Message of Abbot Paul - Easter Thursday - 4th April 2024
Abbot Paul • April 3, 2024
Today’s reading from Luke, (Lk 24: 25-38), continues where the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus left off yesterday. “The disciples told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised Jesus at the breaking of bread.” Telling a story or listening to it is one thing, but having that same story happen to you is quite another, so imagine the shock of the disciples when Jesus appears. “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.” There is no hiding the fact that the disciples cannot recognise their risen Lord. They are alarmed, frightened, agitated: they think they’re seeing a ghost. Jesus asks them to open their eyes and see. He invites them to touch his body. Their joy is so great, that they fail to believe. It’s more than they can fathom, they are struck dumb. He asks them for something to eat. They are fishermen: all they have to offer is fish cooked over a fire. He takes it and eats it. It’s Jesus alright, but a Jesus who has to be known and understood anew.
Jesus then expands on what he told the two disciples while walking with them along the road to Emmaus. “’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.’” In Jesus’ words we find in embryonic form the programme of missionary work that the primitive Church would carry out in his name and which we read about in the Acts of the Apostles, of which Luke was also the author. Those final words of Jesus in today’s Gospel are meant not only for the first Christian community in Jerusalem, they are meant for us. What does it mean to be a Christian in the world today, other than to be a witness to the truth of the Gospel, the truth of Jesus, not a lone witness, but witnesses together as a community, a Church, the Body of Christ? Lord, help us to carry out that mission with confidence and joy. Amen.
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