BIBLE STUDY #86
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER
April 22, 2012

READING 1
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 3:13-15, 17-19

Peter said to the people:
"The God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
Now I know, brothers,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."

The Word of the Lord

READING 2
1 JOHN 2:1-5A

My children, I am writing this to you
so that you may not commit sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep
his commandments.
Those who say, "I know him," but do not keep his commandments
are liars, and the truth is not in them.
But whoever keeps his word,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.

The Word of the Lord

GOSPEL
LUKE 24:35-48

The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way,
and how Jesus was made known to them
in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead 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 of these things."

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

Today’s gospel passage is the second half of the appearance of Jesus to the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus. The first half of the story we heard last year in the cycle A readings.

These 2 disciples were leaving Jerusalem after the resurrection of Jesus, not understanding the significance of what just happened in the previous few days. They had a different vision of the mission of Jesus. They thought he was the one to ‘redeem’ Israel in the earthly sense. He did redeem the whole world with his death and resurrection, but in a different way: Jesus paid the price for our sins and conquered sin and death. This is not what they expected.

They are walking not only to Emmaus, but also away from Jerusalem. They are giving up their hopes and dreams in Jesus, and it looks like they are going back to their former way of life. Jesus tried to explain everything that pertained to him in scripture, but they didn’t understand (see Luke 24:27). If you can’t convince other people to believe in Jesus by your words, don’t be discouraged: neither could Jesus!

As they reach Emmaus, these disciples invite Jesus to stay with them. After they enter the house, “And it happened that, while he was with him at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight (Luke 24:30-31).”

These 2 sentences have obvious Eucharistic overtones. The words are very similar to the words we use at the consecration of the hosts at Mass. But what is interesting here, is that they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, not in the bread itself. In the early church, there were no tabernacles to reserve the Blessed Sacrament. Karl Rahner, an eminent Catholic theologian around the time of Vatican II, once said that he was convinced that the early church believed that Jesus was present in the bread and that as long as the community was together. The early church was very community oriented.

Like many of our beliefs that we take for granted today, they were developed over time. For example, it took centuries for the church to profess that Jesus was fully human and fully divine. It took centuries for a firm belief in the doctrine of the True Presence, that once the bread and wine were consecrated, that Jesus was always present. Then came the need for tabernacles, and the rise of different forms of worship of the Eucharist.

In the early church, it was the community that was emphasized, that Jesus was present in the community; now we have more of an emphasis on the priest and his actions with the community for Jesus to be present in the bread and wine.

This is not an either/or proposition. We believe that Jesus is present in the bread and wine through the actions of a priest and the community during Mass, and that he is also present in the community and in each of us. We also believe that Jesus is present in the proclamation of the Word at Mass.

These 2 disciples became believers when they had an experience of the risen Christ. That should be our mission as evangelizers: to lead people to an experience of the risen Christ. We do this not by words, but by actions. We lead others to Christ because we are Christ-like. Seeing Christ in us may just be the way Christ leads others to himself. The brighter the light of Christ is in us, the more people will see Christ in us.

As the 2 disciples were discussing all that had happened to them with the apostles in Jerusalem, Jesus appears in their midst. Like John’s gospel of last week, Jesus has a transformed body: he has a body, but it isn’t bound by space and time or the laws of physics. He eats, but he doesn’t need to.

Jesus bestows his peace on them, which reminds us of 2:14 from the birth of Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” This peace is wholeness and fullness of life promised in 2:14, and is the permanent gift of the risen Jesus.

The disciples don’t recognize him at first, they think it is a ghost. Who could fault them? This is a first; no one has ever risen from the dead like Jesus has. Showing them his hands and feet reminds us of doubting Thomas of last week’s gospel: he and the disciples today believe when they recognize that it is really Jesus who has risen from the dead.

Jesus asks them for something to eat. He is renewing the table fellowship begun at the Last Supper, continued at Emmaus, and now here. Jesus is present in the community, in table fellowship, a gift that strengthens us and nourishes us spiritually (just as food and drink nourish our physical bodies) as we continue our journey through life to eventually feast at the eternal banquet table in heaven.

Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets: he is the final and definitive revelation of what God wants for us. Scripture finds it’s fulfillment in the risen Christ. Opening minds to understand scripture is a continuous theme Luke uses for coming to faith.

This last paragraph is the last words of Jesus to his followers in Luke’s Gospel prior to the Ascension. It is a summary of Christ’s mission as well as our own mission. He came to suffer, die, and to rise so as to conquer sin and death. He took on our sins and paid the penalty for them. Our job is to continue Jesus ministry of forgiveness by preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all the nations. We are sent out as witnesses to the Good News. This is the great hope that we have. No matter the severity of our sins, if we sincerely repent, we will be forgiven. Some people feel that their sins are so great, that they feel God wouldn’t forgive them and so they feel abandoned by God. We need to preach that God loves everyone with an unimaginable love and is willing to forgive everyone. We all have the hope of salvation given to us through forgiveness. The only unforgiven sin is the one not confessed.

In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter has just cured a crippled beggar, and the crowds think he did it by his own power. He gives all the credit for the healing to Jesus, whom they handed over in their ignorance to be crucified; but that Jesus suffered and died, as predicted in scripture, but also rose from the dead for the forgiveness of sins. Peter uses this cure as a way of trying to get people to repent of their sins and be forgiven by the risen Christ.

In the second reading from 1 John, we are told that if we have sinned (and who hasn’t), that Jesus is our Advocate with the Father who paid the price for our sins. When I hear this verse, I always think of someone facing God after they die, having to take responsibility for their mistakes, and Jesus stepping in between that person and God saying, “I’ve taken on his sins; let him in heaven.”

In response to God’s forgiving love, we are asked to keep his commandments, which should be the best way to live since God gave us those commandments. If we love God and try to follow him, we will keep his commandments. We can’t say we love God if we don’t keep his commandments.



Fr. Phil