(Audio)
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?”
We have just experienced liturgically the same things about which Cleopas spoke. And yet, like him, we don't fully understand them. Like him, we need Jesus to draw from us a deeper understanding of the inner meaning of those events.
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.
We too had hopes placed on Easter. Hopefully they were more ambitious than to simply experience transient joy and good feelings during a few celebrations. Hopefully our expectations were closer to those of these disciples, that Israel and the whole world would be redeemed. We were right to expect a real difference in life after Easter, even this specific liturgical celebration this year. Yet now some days have past and we look around us at circumstances that remain seemingly unchanged. We pray the Gloria at daily mass, but begin to lose the sense of what we're celebrating.
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
This is the Easter proclamation. Jesus is alive! This is what we heard at the Easter celebrations. But what does that mean to us now as we go out to this apparently unchanged world, to our apparently unchanged lives?
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
For the resurrection to have the transformative impact it is meant to have we need Jesus to unlock its meaning for us.
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
We need to learn that the world isn't what changes first. It is we ourselves who begin to experience the firstfruits of the resurrection in our spirits. We are plugged in to a renewed spiritual reality, to a new connection to God and to our brothers and sisters.
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.
The point is not that nothing changed and we need to subjectively pretend that it did. The point is that, with the proper perspective, the one Jesus teaches us, everything is different. He is with us, he reigns, and he is our source of strength.
It is precisely this inside out transformative that help Peter and John realize that they do have something to give to the crippled man. If their minds had not been renewed by the resurrection they would have stopped at "Silver and gold have I none". But their minds were renewed.
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
This is no subjective reality. This isn't merely prolonging the good feelings surrounding a brief celebration. This is a reality that changes everything from the inside out. And if we don't have as ready access to the breaking of the bread it is no less of a revelation even across live streams. And even if that is hard for us, let us avail ourselves even more of the table of his word. Are we still living like COVID-19 might win? It can't win. Jesus is risen. Alleluia.
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