Lk 24:13-35 (13-48)

 

The disciples question, they are confused; they bounce anxieties and accusations off each other, disillusioned and frustrated - but what seems to concern them most is not so much the mocking death of the Master, but (paradoxically) his very divine condition.

What they fear is precisely the crumbling of their hopes for glory.

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

What disappoints them is precisely that Jesus could be the Risen One: that is, the one who has grasped and incorporated into himself taken up by the Father into his own full Life because he recognised himself in the humble Son.

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

Such apostles have their eyes fixed on dreams of principality, wealth, and supremacy.

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

Just as before, they are heading to Emmaus, a place of ancient nationalist military victories.

The very name Cleopas was an abbreviation of Cleopas, which means 'of the illustrious, prestigious father'.

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

It is still triumph - not authenticity and self-sacrifice to the point of death - that would change the world.

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

Quietly, sick with ambition, they return to considering as their "authority" (v. 20) the very bandits disguised as men of God who had killed the Master.

So Jesus must once again take our place and insist on interpreting the Scriptures correctly.

From them it emerges that the concrete good of real, multifaceted women and men, who even seem contradictory, is a non-negotiable principle.

The Greek text of Luke says that Jesus 'does hermeneutics' (v. 27).

In short: the passages of the Holy Scriptures, from Moses to the Prophets and beyond, should not be recounted and perceived by ear, but interpreted.

They are teachings, not stories or narratives of anecdotes.

 

We too, in love with our ideas, find it difficult to engage in the work of digging up stories of failure in order to extract pearls of wisdom from them.

But conflicts are valuable mirrors of internal struggles.

The Word of God, untamed by clichés, helps us to perceive events and the world, even that of the soul, in the authenticity of providential signs.

They are there for a journey of evolution, where some of the most precious surprises await us.

This is not in order to become cunning or strong, nor even good in the usual sense.

Even negative events and emotions happen in order to develop the ability to look within and respond to the inner call.

Vocation-character, in bad times: wonders for great joy, like a sun inside, fiery and luminous (without judgement).

A protagonist who brings out unexpected qualities; a worker who tills the soil and waits.

By changing our way of perceiving, the new energy of the Word takes our considerations to a different dimension.

Confusions are no longer looked at to be resolved, but to understand their meaning.

We learn to intuit that our disturbances, sufferings and problems are often like clothes - even coats that we willingly do not discard.

Throw away these external rags, and we will intuit in the same disappointments a Presence that has come to visit us.

An alternative consciousness that wants to live and flow within us.

It will bring a Gift that brings another Relationship, to drive away banality and its thousand forms of slavery.

Over time, it will have the strength to settle within us.

And when personal anxieties, conditioned intentions and conformist expectations lead us into a territory where everything enters into another game, into a completely different reality that Voice will increasingly become the fertiliser and substrate of our ability to correspond, to grow and to depart; to detach ourselves from common ideas and find new positions.

A new kingdom, another founding memory; unprecedented calls, different hopes, convictions, trusts.

 

Little by little, we realise: it is in the same sense as the dramatic story of the authentic Son that our life as saved people passes.

Thus, instead of always looking back or only forward, we begin to perceive the prophetic; and we bring it to consciousness.

While the disciples of the glorious 'messiah' continue to be directed to the old 'village' - a place of narrow-mindedness, misunderstanding, even hostility to God's Call - the Risen One goes further.

Then he enters, but not into the village [the common village of dogmas, of even glossy ways, or of traditions, of conformism] because he is already Present. And in any case, he is not a Shepherd who loses his flock.

In filigree, we grasp the rhythm of our worship: entrance, homily, Eucharistic liturgy, final choir, missionary announcement... whose essential meaning is the proposal: 'to break life'.

It is sharing that makes the being of Jesus perceptible - in the Church that becomes wisdom and fraternal nourishment for the completeness of all.

 

'This is my Body' means 'This is Me'.

God expresses himself in a gesture, the breaking of bread - not in a sacred object.

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

Such is the essential, truly sacred Call.

No preventive sterilisation: only the all-encompassing experience 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 He comes to the Church, which freely offers itself for the life of the voiceless, the distant, the different; not for good manners and bad habits.

'Take and eat': make my story your own, the choice of conviviality of differences and contrasting sides. These convey dignity to any path.

 

The news is too good: the barley harvest is abandoned [end of the first ten days of April: in Palestine it was the right time to start harvesting] and they set off immediately to proclaim the Good News.

The affairs of the earth are put aside, so that they are not the only ones to go well - becoming explicit heralds, advocates and sustenance for 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 diminish - along with the second generation of Christians, direct witnesses of the Apostolic teaching.

In this completely new reality, threatened by the danger of routine, perhaps more than a dozen years after the fall of Masada (73), Luke wrote a Gospel for Hellenistic converts - but educated in the ideal of the Greek man.

His aim was to stem the tide of defections, encourage new believers, and allow those who were culturally distant to have a living experience of the Lord.

The Risen One no longer has a life subject to the senses, because it is full. Now it is the community that manifests his presence [or - unfortunately - his uselessness and absence].

Conditioned by a false view instilled by bad teachers and pagan values, the disciples still felt bewildered in the face of failure.

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

Everyone was waiting for the divine man: a ruler, a landowner, revered, avenging, titled and super-successful. Capable of leading his people to the same fortune.

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

Only a different understanding of the sacred Scriptures, which still resonate with critical prophecy, warms the heart and makes everyone recognisable in Christ.

Wisdom that goes hand in hand with the quality of life experienced in a multifaceted and yet destitute fraternity, but one that abandons no one.

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

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

His Presence in spirit and actions allows anyone a calibre of life that is minted and broken without prior conditions of completeness.

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

 

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

The tragedy of the Cross still frightens us, as does failure.

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

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

In short, the new order he dreamed of will not be artificial, procedural, foreign; nor will it be achieved through military triumph: he would disown it.

We encounter 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 bread that illuminates coexistence and the richer meaning of ecclesial life.

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

Ensuring that our brothers and sisters can also encounter Easter.

In their incessant beginning, there is a discovery and something special, abnormal, disruptive; which lays continuous foundations.

 

 

To internalise and live the message:

 

When have you experienced a Jesus who gently approaches and takes your pace? 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 obvious?

What distracts you from the blindness of the present Life?

 

 

It does not create a hierarchy: in the middle and wounded, or a ghost

(Lk 24:35-48)

 

We do not recognise a person by their 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 them.

The identity and being that distinguishes him is of another nature, but the heart is the same, characterising. Love to the end: action [hands] and journey [feet] without reserve, which non-faith marginalises, humiliates, kills.

Christ cannot be understood outside the experience of sharing, witness, Mission - the point of the text - which extends to all men.

Evangelisation starting from direct heralds and enthusiastic town criers. Centred on the core of the Proclamation, which moves everything and gives access (vv.35-).

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

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

 

The Creator's human project 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 'a change [of mind] in 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 directives prevent women and men from corresponding to their roots, character, vocation - to joy, to the fullness of personal fulfilment, to the great Desire that pulsates within each one.

 

In Jesus, the history of salvation takes on and redeems the totality of humanity: 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 in the right direction.

This awareness was at the heart of all the early liturgical signs, which in words and gestures expressed the attitude of gratuitousness and welcome that animated belief.

In this way, even the multifaceted encounter; and the risk of the mission of Peace-Shalôm (v. 36): the presence of the Messiah himself, actualised in the Spirit.

 

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

The beginning of new configurations. 'Done' par excellence [in this sense, Luke in 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, 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 anxieties and frustrations converging; we do not seek him for compensation.

 

In the early years after the Master's death, some disciples effectively defended themselves against sceptics by recounting apparitions.

The most convincing and genuine manifestation of the Living One was in fact the wisdom and quality of life expressed by the early communities.

Those who 'see and touch' are those disciples who become so involved that their soul movements, their exodus to the peripheries, and their passionate gestures finally coincide with the Master's own wounds of love: "Touch 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.

A weighty testimony of the divine (v. 48) - in the Yes of being, even if affected or destroyed by the archaic sacred society of the outside world.

 

In the early days, believers - here and there - managed to do so thanks to 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.

Therefore, in the assemblies, there should never have been anyone (for life) who claimed to represent Him and had a title and a prominent position, while others were destined to be in the background or subordinate (equally permanent).

Everyone should have been equidistant from God: no one privileged, no one installed.

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

 

The Lord revealed Himself as Living in conviviality - the key word, the pinnacle of the entire Bible.

Sharing also in the summary, which found the ways of intimacy and sensitive, personal confidence: '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 sense of haughty and distant 'glory'.

Whether naturally talented or not, those who represented the Risen One were always within reach: no chosen ones - no one sent to the rear.

Even the first community tasks reflected the character of a Jesus who was shareable, spontaneous, accessible to anyone - at the centre and in a position of reciprocity.

 

No one born perfect, predestined, at the top.

For this reason, the Announcement had to begin in the Holy City (v. 47), configured to the opposite of life - compromised, inert, secretive; pyramidal, co-opted, and murderer of 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 compelling Faith, Hope Elsewhere and real Communion could convert it from sin and establish a code for understanding the Scriptures.

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

 

In the early communities, listening to the personal and common inner world was particularly emphasised, because the direction proposed by the Master seemed completely counterintuitive.

Despite the chaos of external certainties, the transition from fear to Freedom came from a tolerant perception - starting from visceral experiences.

It was precisely the bottlenecks that accentuated change and internalisation, and tore the disciples away from their habit of creating conformist harmonies.

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

The search for a new compass for one's own paths, the loss of predictable references, and social discomfort brought one into contact with oneself and others in an authentic way.

Feeling anxiety, discomfort, and wounds allowed them to recognise their Calling - even though the external way in which they saw and faced normal or spiritual existence suited them.

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

Educated by the paradox of hardship, the uncertain apostles gradually became seekers of a trace, of a more pertinent route; 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 Crucified and Risen One? And his Glory? What makes your heart burn, and Who do you radiate?

Are you someone who puts himself at the head of the group? Or, 'with Jesus in the midst', do you contribute to the happiness of all?

 

 

Real Presence

Transformed, he does not erase the signs of the crucifixion

 

Today [...] we encounter – in the Gospel according to Luke – the risen Jesus who appears in the midst of his disciples (cf. Lk 24:36), who, incredulous and afraid, think they are seeing 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 it is corporeal, it encompasses... his entire life, his destiny, his passion and his death. Everything is reality. It may be changed, but it is still tangible reality" (Il Signore. Meditazioni sulla persona e la vita di N.S. Gesù Cristo [The Lord: Meditations on the Person and Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ], Milan 1949, 433). Since the resurrection does not erase the signs of the crucifixion, Jesus shows the Apostles his hands and feet. And to convince them, he even asks for something to eat. So the disciples "offered him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in front of them" (Lk 24:42-43). St Gregory the Great comments that "the fish broiled on the fire signifies nothing other than the passion of Jesus, Mediator between God and men. 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 if placed in the fire because of the sufferings he endured 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 allows 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, 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, for you are witnesses of these things' (Lk 24:45-48). The Saviour assures us of his real presence among us, through the Word and the Eucharist. Just as the disciples of Emmaus recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread (cf. Lk 24:35), so too do we encounter the Lord in the Eucharistic celebration. In this regard, St Thomas Aquinas explains that "it is necessary to recognise, according to Catholic faith, that the whole Christ is present in this Sacrament... because the divinity never left the body that he 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 these words, the Church prays in today's liturgy. She asks for divine light. She asks for the gift of knowing the Truth. She asks for faith.

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

At the heart 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 that Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed. It confirmed the truth of all his works and all his words. It confirmed the truth of his mission. The resurrection gave the definitive and most complete expression of that messianic power that was in Jesus Christ. Truly, he is the one sent by God. And divine is the word that comes from his lips.

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

2. At the same time, today's Sunday 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 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 to the resurrection from among men. These witnesses were to become those who, from the beginning, were bound to him as disciples, among whom he alone chose the Twelve, making them his apostles.

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

"Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet: it is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have" (Lk 24:38-39).

He spoke to them in this way when "they were amazed and frightened, thinking they were seeing a ghost" (Lk 24:37).

"But because of their great joy and amazement, they still did not believe it and were astonished. He said to them, 'Do you have anything here to eat?' They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in front of them" (Lk 24:41-43).

Thus was formed the group of witnesses to the resurrection. 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, after receiving the Holy Spirit, began to speak publicly about Christ, when they began to proclaim him to men (first in Jerusalem), they first of all referred to the commonly known facts.

'You handed him over and denied him before Pilate, when he had decided to release him,' Peter said to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 'but you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you' (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 we are witnesses to this" (Acts 3:15).

Peter speaks alone, but at the same time he speaks on behalf of the entire 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 events, from the testimony of the Resurrection, the apostle moves on to prophetic exegesis.

Christ himself had prepared his disciples for this exegesis of death and Resurrection.

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

". And he said, '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, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things' (Lk 24:46-48).

And the evangelist adds: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Lk 24:45).

From Peter’s speech in the Acts of the Apostles, which we read in today’s liturgy, we can see how effective this “opening of their minds” was.

After presenting the events connected with the death and resurrection of Christ, Peter continues: “But God has thus fulfilled what he had foretold through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would die. Repent, then, and change your ways, so that your sins may be blotted out...” (Acts 3:18-20).

In these words of the apostle, we find a clear echo of Christ's words: of the enlightenment that the disciples experienced in their encounter with the Risen Lord.

Thus, the faith of the first generation of confessors of Christ, the generation of the apostles' disciples, was built up. It sprang directly from the testimony of eyewitnesses of the Cross and the Resurrection.

5. What does it mean to be a Christian?

It means continuing to accept the testimony of the Apostles, the eyewitnesses. It means believing with the same faith that 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 (that is, Christ) if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God is truly perfect" (1 Jn 2:3-5).

The apostle speaks of living faith. Faith is alive through the works that are in accordance with it. These are the works of charity. Faith is alive through the love of God. Love is expressed in the observance of the commandments. There can be no contradiction between knowledge ("I know him") and the action of a confessor of Christ. Only those who complete their faith with works remain 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 Jn 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 the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 Jn 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 forgiveness of sins through the power of Christ's death and resurrection.

6. What does it mean to be a Christian?

To be a Christian – today as then, in the first generation of confessors of Christ – means to continue to accept the testimony of the apostles, eyewitnesses. It means believing with the same faith that 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 within us when you speak to us" (cf. Lk 24:32).

May our hearts burn within us! For faith cannot be merely a cold calculation of the intellect. It must be enlivened by love. It lives through works in which the truth revealed by God is expressed as the inner truth of man.

Then we too – even if we have not been eyewitnesses of the works and words, of the death and resurrection – inherit the testimony of the Apostles. And we ourselves also become witnesses of Christ.

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

7. Then faith – living faith – is formed as a dialogue between the Living God and living man; we find some expressions of this dialogue in today's liturgical psalm: 'When I call upon you, answer me, O God, my righteousness: you have delivered me from distress; have mercy on me, hear my prayer' (Ps 4:2). '... The Lord hears me when I call to him. / Tremble and do not sin; / reflect on your bed and be still. / Offer sacrifices of righteousness / and trust in the Lord. / Many say, 'Who will show us any good?' / Let the light of your face shine upon us, O Lord. / You have put more joy in my heart / than when their grain and wine abound. / I lie down in peace and sleep comes at once: / you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety" (Ps 4:4-9).

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

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