Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 4, 2024 - Octave of Easter - Thurs
[Acts 3:11-26 and Luke 24:35-48]"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." [Luke]
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus returned to Jerusalem and told the disciples gathered in fear that they had seen the Lord and recognized him in the breaking of bread. No sooner had they done this than Jesus shows up to do the same thing. He "opened their minds to understand the scriptures." The evangelist Luke then has Jesus speaking a bit retrospectively because Luke is also the author of the Acts of the Apostles which is the story of the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to the rest of the world as known by the early Church. "You are witnesses to these things." The understanding of the Scriptures is crucial to the bearing of witness.
We are not living in the times and culture of the MIddle East in the first century A.D.. We are the Body of Christ, the Church, in the second millenium A.D.. But we still have the Scriptures and the "breaking of bread." We are still doing these things in remembrance of Jesus and bearing witness to his teachings. This is not simply a liturgical matter of going to Mass and the other sacraments. It is the love of God manifested in the way we treat others. The Gospel According to Luke contains the parables of the Good Samaritan ("Go and do likewise" Luke 10:29-37), the Prodigal Son, (Luke 15:11-32), and the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). Are our minds open to these Scriptures and their implications for our lives as Christians? Are we "witnesses to these things?" Jesus is in our midst through the Holy Spirit in the breaking of bread to remind us of what we are called to do afterward! AMEN
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