Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God and the Son of Mary, has risen! We should remember him and also preach him as our Good News (2 Tim 2, 8).

We Christians love Jesus Christ although we have not seen him. And even though we do not see him now yet we believe in him (1 Pt 1, 8). So, we rejoice beyond words and with beaming faces. For the Holy Spirit makes us remember him even, or especially, in our disappointments and wanderings. The Spirit makes him again a member of our body, palpably one of us.

Through the Spirit, what happened to the disciples on the road to Emmaus happens to us also. Although hopeless and aimless, they did remember Jesus whom God accredited with mighty word and deed. Yes, Jesus draws near although we may not recognize him due perhaps to our emotions.

But whether we remember and recognize him or not, he walks with us. For we and our affairs, our joys and griefs, our hopes and hopelessness, matter to him. And he takes away our blindness, and our foolishness and slowness to believe. That is, he heals our closed or narrow minds, our hard or cold hearts, and our dull or dim eyes.

Truly, the risen Christ shows us what Scriptures mean and changes our minds about him and about God. At once, he makes our hearts burn and throb passionately, so we end up telling him, “Stay with us ….” Or clasping his feet (Mt 28, 9).

Then, he opens our eyes at the breaking of bread. The way he blesses and breaks the bread makes us remember. For it sends us back to the Supper on the night he was betrayed.

And he vanishes from our sight. But he leaves us with eyes open to recognize him when he shows up again expectedly or unexpectedly. In the Word and Sacraments, in warm welcome and togetherness.

Lord Jesus, make happen to us, as we sojourn, what happened to those who were going to Emmaus. It made them go back at once to Jerusalem with hearts burning. Teach us how to get to the core of the Good News and of reality. May we set on fire the hearts of those who walk with us. And help us remember that we live in you through your death and that we must die in you through your life (SV.EN I:276). We will thus put you in the center, for no one should be more in our midst than you.

26 April 2020
Third Sunday of Easter (A)
Acts 2, 14. 22-33; 1 Pt 1, 17-21; Lk 24, 13-35