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| "The Pilgrims of Emmaus on the Road," by J. Tissot. Brooklyn Museum / Public Domain. |
The
Third Sunday of Easter
When Christ
asked Cleopas and the other disciple what they were discussing as they walked
along, the Gospel says: They stopped.
His
question brought them to a halt, and it brought sadness to their faces— they
were downcast, as the Gospel tells it.
With sad
faces, Cleopas and the other disciple told what had happened in Jerusalem over
the last few days to Jesus the Nazarene.
They
also told what they thought of the Nazarene up until the last few days.
It is
what all the followers of the Nazarene had thought until the chief priests and rulers both
handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.
All the
followers of the Nazarene had thought he was
a prophet mighty
in deed and word, and were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.
They
didn’t know that he really was God in person in flesh and blood.
After
his resurrection, his disciples had to learn not only the mysteries of Easter,
but also the mysteries of Christmas.
In the beginning
was the Word... the Word was God... the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Far more
than a prophet even though mighty in deed and word!
The
apostle Thomas would be the first to put the truth into naked words: My Lord and my God!
For
forty days after he lived and died in flesh and blood, and then rose from the
dead in flesh and blood, the Lord God came and went only among those who had
already been followers of the Nazarene.
They
were all Jews, God’s Chosen People.
The word
Christian did not yet exist.
They
were still Jews.
However,
now that the Lord God had lived, died and risen in Jewish flesh and blood, his
speaking and opening the Jewish Scriptures led to their own Jewish hearts burning within them.
Which
Jewish Scriptures?
Today’s
Gospel says that beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he— Jesus— interpreted to them what referred to him in all the
Scriptures.
So
beginning with Cleopas and his fellow disciple on the SEVEN-mile road to Emmaus, the
followers of Jesus have turned to the old Jewish Scriptures and the newer
Christian Scriptures to mark well in them all that refers to Jesus.
During
Holy Saturday’s vigil Mass of the Resurrection, we joined the Church in reading
from Moses and the prophets: SEVEN readings— as it were, one
reading for each of the SEVEN miles between Jerusalem and Emmaus.
After
the SEVENTH reading from Moses and the
prophets, the Church opens our eyes, as it were, by finally lighting at that
moment the candles of the altar where BREAD WILL BE BROKEN.
And
then, like Cleopas and the other disciple, we go to Jerusalem to hear from
another disciple, Paul the Apostle, in his letter to the Romans.
With
light now coming to our eyes from the altar, we hear again from Paul that we
were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus in flesh and
blood.
Christ
who opens our eyes and hearts to finding him in the Scriptures does so not by
the Scriptures alone.
Rather,
it is as Cleopas and his fellow disciple went and told the Church in Jerusalem,
namely that the Lord God, Jesus the Nazarene, was made known to them IN THE BREAKING OF THE BREAD.
Here we
are still today: having opened the
Scriptures, we now turn for the Lord God Jesus who rose from the dead in flesh
and blood to make himself known to us in the breaking of the bread and also in
the pouring of the wine.
THIS IS MY
BODY... GIVEN UP... MY BLOOD... POURED OUT... FOR MANY... FOR THE FORGIVENESS
OF SINS
FOR MANY— Cleopas was right after
all: the Nazarene was the one to redeem Israel and ALL the nations as well.
In
Christ, we are all Jews: we are all God’s
Chosen People.
