(Lk 24:35-48)

We do not recognize a person by hands and feet (v.39).

The Risen One has a life that escapes the perception of the senses, however the Resurrection doesn’t cancel the ‘person’, but expands it.

The identity and the being that distinguishes it is of another nature, but the heart is that, characterizing. Love to the end: unsparing action [hands] and walk [feet], which non-faith marginalizes, humiliates, kills.

One does not grasp Christ outside the experience of sharing, witnessing, Mission - tip of the text - that extends among all people.

An evangelization starting from direct heralds and enthusiastic auctioneers. Centered ones in the nucleus of the Announcement, which moves everything and gives access (vv.35ff).

And finally, thanks to the intelligence of the Scriptures - which brings us out of commonplaces and vague interpretative automatisms.

All of this, in the specific listening and forgiveness that makes us participate; in the commitment that risks, walks, and talks.

The human plan of the Creator has assumed a pedagogical configuration in the Law; it was taken up, actualized and purified by the prophets, and sung in the psalms (v. 44).

But those who «see and touch» are disciples who involve themselves to the point of making their soul movements, their exoduses to the peripheries, and their passionate gestures, coincide with the own love wounds of the Master: «Palpate me and see» (v.39).

In the early days, believers - here and there - made it through thanks to the help of fraternities in which the Person of the Lord ‘manifested’ himself persuasively, because «in the midst» (v.36).

Not "on top" or "in front", but brother to brother: a testimony of the divine (v.48).

He ‘revealed’ himself Living, in Conviviality - a key Word, climax of the entire Bible.

Sharing that also found the ways of sensitive, personal intimacy and confidence: «They handed him a portion» (v.42).

For this reason the Proclamation had to start from Jerusalem, the first of the «pagan peoples» [v.47 Greek text] in need of evangelization!

And thereby not making Christ a ghost (v.37).

In the early communities, listening to the personal and communal inner world was especially pronounced, because the direction of travel proposed by the Master seemed to be all backwards [in the opposite of institution].

Despite the chaos of external securities, the crossing fear-to-Freedom came from a tolerant perception - starting from visceral cores of experience.

The very bottlenecks accentuated change and internalization, and wrenched disciples out of the habit of setting up conformist harmonies.

One then relied more willingly on the tracks of the soul, thus meeting one's deep nature; new axis of life, starting from the ‘roots’.

The search for a new compass for one's paths, the loss of predictable references, social discomfort, all this made one in contact with oneself and others, authentically.

That feeling of anxiety, malaise and sores, allowed them to know their Calling... even if the external way they saw themselves and dealt with normal or spiritual existence, could already satisfy [the outside].

Having to move from the habits, no one escaped the most precious revelation anymore: of the primordial and humanizing intimacy deposited in the fraternity of the new crucified Way.

Educated by the paradox of narrowness, the uncertain apostles thus became step by step the seekers of a trace, of a more pertinent course.

Pilgrims of unexpected codes. «Witnesses» (v. 48): mothers and fathers  of a new humanity.

[Thursday between the Easter Octave, April 24, 2025]

He does not create a hierarchy

(Lk 24:35-48)

We do not recognise a person by hands and feet (v.39).

The Risen One has a life that escapes the perception of the senses, yet the Resurrection does not annul the person, but rather expands it.

The identity and being that distinguishes him is of another nature, but the heart is that, characterising. Love to the end: unsparing action [hands] and walk [feet], which non-faith marginalises, humiliates, kills.

One does not grasp Christ outside the experience of sharing, witnessing, mission - the point of the text - that extends among all men.

Evangelisation from direct heralds and enthusiastic proclaimers. Centred in the core of the Announcement, which stirs everything and gives access (vv.35-).

Finally, thanks to the intelligence of the Scriptures, which brings one out of commonplaces and vague interpretative automatisms.

In the specific listening and forgiveness that makes us participants; in the commitment that risks, walks, and speaks.

The human project of the Creator took on a pedagogical configuration in the Law. It was taken up, actualised and purified by the prophets, and sung in the psalms (v.44).

But the Conversion proposed by Christ is not a return to religiosity, but "change [of mind] into remission" (v.47).

The change of convictions and mentality is 'for the forgiveness of sins': that is, in overcoming the sense of inadequacy preached by the manipulative religious centre.

Its formal and empty directions prevent women and men from corresponding to their roots, character, vocation - to joy, to the fullness of personal fulfilment, to the great Desire that pulses within each one.

In Jesus, salvation history takes on and redeems the totality of the human: it becomes the privileged place of the true seal of the eternal Covenant between the Father and his children. Only in Him does our life go right.

This awareness formed the core of all the first liturgical signs, which in words and gestures expressed the attitude of gratuitousness and acceptance that animated belief.

Thus, also the multifaceted encounter; and the risk of the mission of Peace-Shalôm (v.36): Presence of the Messiah himself, actualised in the Spirit.

The Passover of the Lord gave meaning to the past of the people and was the foundation of freedom in love, in coexistence - for personal and ecclesial work.

Principle of new configurations. "Made" par excellence [in this sense Lk at vv.41-43 insists on the reality of the resurrection].

Here is the beginning, source and culmination of authentic history - in the very figure of the Eucharist as the Table of the "Fish" [acrostic abbreviation, in Greek, of the divine condition of the Son of Man].

In short, we are eyewitnesses, not gullible or victims of collective hallucinations.

In the Risen One we do not see projections of anguish and frustration converge; we do not look to him for compensation.

In the first years after the Master's death, some disciples actually defended themselves against sceptics by telling of apparitions.

The most convincing and genuine Manifestation of the Living One was actually the wisdom and quality of life expressed by the first communities.

Those who "see and touch" are those disciples who involve themselves to the point of finally making their motions of the soul, their exoduses towards the peripheries, and their passionate gestures, coincide with the Master's own wounds of love: "Palpate me and see" (v.39).

This points to an event and story of admirable light for all, which becomes extended history, from brother to brother.

He bears witness to weight, to the divine (v.48) - in the Yes of being, even undermined or destroyed by the archaic sacral society of the outside.

In the early days, believers - here and there - made it through the help of fraternities in which the Person of the authentic Messiah manifested himself persuasively, because he was "in the midst" (v.36).

Not "above" or "in front" - nor with ethics and dogmas.

Hence in the assemblies there should never have been any placemen (for life) who claimed to represent Him and had a title and place of prominence, while others were destined for the rear or subordinates (equally fixed).

All were to be equidistant from God: no privileged, no installed.

No one leading the ranks - or closer to the Lord, while others far away.

The Lord was revealed Living in conviviality - the key word, the apex of the entire Bible.

Sharing even in the summary, which found ways of sensitive, personal intimacy and trust: "They gave him a portion" (v.42).

The concrete and global perspective of the Cross as the source of Life was a transmutation of the haughty and distant sense of 'glory'.

Natural talents or not, those who represented the Risen One were always at hand: no chosen ones - zero those sent to the rear.

Even the first community tasks reflected the character of a Jesus who was shareable, spontaneous, accessible to everyone - at the centre and in a position of reciprocity.No whole-born, predestined, summit.

This is why the Announcement had to begin from the Holy City (v.47), configured to the opposite vitality - compromised, inert, omertosa; pyramidal, co-opted, and murderous of the prophets.

That of the Eternal City remained the first of the 'pagan peoples' [v.47 Greek text] to be evangelised!

Only a strong identity of stringent Faith, of Hope of Elsewhere and real Communion could convert her from sin and constitute a code for understanding the Scriptures.

And do not make Christ a ghost (v.37).

In the communities of the early days, listening to the personal and communal inner world was particularly pronounced, because the direction of travel proposed by the Master seemed to be all to the contrary.

Despite the chaos of external securities, the crossing from fear to Freedom came from a tolerant perception - from visceral cores of experience.

It was precisely the straits that accentuated the change, the internalisation, and wrenched the disciples out of the habit of setting up conformist harmonies.

One then relied more willingly on the tracks of the soul. Thus meeting one's own deep nature - a new axis of life, starting from the roots.

The search for an unprecedented compass for one's paths, the loss of predictable references, and social discomfort, put one in touch with oneself and others, in an authentic way.

Feeling the anxiety, the discomfort, and the sores, they let their own Calling be known - even though the external way in which they viewed and dealt with normal or spiritual existence was for them.

Having to move away from habits, they no longer escaped the most precious revelation: of the primordial and humanising intimacy deposited in the fraternal communion of the new crucified Way.

Educated by the paradox of straits, the uncertain apostles became step by step the seekers of a trace, of a more pertinent route; the pilgrims of unexpected codes.

"Witnesses" (v.48): fathers and mothers of a new humanity.

To internalise and live the message:

How do you experience the identity of the Risen Crucified One? And its Glory? Of what does your heart burn, and Who do you radiate?

Are you one who puts yourself at the head of the group? Or do you "with Jesus in the midst" contribute to the happiness of all?

Real Presence

Mutato, it does not erase the marks of the crucifixion

Today [...] we encounter - in the Gospel according to Luke - the risen Jesus who appears in the midst of the disciples (cf. Lk 24:36), who, incredulous and frightened, think they see a ghost (cf. Lk 24:37). Romano Guardini writes: "The Lord is changed. He no longer lives as before. His existence...is not comprehensible. Yet he is bodily, he understands ... all his life lived, the destiny he passed through, his passion and his death. Everything is reality. Albeit changed, but still a tangible reality' (The Lord. Meditations on the Person and Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Milan 1949, 433). Since the resurrection does not erase the marks of the crucifixion, Jesus shows the Apostles his hands and feet. And to convince them, he even asks for something to eat. Thus the disciples "offered him a portion of roasted fish; he took it and ate it before them" (Lk 24:42-43). St Gregory the Great comments that 'the fish roasted in the fire signifies nothing other than the passion of Jesus the Mediator between God and man. For he deigned to hide himself in the waters of the human race, accepted to be caught in the snare of our death, and was as it were placed in the fire for the pains he suffered at the time of his passion" (Hom. in Evang. XXIV, 5: CCL 141, Turnhout 1999, 201).

Thanks to these very realistic signs, the disciples overcome their initial doubt and open themselves to the gift of faith; and this faith enables them to understand the things written about Christ "in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms" (Lk 24:44). We read, in fact, that Jesus "opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them, 'Thus it is written, Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all peoples... Of this you are witnesses'" (Lk 24:45-48). The Saviour assures us of his real presence among us through the Word and the Eucharist. Just as, therefore, the disciples of Emmaus recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread (cf. Lk 24:35), so too do we encounter the Lord in the Eucharistic celebration. St. Thomas Aquinas explains in this regard that 'it is necessary to recognise according to the Catholic faith, that the whole Christ is present in this Sacrament... because the divinity has never left the body it assumed' (S.Th. III, q. 76, a. 1).

[Pope Benedict, Regina Coeli 22 April 2012].

As with a living

1. May the light of your face shine upon us, Lord! (Cf. Ps 4:7)

With such words the Church prays in today's liturgy. He asks for divine light. He asks for the gift of knowing the Truth. He asks for faith.

Faith is the knowledge of the Truth, which comes from the testimony of God himself.At the centre of our faith is the resurrection of Christ, through which God Himself bore witness to the Crucified One. The testimony of the Living God confirmed in the resurrection the truth of the Gospel, which Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed. He has confirmed the truth of all his works and words. He confirmed the truth of his mission. The resurrection gave the final and most complete expression of that messianic power, which was in Jesus Christ. Truly he is the one sent by God. And divine is the word that comes from his lips.

When, today, the third Sunday of Easter, we invoke: "Let the light of your countenance shine upon us, O Lord" (cf. Ps 4:7), we ask that through Christ's resurrection, faith may be renewed in us, illuminating the paths of our lives and directing them towards the Living God.

2. At the same time, the liturgy of today's Sunday shows us how this faith was built - and continues to be built - which, being a true gift from God, has at the same time its human dimension and form.

The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the main source of irradiation of this light, from which the knowledge of the Truth revealed by God develops in us. The knowledge and acceptance of it as divine truth.

To form the human dimension of faith, Christ himself chose witnesses of the resurrection from among men. These witnesses were to become those who from the beginning were bound to him as disciples, from among whom he alone had chosen the Twelve and made them his apostles.

To them too Jesus of Nazareth, to them who witnessed his death on the cross, he appeared alive after his resurrection. He spoke to them and in various ways convinced them of the identity of his person, of the reality of his human body.

"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet: it is indeed me! Touch me and see; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Lk 24:38-39).

Thus he spoke to them when "amazed and frightened they thought they saw a ghost" (Lk 24:37).

"But because for great joy they still did not believe and were astonished, he said, 'Have you anything to eat here?' They offered him a portion of roasted fish; he took it and ate it before them" (Lk 24:41-43).

Thus the host of resurrection witnesses was formed. It was the men who personally knew Christ, heard his words, saw his works, experienced his death on the cross, and afterwards saw him alive and conversed with him as with a living person after the resurrection.

3. When these men, the apostles and disciples of the Lord, having received the Holy Spirit, began to speak publicly about Christ, when they began to proclaim him to men (first in Jerusalem) they first referred to the commonly known facts.

You "handed him over and denied him before Pilate, while he had decided to set him free" - so said Peter to the inhabitants of Jerusalem - you instead denied the Holy and Righteous One, you asked for a murderer to be pardoned" (i.e. Barabbas)! (Acts 3:13-14).

From the events surrounding Christ's death the speaker moves on to the resurrection: "...you killed the author of life. But God raised him from the dead, and of this we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15).

Peter speaks alone - but at the same time he speaks on behalf of the whole apostolic college: "we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15). And he adds: "Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders" (Acts 3:17).

4. From the description of the events, from the testimony of the resurrection, the apostle moves on to prophetic exegesis.

To such an exegesis of death and resurrection his disciples had been prepared by Christ himself.

We have proof of this in the encounter described in today's Gospel (according to Luke). The Risen One says to the disciples: "These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: all things written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (Lk 24:44).

"... And he said: Thus it is written: Christ shall suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and in his name shall be preached to all nations repentance and forgiveness of sins, beginning from Jerusalem. Of this you are witnesses' (Lk 24:46-48).

And the evangelist adds: "Then he opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45).

From Peter's speech taken from the Acts of the Apostles, which we read in today's liturgy, we see how effective this "opening of their minds" was.

Peter, after presenting the events connected with the death and resurrection of Christ, continues: "But God has thus fulfilled what he had foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would die. Repent therefore and change your lives that your sins may be blotted out..." (Acts 3:18-20).We find in these words of the apostle the clear echo of Christ's words: of the illumination, which the disciples experienced in their encounter with the Risen Lord.

This is how the faith of the first generation of Christ's confessors was built: of the generation of the apostles' disciples. It sprang directly from the declaration of the eyewitnesses of the Cross and Resurrection.

5. What does it mean to be a Christian?

It means: continuing to accept the testimony of the Apostles, eyewitnesses. It means: believing with the same faith, which was born in them from the works and words of the Risen Lord.

The Apostle John writes (this is the second reading of today's liturgy): "By this we know that we have known him (i.e. Christ) if we keep his commandments. He who says, "I know him" and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but he who keeps his word, in him the love of God is truly perfect" (1 John 2: 3-5).

The Apostle speaks of living faith. Faith is alive through works that conform to it. These are the works of charity. Faith is alive through the love of God. Love is expressed in the keeping of the commandments. There can be no contradiction between knowledge ("I know him") and the actions of a confessor of Christ. Only he who completes his faith with works remains in the truth.

Thus the Apostle John addresses the recipients of his first letter with the affectionate word "little children", and invites them "not to sin" (cf. 1 John 2:1). At the same time, however, he writes: 'But if anyone has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is a victim of atonement for our sins: not only for our own, but also for those of the whole world' (1Jn 2:1f).

John, the apostle and evangelist, proclaims in the words of his letter, written towards the end of the first century, the same truth that Peter proclaimed shortly after the Lord's ascension. This is the truth about conversion and the remission of sins by the power of Christ's death and resurrection.

6. What does it mean to be a Christian?

To be a Christian - today in the same way as then, in the first generation of Christ's confessors - means to continue to accept the testimony of the apostles, eyewitnesses. It means believing with the same faith, which was born in them from the works and words of Christ, confirmed by his death and resurrection.

We too, belonging to the present generation of confessors of Christ, must ask to have the same experience as the two disciples of Emmaus: "Lord Jesus, make us understand the Scriptures; may our hearts burn in our breasts when you speak to us" (cf. Lk 24:32).

Let the heart "burn"!: because faith cannot be just a cold calculation of the intellect. It must be vivified by love. Living through the works in which the truth revealed by God is expressed as the inner truth of man.

Then we too - even if we were not eyewitnesses of the works and words, death and resurrection - inherit from the Apostles their testimony. And we ourselves also become witnesses of Christ.

To be a Christian is also to be a witness to Christ.

7. Then also faith - living faith - is formed as a dialogue between the Living God and the living man; of this dialogue we find some expressions in the Psalm of today's liturgy: "When I call upon you, answer me, God, / my righteousness: / from anguish you have delivered me; / mercy on me, hear my prayer" (Ps 4:2). "...the Lord hears me when I call upon him. / Tremble and do not sin, / On your bed reflect and be appeased. / Offer sacrifices of righteousness / and trust in the Lord. / Many say, "Who will make us see the good?"Let the light of thy countenance shine upon us, O Lord; / Thou hast put more joy in my heart / than when wine and wheat abound; / In peace I lay me down, and straightway I fall asleep: / Thou alone, O Lord, in safety make me rest" (Ps 4:4-9).

And the psalmist himself adds: "Know that the Lord does wonders for his faithful" (Ps 4:4).

[Pope John Paul II, homily to Sts. Marcellinus and Peter 25 April 1982].

This day [...] in the Gospel according to Luke we meet the Risen Jesus who presents himself to the disciples (cf. Lk 24:36) who, startled and incredulous, think they are seeing a ghost (cf. Lk 24:37). Romano Guardini wrote: “the Lord has changed. He does not live as he lived previously. His existence cannot be understood. And yet it is corporeal, it encompasses... the whole of the life he lived, the destiny he passed through, his Passion and his death. Everything is reality. It may have changed but it is still tangible reality” (Il Signore. Meditazioni sulla persona e la vita di N.S. Gesù Cristo, Milan 1949, 433). As the Resurrection did not erase the signs of the Crucifixion, Jesus showed the Apostles his hands and his feet. And to convince them, he even asked for something to eat, thus the disciples “gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them” (Lk 24:42-43). St Gregory the Great comments that “the fish grilled on the flame means nothing other than the Passion of Jesus, Mediator between God and men. Indeed, he deigned to conceal himself in the waters of the human race, he accepted to be caught in the net of our death and was placed on the fire, symbolizing the pain he suffered at the moment of the Passion” (Hom. in Evang. XXIV, 5: CCL l 141, Turnhout 1999, 201).

It was by means of these very realistic signs that the disciples overcame their initial doubt and opened themselves to the gift of faith; and this faith enabled them to understand what was written on Christ “in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms (Lk 24:44). Indeed we read that Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations.... You are witnesses of these things” (Lk 24:45-48).

The Saviour assures us of his real presence among us through the Word and through the Eucharist. Therefore just as the disciples of Emmaus recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread (cf. Lk 24:35), so we too encounter the Lord in the Eucharistic celebration. In this regard St Thomas Aquinas explains that “it is absolutely necessary to confess according to the Catholic faith that the entire Christ is in this sacrament... since the Godhead never set aside the assumed body” (Summa Theologiae III, q. 76, a. 1).

[Pope Benedict, Regina Coeli 22 April 2012]

1. Shine upon us, Lord, the light of your face! (cf. Ps 4:7)

With such words the Church prays in today's liturgy. He asks for divine light. He asks for the gift of knowing the Truth. He asks for faith.

Faith is the knowledge of the Truth, which comes from the testimony of God himself.

At the centre of our faith is the resurrection of Christ, through which God Himself bore witness to the Crucified One. The testimony of the Living God confirmed in the resurrection the truth of the Gospel, which Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed. He has confirmed the truth of all his works and words. He confirmed the truth of his mission. The resurrection gave the final and most complete expression of that messianic power, which was in Jesus Christ. Truly he is the one sent by God. And divine is the word that comes from his lips.

When, today, the third Sunday of Easter, we invoke: "Let the light of your countenance shine upon us, O Lord" (cf. Ps 4:7), we ask that through Christ's resurrection, faith may be renewed in us, illuminating the paths of our lives and directing them towards the Living God.

2. At the same time, the liturgy [...] shows us how this faith was built - and continues to be built - which, being a true gift from God, has at the same time its human dimension and form.

The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is the main source of irradiation of this light, from which the knowledge of God's revealed Truth develops in us. The knowledge and acceptance of it as divine truth.

To form the human dimension of faith, Christ himself chose witnesses of the resurrection from among men. These witnesses were to become those who from the beginning were bound to him as disciples, from among whom he alone had chosen the Twelve and made them his apostles.

To them too Jesus of Nazareth, to them who were witnesses of his death on the cross, he appeared alive after his resurrection. He spoke to them and in various ways convinced them of the identity of his person, of the reality of his human body.

"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet: it is indeed me! Touch me and see; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Lk 24:38-39).

Thus he spoke to them when "amazed and frightened they thought they saw a ghost" (Lk 24:37).

"But because for great joy they still did not believe and were astonished, he said, 'Have you anything to eat here?' They offered him a portion of roasted fish; he took it and ate it before them" (Lk 24:41-43).

Thus the host of resurrection witnesses was formed. They were the men who personally knew Christ, heard his words, saw his works, experienced his death on the cross, and afterwards saw him alive and conversed with him as with a living person after the resurrection.

3. When these men, the apostles and disciples of the Lord, having received the Holy Spirit, began to speak publicly of Christ, when they began to proclaim him to men (first in Jerusalem) they first referred to the commonly known facts.

You "handed him over and denied him before Pilate, while he had decided to set him free" - so said Peter to the inhabitants of Jerusalem - you instead denied the Holy and Righteous One, you asked for a murderer to be pardoned" (i.e. Barabbas)! (Acts 3:13-14).

From the events surrounding Christ's death the speaker moves on to the resurrection: "...you killed the author of life. But God raised him from the dead, and of this we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15).

Peter speaks alone - but at the same time he speaks on behalf of the whole apostolic college: "we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15). And he adds: "Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders" (Acts 3:17).

4. From the description of the events, from the testimony of the resurrection, the apostle moves on to prophetic exegesis.

To such an exegesis of death and resurrection his disciples had been prepared by Christ himself.

We have proof of this in the encounter described in today's Gospel (according to Luke). The Risen One says to the disciples: "These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you: all things written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (Lk 24:44).

"... And he said: Thus it is written: Christ shall suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and in his name shall be preached to all nations repentance and forgiveness of sins, beginning from Jerusalem. Of this you are witnesses' (Lk 24:46-48).

And the evangelist adds: "Then he opened their minds to the understanding of the Scriptures" (Lk 24:45).

From Peter's speech taken from the Acts of the Apostles, which we read in today's liturgy, we see how effective this "opening of their minds" was.Peter, after presenting the events connected with the death and resurrection of Christ, continues: "But God has thus fulfilled what he had foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would die. Repent therefore and change your lives that your sins may be blotted out..." (Acts 3:18-20).

We find in these words of the apostle the clear echo of Christ's words: of the illumination, which the disciples experienced in their encounter with the Risen Lord.

Thus the faith of the first generation of Christ's confessors was built: of the generation of the apostles' disciples. It sprang directly from the declaration of the eyewitnesses of the Cross and Resurrection.

5. What does it mean to be a Christian?

It means: continuing to accept the testimony of the Apostles, eyewitnesses. It means: believing with the same faith, which was born in them from the works and words of the Risen Lord.

The Apostle John writes (this is the second reading of today's liturgy): "By this we know that we have known him (i.e. Christ) if we keep his commandments. He who says, "I know him" and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but he who keeps his word, in him the love of God is truly perfect" (1 John 2: 3-5).

The Apostle speaks of living faith. Faith is alive through works that conform to it. These are the works of charity. Faith is alive through the love of God. Love is expressed in the keeping of the commandments. There can be no contradiction between knowledge ("I know him") and the actions of a confessor of Christ. Only he who completes his faith with works remains in the truth.

Thus the Apostle John addresses the recipients of his first letter with the affectionate word "little children", and invites them "not to sin" (cf. 1 John 2:1). At the same time, however, he writes: 'But if anyone has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is a victim of atonement for our sins: not only for our own, but also for those of the whole world' (1Jn 2:1f).

John, apostle and evangelist, proclaims in the words of his letter, written towards the end of the first century, the same truth that Peter proclaimed shortly after the Lord's ascension. This is the truth about conversion and the remission of sins by the power of Christ's death and resurrection.

6. What does it mean to be a Christian?

Being a Christian - today in the same way as then, in the first generation of Christ's confessors - means continuing to accept the testimony of the apostles, who were eyewitnesses. It means believing with the same faith, which was born in them from the works and words of Christ, confirmed by his death and resurrection.

We, too, belonging to the present generation of confessors of Christ, must ask to have the same experience as the two disciples of Emmaus: "Lord Jesus, make us understand the Scriptures; may our hearts burn in our breasts when you speak to us" (cf. Lk 24:32).

Let the heart "burn"!: because faith cannot be just a cold calculation of the intellect. It must be vivified by love. Living through the works in which the truth revealed by God is expressed as the inner truth of man.

Then we too - even if we were not eyewitnesses of the works and words, death and resurrection - inherit from the Apostles their testimony. And we ourselves also become witnesses of Christ.

To be a Christian is also to be a witness to Christ.

7. Then also faith - living faith - is formed as a dialogue between the Living God and the living man; of this dialogue we find some expressions in the Psalm of today's liturgy: "When I call upon you, answer me, God, / my righteousness: / from anguish you have delivered me; / mercy on me, hear my prayer" (Ps 4:2). "...the Lord hears me when I call upon him. / Tremble and do not sin, / On your bed reflect and be appeased. / Offer sacrifices of righteousness / and trust in the Lord. / Many say, "Who will make us see good?"Let the light of thy countenance shine upon us, O Lord; / Thou hast put more joy in my heart / than when wine and wheat abound; / In peace I lay me down, and straightway I fall asleep: / Thou alone, O Lord, in safety make me rest" (Ps 4:4-9).

And the psalmist himself adds: "Know that the Lord does wonders for his faithful" (Ps 4:4).

[Pope John Paul II, homily to Sts. Marcellinus and Peter 25 April 1982]

At the centre [...] there is the encounter with the Risen One experienced by his disciples, all together. This is evidenced especially by the Gospel which introduces us once again to the Upper Room, where Jesus manifests himself to the Apostles, addressing this greeting to them: “Peace to you” (Lk 24:36). It is the greeting of the Risen Christ, who gives us peace: “Peace to you!”. It is a matter of both inner peace and the peace that is established in interpersonal relationships. The episode recounted by Luke the Evangelist rests heavily on the realism of the Resurrection. Jesus is not a spirit. Indeed, it is not about an apparition of Jesus’ spirit, but of his real presence with his risen body.

Jesus realizes that the Apostles are unsettled in seeing him, that they are bewildered because the reality of the Resurrection is inconceivable to them. They believe they are seeing a spirit; but the Risen Jesus is not a spirit; he is a man with body and soul. This is why, in order to convince them, he says to them: “See my hands and my feet” — he shows them his wounds — “that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (v. 39). And since this did not seem enough to overcome the disciples’ disbelief — the Gospel says something interesting: there was so much joy they had within that this joy prevented them from believing it: ‘No, it cannot be! It cannot be so! So much joy is not possible!’. And Jesus, in order to convince them, asks them: “Have you anything here to eat?” (v. 41). They offer him some broiled fish; Jesus takes and eats it in front of them, in order to convince them.

Jesus’ insistence on the reality of his Resurrection illuminates the Christian perspective of the body: the body is not an obstacle nor a prison of the soul. The body is created by God, and mankind is not complete if there is no union of body and soul. Jesus, who has triumphed over death and risen in body and soul, helps us to understand that we must have a positive idea of our body. It can become an occasion or instrument of sin, but sin is not provoked by the body, but rather by our moral weakness. The body is a wondrous gift from God, intended, in union with the soul, to express in fullness the image and likeness of Him. Therefore, we are called to have great respect and care for our body and that of others.

Any offense or wound or violence to the body of our neighbour is an affront to God the Creator! My thoughts go, in particular, to the children, the women, the elderly who are physically abused. In the flesh of these people we find the Body of Christ. Christ wounded, mocked, slandered, humiliated, scourged, crucified.... Jesus taught us love. A love that, in his Resurrection, is demonstrated to be more powerful than sin and death, and seeks to redeem all those who experience in their own body the slavery of our time.

In a world where too often self-importance prevails over the weakest and materialism stifles the spirit, today’s Gospel passage calls us to be people capable of looking deeply, full of wonder and great joy at having encountered the Risen Lord. It calls us to be people who know how to welcome and appreciate the novelty of life that He sows in history, in order to direct it toward new heavens and the new land. May we be sustained in this journey by the Virgin Mary, to whose maternal intercession we entrust ourselves with faith.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 15 April 2018]

(Lk 24:13-35)

After first persecutions (64), the bloody civil war in Rome (68-69) and the destruction of Jerusalem’s Temple (70), the empire rebels tended to decrease - together with the second generation Christians, direct witnesses of the Apostolic teaching.

In this reality, completely new and threatened by the danger of routine, perhaps more than a dozen years after the fall of Masada (73), Lk draws up a Gospel for converted Hellenists - but educated to the ideal of a ‘Greek man’.

Its purpose was to put a stop to defections, encourage new faithful, allow those who were culturally distant to have a living experience of the Lord.

The Risen One has a Life that is no longer subject to the senses, because Full.

Now it’s the community that manifests Him Present [or - unfortunately - useless and absent].

Conditioned by a false vision inoculated by bad teachers and pagan values, the disciples still felt bewildered in the face of “failure”.

The expectations of religion, of philosophies, of life in the empire, made them gloomy and disoriented during the tests of Faith.

Everyone was waiting for the «divine man»: ruler, possessor, revered, avenger, titled and super-affirmed. Able to drag his associates to the same “fortune”.

Lk overturns the banal perspective, because within each of us there is an innate wisdom, sometimes suffocated by external ideas, but different.

Only another intelligence of the Holy Scriptures that still resound full of critical prophecy - warms our hearts and makes us recognizable in Christ.

Wisdom that’s combined with the quality of life experienced in a multifaceted and indigent fraternity, but which doesn’t abandon anyone.

In fact, in the authentic church, the synergy of differences and opposite sides configures a ‘new covenant’; opens the eyes to all, intensely manifesting the Son.

And the Risen One does not cling to the latest arrivals in a paternalistic way (vv.28.31) but calls with confidence to reinterpret Him in love, without borders and identified roles.

His Presence in spirit and deed allows anyone a coined-broken life caliber without prior conditions of completion.

Hence the Return (v.33) and personal Announcement (v.35), instead of indifference or flight.

The passage from Lk is one of the most profound testimonies of the Passover of Jesus.

The tragedy of the Cross frightens, so does failure. But we do not frankly meet the Lord as an executioner, or in the fervor of a victorious war.

Christ is not a colonel. Liberator yes.

The new dreamed order will not be artificial, procedural, external; nor achieved with military triumph: it would disown Him.

We meet the Risen One outside the tomb, we grasp Him on a journey and in the authentic meaning of the «living Scriptures»; in the «Bread breaking» that illuminates the sense of ecclesial life.

We personally «see» the ‘Son raised’, building up the new community of disciples that blossom because of the reverses - so that the sisters and brothers can also meet with Easter.

Apostles not lost in history.

In their «incessant beginning» there is a ‘discovery’ and something special, abnormal, irrepressible; that lays continuous foundations.

To internalize and live the message:

When have you experienced a Jesus who gently approaches and takes your step? Is the Cross a catastrophe for you?

[Wednesday between the Easter Octave, April 23, 2025]

The foundations, the disappointed in the Resurrection

(Lk 24:13-35)

The disciples question, they are in confusion; they are anxious and accusing, disillusioned and frustrated - but what they seem most concerned about is not so much the mocking death of the Master, but (paradoxically) his own divine condition.

What they fear is exactly the crumbling of their hopes of glory.

They are only afraid of not feeling supported by someone who has achieved notoriety in order to achieve the longed-for dominance.

What deludes them is precisely that Jesus could be the Risen One: that is, the one grasped and incorporated into himself, the one assumed by the Father into his own full Life because he is recognised in the resigned Son.

Enthroned at the right hand of the heavenly throne, because true, and a servant of others.

Such apostles have their eyes held back by dreams of principality, wealth, and supremacy.

On this basis it is impossible to recognise the Presence of Christ - who wants us to be in the present and see the future.

As before, they head for Emmaus, a place of ancient nationalist military victories.

Cleopas' very name was an abbreviation of Cleopatros meaning "of the illustrious, prestigious father".

The disciples are still filled with ambition for success: this is their god.

It is still triumph - not genuineness and self-giving to the grave - that would change the world.

For such followers, the son of the carpenter Galileo was still the Nazarene - which meant subversive, rebellious: one of the many messiahs who were to take revenge against Roman oppression and conquer power.

Quietly, sick with ambition, they return to consider as their 'authority' (v.20) the very bandits disguised as men of God who had done away with the Master.

So Jesus must once again pick up our pace and insist on interpreting the Scriptures correctly.

From them it emerges that the concrete good of the real, multifaceted, even seemingly contradictory woman and man is a non-negotiable principle.

The Greek text of Lk says that Jesus "does hermeneutics" (v.27).

In short: the passages of sacred Scripture, from Moses to the Prophets and beyond, are not to be told and perceived by ear, but interpreted.

These are teachings, not stories or storytelling.

We too, enamoured of our own ideas, struggle to enter into the work of excavating the events of failure in order to extract sapiential pearls from them.

But conflicts are valuable mirrors: of internal struggles.

The Word of God not domesticated by platitudes helps us to perceive events and the world even of the soul in the genuineness of providential signs.

They are there for a journey of evolution, where surprises of the most precious kind appear.

This is not in order to become astute, strong; not even good in the current sense.

Even negative events and emotions happen but to develop the ability to set our gaze and correspond to the inner jingle of the Calling.

Vocation-character, in bad moments: wonders for a great joy, like a Sun within, fiery and bright (without judgement).

Protagonist who extracts unexpected qualities; worker who tills the earth and waits.

Changing the way we perceive, the new energy of the Word brings considerations into a different dimension.

Conflicts are no longer looked at to resolve them, but to understand their meaning.

We learn to realise that our ailments, sufferings and problems are often like clothes - even willingly undone overcoats.

Having thrown away these external rags, here we sense in the same disappointments a Presence coming to visit us.

Alternative consciousness that wants to live and flow within us.

It will bring a Gift that brings another Relation, to chase away banality and its thousand bondages.

It will in time have the strength to settle within.

And when personal anxieties, conditioned intentions, conformist expectations, lead us into a territory where all things enter into another game, into a whole other reality - that Voice will increasingly become the fertiliser and substratum of our ability to correspond, to grow and depart; to detach ourselves from common ideas and find new positions.

A new realm, another founding memory; new reminders, different hopes, convictions, trusts.

Little by little we realise: it is in the same sense of the drama of the authentic Son that our lives as saved ones are spent.

Thus, instead of always standing with our heads backwards or only forwards, we begin to perceive the prophetic; and we bring it to awareness.

While the disciples of the glorious "messiah" continue to be directed to the old "village" - a place of narrowness, incomprehension, even hostility to the Call of God - the Risen One goes further afield.

Then it enters, but not into the village [the common village, of dogmas, of even glossy ways, or of traditions, of conformisms] because it is already Present. And in each case it is not Shepherd who loses the flock.In the watermark we catch the rhythm of our worship: entrance, homily, Eucharistic liturgy, final chorus, missionary proclamation... whose essential sense is the proposal: 'to break life'.

It is the sharing that makes the being of Jesus perceptible - in the Church that becomes sapiential and fraternal food for the wholeness of all.

"This my Body" means "This am I".

God is expressed in a gesture, the breaking of the Bread - not in a sacred object.

It alludes to the Community that overcomes differences and comes together to become shared food for the benefit of others.

Such is the essential, truly sacred call.

No pre-emptive sterilisation: only the all-round experience is the experience that makes the divine Presence perceptible.

"He made himself invisible" because the Risen One has a life that is not subject to the banal perception of the ordinary senses.

But it comes in the Church that freely offers itself for the life of the voiceless, the distant, the different; not in good manners, and bad habits.

"Take and eat": make my story your own, the choice of the conviviality of differences and contrasting sides. That they convey dignity to any Path.

The news is too good: one renounces the barley harvest [the end of the first ten days of April: in Palestine it was the right time to begin the harvest] and immediately sets out to proclaim.

The affairs of the earth are put in brackets, so that it is not only those that go by the wayside - making themselves explicit proclaimers, assertors and sustainers of those who seek life.

Broken: different Perfection

After the first persecutions (64), the bloody civil war in Rome (68-69) and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70), the rebels of the empire tended to decrease - along with the second generation Christians, direct witnesses of the Apostolic teaching.

In such a reality, entirely new and undermined by the danger of routine, perhaps more than a dozen years after the fall of Masada (73), Lk wrote a Gospel for converted Hellenists - but educated to the ideal of a Greek man.

Its purpose was to stem defections, encourage new believers, allow the culturally distant a living experience of the Lord.

The Risen One's life is no longer subject to the senses, for it is full. Now it is the community that manifests it present [or - unfortunately - useless and absent].

Conditioned by a false vision inoculated by bad teachers and pagan values, the disciples still felt dismay in the face of failure.

The expectations of religion, of philosophies, of life in the empire, made them gloomy and lost during the trials of Faith.

Everyone was waiting for the divine man: dominator, possessor, revered, avenger, titled and super-affirmed. Capable of drawing his own to the same fortune.

Lk reverses the banal perspective, because within each of us there is an innate wisdom, sometimes stifled by external ideas, but different.

Only a different understanding of the sacred Scriptures that still resound full of critical prophecy, warms the heart and makes each one recognisable in Christ.

Wisdom that is combined with the quality of life experienced in a multifaceted fraternity that may be destitute, but abandons no one.

In the authentic church, in fact, the synergy of differences and shadow sides configures a New Covenant; it opens the eyes of all, intensely manifesting the Son.

And the Risen One does not cling to the least of these in a paternalistic manner (vv.28.31) but confidently calls us to reinterpret him in love, without boundaries or identified roles.

His Presence in spirit and deed allows anyone a coined-spoken calibre of life without prior conditions of fulfilment.

Hence the return (v.33) and personal proclamation (v.35), instead of indifference or flight.

The passage from Lk is one of the most profound testimonies of Jesus' Easter.

The tragedy of the Cross still frightens, so does failure.

But we do not bluntly encounter the Lord as an executioner, or in the fervour of a 'victorious' holy war.

Christ is not a leader. Liberator yes, but not of an idea or of a single chosen people.

In short, the new order dreamt of will not be contrived, procedural, futile; nor will it be achieved with military triumph: it would disown Him.

We meet the Risen One outside the tomb.

We encounter Jesus on a journey, and in the authentic sense of the 'living scriptures'; in the breaking of the bread that illuminates coexistence and the richer meaning of church life.

We personally see the Son lifted up, building the new community of disciples who are not lost in history - indeed they flourish because of reversals.

By making it possible for the brothers too to meet with Easter.

In their ceaseless beginning, there is a discovery and something special, abnormal, disruptive; laying continuous foundations.

To internalise and live the message:

When have you experienced a Jesus who gently approaches and takes your step? Is the Cross a catastrophe for you?Which side of your personality captures that of the Eucharistic Christ and in between? Perhaps something one-sided, or overt?

What turns you away from the blindness of present Life?

Especially in this Octave of Easter the liturgy invites us to meet the Risen One personally and to recognize his life-giving action in the events of history and in our daily lives. This Wednesday, for example, the moving episode of the two disciples of Emmaus is presented to us once again (cf. Lk 24: 13-35). After Jesus' crucifixion, immersed in sadness and disappointment, they were going home dejected. On their way, they discussed the events that had occurred in those days in Jerusalem; it was then that Jesus approached and began to talk to them and teach them: "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" (Lk 24: 25-26). Then starting with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. Christ's teaching - the explanation of the prophecies - was like an unexpected revelation to the disciples of Emmaus, enlightening and comforting. Jesus gave them a new key for interpreting the Bible and everything then appeared clear, oriented to that very moment. Won over by the words of the unknown wayfarer, they invited him to stop and have supper with them. And he accepted and sat down to table with them. The Evangelist Luke says: "When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it, and gave it to them" (Lk 24: 30). And it was at that very moment that the eyes of the two disciples were opened and they recognized him, but "he vanished out of their sight" (Lk 24: 31). And full of wonder and joy they commented: "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Lk 24: 32).

Throughout the liturgical year, particularly in Holy Week and Easter Week, the Lord walks beside us and explains the Scriptures to us, makes us understand this mystery: everything speaks of him. And this should also make our hearts burn within us, so that our eyes too may be opened. The Lord is with us, he shows us the true path. Just as the two disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, so today, in the breaking of the bread, let us too recognize his presence. The disciples of Emmaus recognized him and remembered the times when Jesus had broken the bread. And this breaking of the bread reminds us of the first Eucharist celebrated in the context of the Last Supper, when Jesus broke the bread and thus anticipated his death and Resurrection by giving himself to the disciples. Jesus also breaks bread with us and for us, he makes himself present with us in the Holy Eucharist, he gives us himself and opens our hearts. In the Holy Eucharist, in the encounter with his Word, we too can meet and know Jesus at this two-fold Table of the Word and of the consecrated Bread and Wine. Every Sunday the community thus relives the Lord's Passover and receives from the Saviour his testament of love and brotherly service. Dear brothers and sisters, may the joy of these days strengthen our faithful attachment to the Crucified and Risen Christ. Above all, may we let ourselves be won over by the fascination of his Resurrection. May Mary help us to be messengers of the light and joy of Easter for all our brethren. Once again, I wish you all a Happy Easter.

[Pope Benedict, General Audience 26 March 2008]

2. Dear brothers and sisters! We too, at this hour, pray to the Lord: "Stay with us, for it is becoming evening and the day is already drawing to a close" (Lk 24:29). May this invitation that the disciples of Emmaus address to the Lord guide our festive liturgy today; indeed, the Gospel of this third Easter Sunday leads us on the road to Emmaus. This place is of great importance in the context of the Easter events: it is a place of encounter with Christ, a place of the apparition of the risen Lord.

In the interpretation of the Old Testament peoples, the Passover feast commemorates the "passage" of the Lord, the exodus of the Israelites from the "house of bondage" of Egypt on the way to the promised land. God himself leads, liberates and saves his people. At the beginning of this exodus there had been the sign of the lamb: its blood would mark the houses of the Israelites and save their inhabitants from the punishment of death; its flesh refreshed the Israelites at the last supper before departure.

Animated by this faith of their people, the two disciples of Emmaus had participated in the Passover feast of the Jews of Jerusalem, and had also witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. When, on the way back, the Lord had appeared to them without them immediately recognising him, he explained to them how the paschal feast of the new covenant had been foretold in the events of the Old Testament; namely, in the exodus from bondage to freedom. This exodus is now fulfilled in the passage from death to life, from sin to friendship with God. And this again happens with the help of a lamb: the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Moses and the prophets, even the whole of Scripture, already speak of him and his destiny. That is why the risen Lord could rightly ask: "Did not Christ have to endure these sufferings in order to enter into his glory?" (Lk 24:25f.).

3. Indeed, many statements in the Old Testament predict the events of the Last Supper and Golgotha. These announcements, however, would not have been fulfilled if the paschal events had not taken place at the time and in the manner predetermined by God in Jerusalem. And in spite of all this, Jesus' disciples did not immediately recognise the dramatic and touching event they experienced with their Master during the Passover feast of the Jews in its true meaning and deepest truth. They found it difficult to "believe the word of the prophets" (Lk 24:25f.). This truth was so difficult to recognise for them, who were accustomed to a different understanding of the sacred Scriptures. Why should the Messiah have suffered, been condemned and died on the cross, been despised and mocked as an outcast? Thus, at first, they are as if blinded, discouraged and sad, as if paralysed.

For man it is and will always remain incomprehensible why the way to salvation must pass through suffering. This is why the encounter on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus is so significant; not only in relation to the Easter events of that time, but for all time - also for us. On this path, the disciples learned from Jesus a new way of reading the sacred scriptures and discovering in them a prophetic testimony about him, a prediction about him, his message and his mission of salvation. Through this teaching, the disciples are instructed by the Lord himself to become his witnesses. Thus Peter, in today's liturgy, bears witness to the Lord's resurrection from this new, deeper understanding of the Easter event before men. In this light of Christ, of the Risen One, he also understands and announces David's psalm: "For you will not forsake my soul in hell" (Acts 2:27).

When Jesus reveals the true meaning of the sacred Scripture to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the apostles who are in Jerusalem already know, that this psalm has been concretely realised: "Truly the Lord is risen and has appeared to Simon" (Lk 24:26).

4. The encounter on the road to Emmaus is also of great importance because in this way Jesus emphasised to his disciples, after his death on the cross, that he remains with them. He is with them in spite of or precisely because of the Friday passion and will remain with his Church forever according to his promise: "I will not leave you orphans I will return to you" (Jn 14:18).

Christ is not only who he was, but much more who he is. He was present on the road to Emmaus, and he is also present on all the paths of the world, along which his disciples walk, across generations and centuries.

5. Dear brothers and sisters! From the encounter with the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, new light descended for the two disciples on the sacred Scriptures and the events of Calvary, new light descended in the darkness of their own lives. Light also descends on the history and destinies of humanity and the Church, and thus also on the Church in Augsburg. Christ showed how the Messiah "had" to suffer, in order to fulfil his saving mission. Is it not true that it is precisely in this light that we are sometimes able to see and understand the darkness and suffering that Christ's disciples and the Church have faced on their journey through history? Through it we are often able to recognise, in trials and sufferings, the good and caring hand of God, which through the experience of the cross leads us to salvation and resurrection.

[Pope John Paul II, homily in Augsburg 3 May 1987]

Today’s Gospel, which takes place on the day of the Passover, describes the episode of the two disciples of Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35). It is a story that begins and ends on the move. There is in fact, the outbound journey of the disciples who, saddened by the epilogue of Jesus’ story, leave Jerusalem and return home to Emmaus, walking some 11 kilometres. It is a journey that takes place during the day, much of it downhill. And there is the return journey: another 11 kilometres, but at nightfall, partly an uphill journey after the fatigue of the outward journey and the entire day. Two trips: one easy in daytime, and the other tiring at night. Yet the first takes place in sadness, the second in joy. In the first one, there is the Lord walking beside them, but they do not recognise him; in the second one they do not see him anymore, but they feel him near them. In the first they are discouraged and hopeless; in the second they run to bring the good news of the encounter with the Risen Jesus to the others.

The two different paths of those first disciples tell us, Jesus’ disciples today, that in life we have two opposite directions before us: there is the path of those who, like those two on the outbound journey, allow themselves to be paralysed by life’s disappointments and proceed sadly; and there is the path of those who do not put themselves and their problems first, but rather Jesus who visits us, and the brothers who await his visit, that is, our brothers who are waiting for us to take care of them. Here is the turning point: to stop orbiting around one’s self; the disappointments of the past, the unrealised ideals, the many bad things that have happened in our life. Very often we tend to keep going around and around.... To leave that behind and to go forward looking at the greatest and truest reality of life: Jesus lives, Jesus loves me. This is the greatest reality. And I can do something for others. It is a beautiful reality: positive, bright, beautiful! This is the turning point: to go from thoughts about I to the reality of my God; going — with another play on words — from “if” [se in Italian] to “yes” [sì in Italian]. From “if” to “yes”. What does this mean? “If he had freed us, if God had listened to me, if life had gone as I wanted, if I had this and that…”, in a tone of complaint. This “if” is not helpful, it is not fruitful. It helps neither us nor others. Here are our “ifs”, similar to those of the two disciples, whom however, move to a yes: “Yes, the Lord is alive, he walks with us. Yes, we continue our journey to announce it now, not tomorrow”. “Yes, I can do this for the people so that they may be happier, so that people may better themselves, to help many people. Yes, yes I can”. From “if” to “yes”, from complaints to joy and peace, because when we complain, we are not joyful; we are in the grey, greyness, that grey air of sadness. And this does not help nor allow us to grow well. From “if” to “yes”; from complaints to the joy of service.

How did this change of pace, from “I” to “God”, from “if” to “yes”, occur within the disciples? By meeting Jesus: the two disciples of Emmaus first open their hearts to him, then they listen to him explain the Scriptures and then they invite him home. These are three steps that we too can take in our homes: first, opening our hearts to Jesus, entrusting him with the burdens, the hardships, the disappointments of life, entrusting the “ifs” to him, and then, the second step, listening to Jesus, taking the Gospel in hand, reading this passage in chapter 24 of Luke’s Gospel on this very day; third, praying to Jesus, in the same words as those disciples: “Lord, ‘stay with us’ (v. 29). Lord, stay with me. Lord, stay with all of us, because we need you to find the way”. And without you, there is night.

Dear brothers and sisters, we are always journeying in life. And we become what we go towards. Let us choose the way of God, not of self; the way of “yes”, not the way of “if”. We will discover that there are no unexpected events, no uphill path, no night that cannot be faced with Jesus. May Our Lady, Mother of the journey, who by receiving the Word made her entire life a “yes” to God, show us the way.

[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 26 April 2020]