Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 26, 2008 - Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
[Acts 3:1-10 and Luke 24:13-35]"Oh, how foolish you are. How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke. Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.
It is worthwhile to read the entire 24th and last chapter of Luke in order to capture the full meaning of the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. There is actually a kind of "tryptych," a three paneled work of art, which conveys basically the same message in each panel although the characters are different. The message is that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of the scriptures and that the community must remember his words as well as the words of the prophets and other scriptures. There must be an "opening of the mind" to these ways of understanding what happened to Jesus. Otherwise the disciples (including ourselves!) can surrender to disappointment and cynicism. The women who encounter the angel at the empty tomb, the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and the frightened group of disciples in Jerusalem - all hear the same thing: Remember what I said! Remember what the scriptures said about me! The Gospel of Luke does not really conclude with the end of the last chapter, it continues in the Acts of the Apostles. Thus, the characters all return to Jerusalem which would be the center from which the faith would spread. The first reading for today is an example of what would happen when the promised Spirit would come. The faith did in fact spread throughout the world, but the task continues. All of us have received the same Holy Spirit that came upon the disciples at the first Pentecost. We are all called to read the scriptures and understand what Jesus' mission and message are. We are all called to proclaim it just as the first disciples were. Our disappointments and fears, like those of the women at the tomb, the disciples on the road and the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, must give way to an understanding of Jesus as Lord and move us to proclaim this message throughout the world. This world can be just as doubting and resistant to the message as the world at the time of Jesus' historical resurrection. But it is not an historical event but a living Lord which we must proclaim. We are not presenting old or stuffed artifacts but a vibrant and living faith. Jerusalem is wherever we happen to be and the Lord will be there with us to open our minds and the minds and hearts of those to whom we speak! AMEN
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