Message of Abbot Paul - Easter Thursday
Message from Fr Paul for Thursday, 21st April 2022
What a lovely day it was yesterday, perfect. On our early morning walk we were accompanied by robins and blackbirds, obviously guarding their territory, while later on, after Mass, we came across a pair of buzzards soaring high and being violently pursued by a crow of some kind, then on the field the usual pair of song thrushes having difficulty searching for worms and grubs in the rock-hard grass. There’s never a dull moment with so much to see and take in. I can’t get over the beauty of the wild flowers this year, especially the magnificent yet humble clusters of primroses that just go on blooming, bringing joy to our lives. For a moment, but only for a moment, we can forget the terrible events taking place in Ukraine.
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Our Gospel passage today continues Luke’s account of the resurrection appearances of Jesus, (Lk 24: 35-48), what happens when Cleopas and his companion come running from Emmaus to relate their experience of the risen Christ to the disciples and their friends. “The disciples told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised Jesus at the breaking of bread.” Even before they finish speaking, Jesus himself appears and what a stir he causes. “They were still talking about all this when Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’ In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said, ‘Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts rising in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet; yes, it is I indeed. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.’ And as he said this he showed them his hands and feet. Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it, and they stood there dumbfounded; so he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ And they offered him a piece of grilled fish, which he took and ate before their eyes.” He greets them with, “Peace be with you.” We also find this greeting in John, but his greeting causes panic and fear. The disciples cannot believe it is Jesus, in fact, they think it is a ghost, so Jesus will have to convince them that it is really he who is with them. He tries to quell their fears and doubts, offering them his hands and his feet to touch. The result is that they cannot believe for the joy they feel in their hearts. Before it was fear, now it is joy that holds them back. They just don’t know what to make of it all. It’s too much to take in. In a final attempt to convince them, he asks for something to eat and they offer him grilled fish. Is this what they had been eating? Is it all they had to hand? Jesus would have eaten it with his hands, no plates, knives and forks! It appears that they calm down at this and are now prepared to listen to what he has to say.
These are his words: “Then he told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.’” Having said that he is the fulfilment of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, he then opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures, which is exactly what he did with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and what he does with us when we read the Scriptures or hear them read as a community in church. It’s interesting to note how the final words of today’s Gospel occur at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, also written by Luke. Again, the emphasis on being witnesses to the events they describe as proving that Jesus is the Messiah and Saviour. There is nothing as convincing as personal testimony, bearing witness to how God has intervened in Christ in our own lives. Our story, too, is a story of faith and our experience of the life of faith is passion, death and resurrection. It is the Gospel life that we live.
