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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Today’s Gospel represents, symbolically, a life with – or without – Christ.
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In the beginning, the disciples are moving away from Jerusalem. They’re walking westward, into the sunset, into the night.
Such is the soul without Christ: restless and dim.
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After Jesus appears to them, however, they change directions. The Lord listens to them, explains the Scriptures, and “breaks bread,” a likely reference to the Eucharist.
“Were our hearts not burning within us?” they say on their way back to Jerusalem.
Such is the soul with Christ: filled with light; alive; peaceful; purpose-driven; determined to share the Gospel with others.
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May the Lord give us the same grace to recognize Him the “breaking of the bread,” so that his life may also become ours.
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Image credits: (1) Walking with Christ, Robert Zünd (2) Emmaus, Chris Antenucci (3) Freerange Stock
Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered. Judas his betrayer also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas got a band of soldiers and guards from the chief priests and the Pharisees and went there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus, knowing everything that was going to happen to him, went out and said to them, “Whom are you looking for?” They answered him, “Jesus the Nazorean.” He said to them, “I AM.” Judas his betrayer was also with them. When he said to them, “I AM, “ they turned away and fell to the ground. So he again asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” They said, “Jesus the Nazorean.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I AM. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill what he had said, “I have not lost any of those you gave me.” Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its scabbard. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?”
So the band of soldiers, the tribune, and the Jewish guards seized Jesus, bound him, and brought him to Annas first. He was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year. It was Caiaphas who had counseled the Jews that it was better that one man should die rather than the people.
Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Now the other disciple was known to the high priest, and he entered the courtyard of the high priest with Jesus. But Peter stood at the gate outside. So the other disciple, the acquaintance of the high priest, went out and spoke to the gatekeeper and brought Peter in. Then the maid who was the gatekeeper said to Peter, “You are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” He said, “I am not.” Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire that they had made, because it was cold, and were warming themselves. Peter was also standing there keeping warm.
The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him, “I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.” When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered him, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.
Now Simon Peter was standing there keeping warm. And they said to him, “You are not one of his disciples, are you?” He denied it and said, “I am not.” One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the one whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?” Again Peter denied it. And immediately the cock crowed.
Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, “What charge do you bring against this man?” They answered and said to him, “If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law.” The Jews answered him, “We do not have the right to execute anyone, “ in order that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die. So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
When he had said this, he again went out to the Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I release one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this one but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary.
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him repeatedly. Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid, and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him. So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.” Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out, “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out and seated him on the judge’s bench in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha. It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon. And he said to the Jews, “Behold, your king!” They cried out, “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself, he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.” Now many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four shares, a share for each soldier. They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top down. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “ in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says: They divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots. This is what the soldiers did. Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
After this, aware that everything was now finished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I thirst.” There was a vessel filled with common wine. So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop and put it up to his mouth. When Jesus had taken the wine, he said, “It is finished.” And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
Now since it was preparation day, in order that the bodies might not remain on the cross on the sabbath, for the sabbath day of that week was a solemn one, the Jews asked Pilate that their legs be broken and that they be taken down. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe. For this happened so that the Scripture passage might be fulfilled: Not a bone of it will be broken. And again another passage says: They will look upon him whom they have pierced.
After this, Joseph of Arimathea, secretly a disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he could remove the body of Jesus. And Pilate permitted it. So he came and took his body. Nicodemus, the one who had first come to him at night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes weighing about one hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and bound it with burial cloths along with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Some of the most powerful moments of my priesthood happen when I am invited to enter into very intimate moments in people’s lives.
There are, of course, the joyful moments, such as weddings, baptisms, First Communions, and holiday parties.
But I’ve also been invited to stand and weep like John and Mary in today’s Gospel, when people experience their own “Good Friday.”
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I think of a five-year-old girl who was born blind, deaf, and mute. I met her days before she passed.
I think of her mother who stood at her bedside and wept.
I think of my best friend who died at fifteen. And I think of those he left behind.
Each of us can say, “We’ve known the bitterness of Good Friday. We have kissed the Cross of Christ.”
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To the wife whose husband was a first responder on 9/11, who then died from cancer a decade later.
To those fleeing the war and those recently deceased in Ukraine.
To refugees around the world running from violence.
“You have kissed the Cross of Christ.”
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To the person living with a malignant diagnosis. To those caring for them.
To the person struggling with depression or anxiety.
“You have kissed the Cross of Christ.”
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It seems the deep sorrow of Good Friday has a way of finding so many – if not all – of us at one point or another. Even Jesus tasted the agony of that bitter day.
But as Christians, we should always remember the word that precedes Friday:
“Good.”
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GoodFriday” is “good” for one reason only: it’s three days from Easter Sunday.
This is our faith. This is what those who stand at the Cross and weep are waiting for.
At Easter, Jesus will conquer death – and all the evil associated with it. With his victory is the promise of new life – not only life in the age to come, but even life in abundance now.
“Come to me, all you who are heavy burdened,” he says, “and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
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May we place all of our burdens – all of our “Good Friday” experiences – at the foot of the Cross, believing, as Saint Paul says, “that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”
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Image credits: (1) Andrea Mantegna (2) Good Friday, Wikipedia (3) Edinburgh News
Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.” Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.” For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So when he had washed their feet and put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Washing someone’s feet before sitting down for dinner seems strange doesn’t it? Certainly, but not in first century Palestine.
Back then people didn’t travel in cars on well-paved roads; you couldn’t Uber to see your relatives in a neighboring town.
Many walked barefoot along dry and dusty roads. Even those with sandals would occasionally brush against a rock or catch a pebble, cutting and bruising their feet. After a long journey, it made sense to wash; who knew what was on their feet!
You can imagine the disciples arriving for dinner with dusty, calloused feet. Someone should’ve done the foot washing – just not Jesus.
It was odd, even scandalous, for the Master to kneel down and wash his disciples’ feet; servants did that.
But Peter senses that something significant is happening, which is why he says, “Master, wash not only my feet, but my hands and head as well!”
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So, why does Jesus wash his disciples’ feet? Was it simply to remove the dust? Or is there a deeper meaning here?
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It was an act of love; of service; and, above all, a symbol of Christ’s overflowing forgiveness. While, physically speaking, the disciples have dirty feet, it is their hearts that must be purified.
Consider who surrounded Jesus that night.
At table, there was Judas, who, while he was having his feet washed, was plotting the final details of Christ’s betrayal. There’s James and John, who will fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane while Jesus is praying.
There’s Peter, who will deny ever knowing Jesus three times. And there’s the rest, who will abandon Jesus as he’s being crucified.
Each of the disciples will need to be bathed in forgiveness not once, not twice, but over and over again.
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Perhaps this image of washing dusty, calloused feet is an appropriate image for our own lives. We’re all journeying on different paths which are often strewn with pebbles, leaving their mark on us.
What’s that pebble caught in my sandal tonight? What experience has left its mark on me? Or, like the disciples, where do I need the Lord’s forgiveness?
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Tomorrow, the Lord will stoop even lower than he does tonight; Jesus will do much more than wash our feet. He’ll offer his very own Body and Blood for us on the Cross.
As Saint Paul writes in his Letter to the Romans, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
To me, this is why the Church – why this church – is so beautiful.
Here Jesus welcomes us. Here he washes our feet. Here he speaks to us through the scriptures. Here he feeds us with a sacred meal – no, not with bread and wine, but with his very own Self.
Where else can we find such healing for our heart or nourishment for our souls?
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While removing the dust from our feet is no longer necessary – we aren’t walking along unpaved, dusty roads strewn with pebbles in first-century Palestine – we still have our share of cuts and bruises from walking along the journey of life.
The Lord sees our pain and, tonight, he kneels down to wash our feet.
Tomorrow, he’ll give us even more – offering his very own Body and Blood – because there’s nothing God won’t do to save us.
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Image credits: (1) Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet, Ford Madox Brown (2) Sieger Coder (3) The Washing of the Feet, Christian Art Print, Etsy
