Gospel Reflection For The 3rd day of April in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
Luke 24:13-35
13 And behold, two of them went, the same day, to a town which was sixty furlongs from Jerusalem, named Emmaus. 14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15 And it came to pass, that while they talked and reasoned with themselves, Jesus himself also drawing near, went with them.
16 But their eyes were held, that they should not know him. 17 And he said to them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad? 18 And the one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said to him: Art thou only a stranger to Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days? 19 To whom he said: What things? And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word before God and all the people; 20 And how our chief priests and princes delivered him to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
21 But we hoped, that it was he that should have redeemed Israel: and now besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done. 22 Yea and certain women also of our company affrighted us, who before it was light, were at the sepulchre, 23 And not finding his body, came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who say that he is alive. 24 And some of our people went to the sepulchre, and found it so as the women had said, but him they found not. 25 Then he said to them: O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken.
26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things that were concerning him. 28 And they drew nigh to the town, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go farther. 29 But they constrained him; saying: Stay with us, because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in with them. 30 And it came to pass, whilst he was at table with them, he took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them.
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.
Interestingly, Jesus appears here to two of His lesser known disciples, as opposed to His Apostles. It is clear that they still did not understand who Jesus was in His role as Messiah or as God. “But we were hoping that He would be the one to redeem Israel,” they state. Still, they were expecting the Messiah to be an earthly king who would free Israel from Roman rule and establish it as the earthly kingdom that would rule the world. After all that Jesus had done, and now hearing that He had risen from the dead, and even seeing the empty tomb, they still cannot understand. No wonder our Lord replies, “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?”
Only in “the breaking of bread” did they recognize Jesus. Is that not amazing? In our time, many practicing Catholics do not even recognize our Lord in the breaking of bread. That bread is the Eucharist, as instituted by Jesus in The Last Supper. In the Bible, it is always called “the breaking of bread.” Perhaps our Lord appeared to these two because they had begun to lose faith, just as in multiple Eucharistic Miracles the bread has been transformed in to bleeding flesh usually due a lapse in faith by the priest. Jesus appears and makes clear exactly who He is and His miraculous presence!
Every day, and at every moment, the Christian is “on the road to Emmaus.” Jesus is right here with each of us, but this is especially and powerfully true in “the breaking of the bread.” The more we recognize that truth, the closer we get to heaven.
A Daily Catholic Devotional Reflections on the Daily Mass readings January-June, 2024. may be purchased as a .pdf directly from me using this link https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-daily-catholic-devotional-reflections.html or in paperback on Amazon amazon.com/dp/B0CPD1DC7Q
I am also giving the .pdf as a free Thank You gift to anyone who becomes a paid subscriber to The Uncensored Catholic newsletter.
Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.