase: " And their eyes were opened"

[31] And their eyes were opened, and they knew him:and he vanished out of their sight. [32] And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in this way, and opened to us the scriptures? [33] And rising up, the same hour, they went back to Jerusalem: and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were staying with them, [34] Saying: The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. [35] And they told what things were done in the way; and how they knew him in the breaking of the bread.

It implies that the apostles where not permitted to "SEE" until the Breaking of the Bread" so that THEY might KNOW him. This is validation of the transubstantiation and was done several times to validate what was to be done and institute the Holy Eucharist.

This is WHY we have a lot to atone for. To receive the Holy Eucharist with an unbelieving heart, after the Sacrifice on the Cross is a horrifying sin. To have the Eucharist profaned in any fashion is to profane God Himself.

Can you imagine this world had everyone embraced The Christ? Even the protestants right now know that we must return to Christ and HIS laws.
Pray that our eyes and the eyes of our prelates may be opened so they may KNOW CHRIST in the BREAKING OF THE BREAD!
It's not too late.

Morning meditation
Spiritual Fasting
"When Augustine sensed his death approaching, he 'excommunicated' himself and undertook public penance. In his last days he manifested his solidarity with the public sinners who seek for pardon and grace through the renunciation of communion. He wanted to meet his Lord in the humility of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for him who is the Righteous and Merciful One. Against the background of his sermons and writings, which are a magnificent portrayal of the mystery of the Church as communion with the body of Christ, and as the body of Christ itself, built up by the Eucharist, this is a profoundly arresting gesture. The more I think of it, the more it moves me to reflection. Do we not often take the reception of the Blessed Sacrament too lightly? Might not this kind of spiritual fasting be of service, or even necessary, to deepen and renew our relationship to the body of Christ?

The ancient Church had a highly expressive practice of this kind. Since apostolic times, no doubt, the fast from the Eucharist on Good Friday was a part of the Church's spirituality of communion. This renunciation of communion on one of the most sacred days of the Church's year was a particularly profound way of sharing in the Lord's Passion; it was the Bride's mourning for the lost Bridegroom (cf. Mk 2:20). Today too, I think, fasting from the Eucharist, really taken seriously and entered into, could be most meaningful on carefully considered occasions, such as days of penanceand why not reintroduce the practice on Good Friday? It would be particularly appropriate at Masses where there is a vast congregation, making it impossible to provide for a dignified distribution of the sacrament; in such cases the renunciation of the sacrament could in fact express more reverence and love than a reception which does not do justice to the immense significance of what is taking place.

A fasting of this kind  and of course it would have to be open to the Church's guidance and not arbitrary  could lead to a deepening of personal relationship with the Lord in the sacrament. It could also be an act of solidarity with all those who yearn for the sacrament but cannot receive it. It seems to me that the problem of the divorced and remarried, as well as that of intercommunion (e.g., in mixed marriages), would be far less acute against the background of voluntary spiritual fasting, which would visibly express the fact that we all need that 'healing of love' which the Lord performed in the ultimate loneliness of the cross. Naturally, I am not suggesting a return to a kind of Jansenism: fasting presupposes normal eating, both in spiritual and biological life. But from time to time we do need a medicine to stop us from falling into mere routine which lacks all spiritual dimension. Sometimes we need hunger, physical and spiritual hunger, if we are to come fresh to the Lord's gifts and understand the suffering of our hungering brothers. Both spiritual and physical hunger can be a vehicle of love."

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger