From the responsorial psalm: “O LORD, our Lord, how glorious is your name over all the earth! What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man that you should care for him? O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Lk 24:35-48)
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.”
Gathered together in Jerusalem, the disciples who had encountered Jesus on the road to Emmaus share their experiences. Even as they speak, Jesus appears among them. “Peace be with you,” he says to them. The disciples believe at first that they are seeing a ghost, but Jesus assures them of his physical presence and invites them to touch him and see his wounds. As if to further reassure the disciples, he asks for something to eat and eats the baked fish they give him. In his presence and in opening their minds to understand the Scriptures, Jesus reveals how his passion, death, and resurrection are part of God’s plan for salvation. “You are witnesses of these things,” he tells them, reminding them of their identity and commissioning them to proclaim repentance to all the nations.
God, help me throughout the day hear the first words of Jesus as he appears to the disciples: “Peace be with you.” Startled by what they believe is a ghost, the disciples go from terror to being “incredulous for joy and were amazed.” Help me put aside the distractions and worries of the day—figments of the imagination—to see with eyes of faith that you are truly with me at all times whether or not I comprehend it. Open my mind, Lord!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
“The risen Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room” flickr photo by Nick in exsilio https://flickr.com/photos/pelegrino/4669927869 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
