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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