WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER - Lk 24:13-35 - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER Gospel Lk 24:13-35 - The Word of God for Everyone

READING OF THE DAY

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles

Acts 3:1-10

Peter and John were going up to the temple area

for the three o’clock hour of prayer.

And a man crippled from birth was carried

and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day

to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.

When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple,

he asked for alms.

But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,

and said, “Look at us.”

He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.

Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,

but what I do have I give you:

in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”

Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,

and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.

He leaped up, stood, and walked around,

and went into the temple with them,

walking and jumping and praising God.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God,

they recognized him as the one

who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple,

and they were filled with amazement and astonishment

at what had happened to him.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Luke

Lk 24:13-35

That very day, the first day of the week,

two of Jesus’ disciples were going

to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,

and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,

but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

He asked them,

“What are you discussing as you walk along?”

They stopped, looking downcast.

One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,

“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem

who does not know of the things

that have taken place there in these days?”

And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”

They said to him,

“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,

who was a prophet mighty in deed and word

before God and all the people,

how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over

to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;

and besides all this,

it is now the third day since this took place.

Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:

they were at the tomb early in the morning

and did not find his Body;

they came back and reported

that they had indeed seen a vision of angels

who announced that he was alive.

Then some of those with us went to the tomb

and found things just as the women had described,

but him they did not see.”

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!

How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things

and enter into his glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them what referred to him

in all the Scriptures.

As they approached the village to which they were going,

he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

But they urged him, “Stay with us,

for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”

So he went in to stay with them.

And it happened that, while he was with them 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.

Then they said to each other,

“Were not our hearts burning within us

while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem

where they found gathered together

the Eleven and those with them who were saying,

“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way

and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

WEDNESDAY IN THE OCTAVE OF EASTER - Lk 24:13-35

THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

Dear People of God,

In today's Word: Jesus said to the two disciples on the Emmaus Road: "'Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?'" Jesus' words are always fulfilled in the Bible and will become reality in the daily lives of his disciples and each person.

God's Word told his disciples: "'The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.'" The resurrection was confirmed through the "empty tomb" event that Mary Magdalene witnessed. She was told by the angels: “'Why do you seek the living one among the dead?'" And another time she went to visit the Lord's tomb, the Lord appeared to her and called her by name: "Mary!" This testimony shows that Jesus Himself was resurrected according to the Bible. Jesus told her to report to the apostles, and they believed: “'The Lord has truly been raised.'" To strengthen the apostles' belief that Jesus' resurrection was true, God gave one more proof: the fact that He accompanied two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

For the apostles and disciples of Jesus, they always believed that Jesus would bring salvation and liberation to the people of Israel. Jesus is the one with authority and full power, so He can do everything on earth. But after witnessing Jesus being crucified and dying on the cross, the disciples were very disappointed, bored, worried, and scattered: each of them left for their own place. The disciples' eyes were still covered, so they could not recognize the truth: behind the humiliating death of Jesus Christ was glory and new life for people.

Because He loved His apostles and disciples, He appeared to them. In particular, He appeared and accompanied, listened to, and talked to two disciples when they were on their way to Emmaus to return home. Jesus saw that His disciples were losing faith in God, so He opened their minds and hearts and explained to them the words He taught when He was still living with them. He explained everything the Bible said about Him from the time of Moses to the prophets. Finally, He ate at the table with His two disciples. He took bread, gave praise, gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to them. Through these gestures, words, and actions of Jesus, their eyes were opened, they realized that He was Jesus, and their hearts were also ignited with faith. Through the appearance of Jesus Christ, accompanying two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and with the testimony of Mary Magdalene, the apostles and disciples made the apostles and disciples believe that: "'The Lord has truly been raised.'"

Today, there are also some of His disciples who are in a state of worry and disappointment when God's work at the Father's House always encounters difficulties, obstacles, persecution, condemnation, and not progressing according to God's plan. And according to people's thinking, they think: the work of God the Father's House is failing! But God wants to strengthen the faith of His children that: "We must go through suffering to gain glory, we must die to have life." Believe and trust in God to always accompany His children, as He accompanied and listened to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Thanks be to God. Amen.