3rd Sunday of Easter

Readings for: 3rd Sunday of Easter

Reading 1    Acts 2:14, 22-33

Psalm           Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11

Reading 2    1 Peter 1:17-21

Gospel          Luke 24:13-35

REFLECTIONS:… from Father Daniel                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

  The theme of today’s readings is: They Recognized Him at the “Breaking of Bread”.The announcer of the Word should stress the message that we too can meet the Risen Lord when we hear the word of God and take part in the “breaking of bread”. The first and the second reading draw our attention to the need to have recourse to the scriptures if we want to understand what happened to Jesus and what happens to us everyday. 

Today we hear about two disciples to whom Jesus appeared on Easter Sunday on their way to Emmaus. St. Luke told this story to encourage fellow believers during times of fear or discouragement. He wants us to know that through good times and bad, Jesus never leaves us even if we have given up on him. We all have times when our faith is tested, when we feel as if he has abandoned us. No. His presence with us takes many forms, forms that we often do not recognize. He comes to us in the friend, sometimes in suffering, in visible and invisible ways, he comes to us in the Church and in the Scriptures. He comes in sacraments, and , especially, in the Eucharist.

As we journey on our pilgrimages of life, we must not forget that he is walking with us, he is trying to help us understand, he is feeding us not just bread for the body but food for our mind and heart.All we have to do is listen. IF we catch on to what he is saying, we may want to tell everyone all about what we experienced on our journey. A virtuous 80= yr-old man with a strong faith in God, after a sudden tragedy in his family, in tears he said, “In the practice of my faith, there are times I am confident and at peace; at other moments I waver and feel bereft”. On your spiritual journey, never give up, today is hard, tomorrow will be worse, but the day after tomorrow will be sunshine. A calm mind is the ultimate weapon against any difficult challenge in life. Like the two disciples, on the road to Emmaus, May our encounter with the Risen Lord cleanse us from our old ways and transform us into a new creation.