Road to Emmaus Third Sunday of Easter

Apr 22, 2009

First Reading – Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9

Second Reading – 1 Jn. 2:1-5a

Gospel Reading – Lk. 24:35-48

Introduction

This Sunday’s Gospel reading from St. Luke picks up right after the recounting of Jesus’ appearance and encounter with the two disciples on the "road to Emmaus." Jesus had interpreted for them the Scriptures, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets…" (Lk. 24:27). Jesus then celebrated the Eucharist with the two disciples, and upon the breaking of the bread he vanished from their sight and they proclaim to one another, "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).

Set on fire for the love of the Scriptures and Christ’s Eucharistic presence they leave immediately and return to Jerusalem to tell the others. Upon arriving in Jerusalem they find the eleven Apostles gathered together. Here is where this Sunday’s Gospel picks up. "Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread" (Lk. 24:35).

Jesus appears

While they are describing their encounter with the risen Lord, "Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’" (Lk. 24:36). I commented at length last Sunday on the meaning of Christ’s greeting of peace. So let’s move forward to see what else this Sunday’s Gospel is telling us.

With Jesus’ greeting we are told that they were "startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit [ghost]" (Lk. 24:37). From this point forward we begin to have a clearer understanding of Jesus as one who is raised from the dead. He is not a spirit, "for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Lk. 24:39).

Seven lessons from the Resurrection

What do we learn from this encounter about the risen Lord?

The first lesson is that Jesus is unlike anyone else who has died. When anyone else dies there body is separated from their soul (sprit). Their body is in one place and their soul is in another. So, if someone was to appear like Jesus did, they would not appear with an actual body. For example he is unlike Samuel, who appeared to King Saul, after his death as a spirit (cf. 1 Sam. 28).

The second lesson is that Jesus is unlike those who have died and come back to life, like Lazarus. When Lazarus came back to life he was the same old Lazarus he was before, he could do nothing extraordinary. Jesus, on the other hand, can come into a room even when the doors are locked (cf. Jn. 20:19). Also, Lazarus would obviously die again. Christ, however, will never die again. Jesus’ Resurrection was not a return to earthly life.

The third lesson comes from Christ showing them the wounds of his crucifixion. His Resurrection was truly a bodily resurrection. He is not pure spirit. As well, showing them his wounds demonstrates to them that his risen body is the self-same body that underwent suffering and death. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, "…this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills…" (645).

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The fourth lesson also comes from Christ’s risen body still having its wounds. Why would he still have his wounds? These are wounds that show how much he loves us. He loved us even unto death, and his wounds remind us of the infinite depths of his love.

The fifth lesson we learn is that "The truth of Jesus’ divinity is confirmed by his Resurrection. He had said: ‘When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he.’ The Resurrection of the crucified one shows that he was truly ‘I Am,’ the Son of God and God himself" (CCC 653).

In this context we must understand that the Resurrection is the work of the Blessed Trinity. It is true to say that God the Father, by his divine power, raised his Son from the dead. As we hear Peter say in Acts, referring to the Father, "God raised him up…" (2:24). It is also true to say that the Holy Spirit, by his divine power, raised Jesus from the dead. St. Paul indicates that it is the Spirit of the Father that raised Jesus from the dead (cf. Rom. 8:11). However, it is just as true to say that Christ, by his divine power, raised himself from the dead. Jesus says, "For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again…I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again..." (Jn. 10:17-18). Also, in referring to his body, Jesus said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (Jn. 2:19).

The sixth lesson is that "Christ’s Resurrection is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament and of Jesus himself during his earthly life. The phrase ‘in accordance with the Scriptures’ indicates that Christ’s Resurrection fulfilled these predictions" (CCC 652). Jesus’ not abolishing the Old, but fulfilling it, is made abundantly clear the Resurrection appearances.

On the road to Emmaus, "beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Lk. 24:27). In the Gospel for this Sunday Jesus says, "…everything written in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled" (Lk. 24:44). Of vital interest is also the fact that "he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Lk. 24:45).

An important point to make here is that the Scriptures spoken of are what we now call the Old Testament. It is absolutely indispensible for understanding the New Testament. No one will ever fully understand the New if they are not rooted in the Old.

Another crucial point is that we see there is continuity to God’s plan. His plan all along, throughout all of history, is to save us through his only-begotten Son.

The seventh lesson we learn is that Christ’s resurrection is the source of humanity’s future resurrection at the end of time. "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to you mortal bodies also through the Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom. 8:11).

The Catechism answers a few questions for us regarding this last point about resurrection of the body.

The Catechism asks, "What is rising?...God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection" (997).

It goes on to ask, "Who will rise? All the dead will rise [bodily], ‘those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment’" (998; Jn. 5:29). So, at the end of time everyone will have their body back. We will be in either heaven or hell with our body.

The Catechism then asks how we will be raised. "Christ is raised with his own body: ‘See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself’; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, ‘all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,’ but Christ ‘will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,’ into a ‘spiritual body’" (999; Lk. 24:39; Phil. 3:21; 1 Cor, 15:44).

Witnesses

At the end of the narrative for this Sunday’s Gospel Jesus says, "Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things" (Lk. 24:46-47).

As the two disciples came back from Emmaus to tell of the wondrous things that had just happened, Jesus now sends forth the other disciples as witnesses to all they have seen, and they are to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Luke thus lays the groundwork for what he will write about in his book of Acts of the Apostles. They are to begin in Jerusalem and preach to all the nations. In Acts Jesus tells the Apostles, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" (1:8). This is what is narrated in Acts.

We, like the Apostles, are also called to be witnesses to Christ. However, we must be firmly rooted in Scripture. So we pray that Jesus opens our minds to understand the Scriptures.