Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There are seven recorded resurrection appearances in the Gospels, one being the Road to Emmaus, which we heard in yesterday’s Gospel. 

Today the two disciples whom Christ appeared to on that road have returned to the rest of the community mixed with mourners and budding believers, who are hiding somewhere in Jerusalem.

As they share their mysterious encounter with the Risen Christ, how they could see him, but not really see him, he appears in their midst, saying, “Peace be with you.”

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Everyone is baffled. Could this be a ghost? A dream? A hallucination?

The Jesus of the resurrection is not the same Jesus of Good Friday. 

On Good Friday, he was beaten badly, scourged, spit upon, mocked, then nailed to a tree with a nameplate tacked embarrassingly above his head. There could be no case of mistaken identity there.

Jesus of Nazareth died.

His resurrection, however, is largely based upon rumored sitings. Think about all of the others – those whom Jesus healed, touched, and forgave – who are not in this room where the Lord suddenly appears. Are they to resurrect their crucified hope?

Even those standing right in front of him struggle to believe.

Yet the Lord speaks to them. He breathes upon them. He offers them his peace. Then he does the one marquee thing that assures them, in the words of John, “It is the Lord.”

He shares a meal.

He did it after blessing five loaves and two fish, feeding thousands. He did it on the night of his betrayal, hours before his death. He did it on the road to Emmaus. He did it on the shores of Galilee over a charcoal fire, reconciling Peter with himself.

And he does it again in today’s Gospel: Jesus breaks bread.

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This is the same way the Risen Lord appears to us today, “in the breaking of the bread.”

May the Lord give us all the eyes of Easter, allowing us to see him in the Eucharist, bread broken for the life of the world.

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Image credits: (1) Icons and Imagery (2) Testing Table (3) The Catholic Thing

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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 the bread.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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The Christ of Easter leaves us with two choices: We can either plead with him to stay … or change.

Mary Magdalene tries the first approach when she encounters the Risen Lord that first Easter morning. Her face is dampened by tears of grief as she looks for a dead Jesus. 

“They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they laid him,” she laments to the angels at the empty tomb.

Suddenly, the Lord appears to her, and she falls at his feet as if her body can chain him to the ground. But Jesus gently rebukes her, saying, “Stop holding onto me… Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and to your Father.” 

Christ has changed… and so must Mary. She must change her understanding of life’s greatest mysteries, because Christ has conquered death!

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Two of Jesus’ other disciples try the same approach in today’s Gospel as Mary did.

After unknowingly sharing their sorrows with the Risen Lord, whom they mistake for an aloof stranger from Jerusalem, Jesus opens the scriptures and “breaks the bread,” a likely reference to the Eucharist.

When their eyes are opened, their hearts burn within them as they beg for Jesus to stay with them. But he has changed. So must they.

So, he vanishes from their midst, telling them, like Mary, to go.

Go back to Jerusalem, back to the site of Christ’s crucifixion, back to the community in mourning, and share the Good News.

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We, too, must change.

We cannot cling to Christ any more than we can bring our pope back to earth. No, we are all destined for life in abundance in our Father’s house.

This Easter, may we set our sight on the things that are above and share the Good News. For He is Risen! Alleluia!

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Image credits: (1) Cru (2) National Gallery of Art (3) Saint Anthony Parish, Sacramento

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Gospel: John 20: 11-18

Mary Magdalene stayed outside the tomb weeping.
And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb
and saw two angels in white sitting there,
one at the head and one at the feet
where the Body of Jesus had been.
And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “They have taken my Lord,
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”
which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me,
for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
But go to my brothers and tell them,
‘I am going to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
Mary went and announced to the disciples,
“I have seen the Lord,”
and then reported what he had told her.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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According to John’s Gospel, this is Mary Magdalene’s second trip to the empty tomb. 

First, she went under the cover of darkness. She saw the stone removed, then ran and told Peter and John, “They have taken the Lord, and we don’t know where they put him.”

Then she returns with John and Peter a second time. Ironically, after John and Peter see the empty tomb, they “return home.” 

Sometime later, Peter goes fishing.

But Mary stays and weeps. 

This is where we find her in today’s Gospel, stuck in her grief.

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When Jesus appears to her and asks, “Whom are you looking for?”, she cries out tearfully, “They have taken my Lord.” 

Mary is looking for a dead Jesus.

Although he’s standing right in front of her, Mary has yet to make the leap of faith from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

What inspires the change within her is not “seeing” Jesus, but hearing his voice. Here the Lord reinforces his identity as the Good Shepherd, who seeks and saves what was lost.

“My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me,” he says.

We can imagine Mary lunging at her shepherd’s feet, as if she’s trying to keep Jesus firmly planted here on earth. So, the Lord rebukes her gently, saying, “Stop holding onto me. I am going to my Father and to your Father.”

Mary must accept that the world is not Christ’s “home.” Nor is it ultimately ours. We are destined for more, and are invited to embrace this truth, in particular, as we mourn the death of Pope Francis.

Just as Mary Magdalene once did, Francis has made his way to our Father’s house. He has competed well; he has run the race to the finish; he has kept the faith.

May he rest from his labors.

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And may Christ fill our hearts with Easter joy, for he is truly risen! Alleluia!

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Image credits: (1) JW.org (2) Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene After the Resurrection, Alexander Ivanov (3) The Best is Yet to Come, BSLC