“Jesus was made known to
them in the breaking of bread…
He opened their minds to understand the
Scriptures.” Lk 24:35, 45
The world was created
anew on Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead. In the Easter season, we
hear various Gospel accounts of His appearances to His disciples and many
others. These many different encounters have much in common.
Jesus is somehow
different in His glorified and resurrected body. Many of His friends do not
recognize Him immediately, or fear that they are seeing a ghost. By eating and
drinking with them, and allowing them to see and touch His wounds, Jesus
confirms that this is no spiritual apparition but that He has truly risen from
the dead. Yet He knows that questions arise in their hearts.
There are two
things that open the eyes of the disciples to recognize Jesus and believe. One
is the “breaking of the bread” – the Eucharist. The other is by deepening their
understanding of scripture. Jesus begins to open their minds to understand scripture,
explaining all that had been predicted about Him “in the law of Moses and in
the prophets and psalms…” These explanations were all drawn from the Old
Testament, because the New Testament had not yet been written. Yet the Good
News about Jesus was hidden in scripture already, waiting to be revealed.
The best ways for
us to come to know Jesus are still the same: by receiving His Body and Blood in
the Eucharist, and hearing His Word in scripture. Let us thank God for His gift
of the Catholic Church to guide Christians through the centuries. It was the
Church that canonized the books of the Bible, carefully discerning the
authentic teachings of Christ. It was the Church that preserved the letters and
stories of the Apostles and the Gospel accounts of the life of Christ. It was
the Church that handed down the true teaching about the Eucharist, so that even
now we have these treasures to draw us close to God.
This Easter Season,
spend some time in the presence of the Risen Lord. Sit by the tabernacle, open
the Bible, and ask Jesus to open your heart and mind to understand His Word. He
will bring you peace.
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