Readings of the day: Acts 3:1-10; Psalm 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9; Luke 24:13-35
What are some of the ways in which the risen Christ is “made known to”
us? How do we experience the risen Christ in simple everyday events; when we are at peace; when we
are busy, worried, or distracted; in our prayer; in other people, especially
those in need or those who help us in our need; when we are gathered at Mass,
many of us every day?
The events described in our readings
today invite us to encounter the risen Christ, who makes himself known to us in
these everyday situations of our lives, even if we do not realize immediately
that Christ is present among us.
This is true in John’s and Peter’s
healing of the “man crippled from birth” at “the Beautiful Gate of the temple”
in today’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles. The risen Christ does
not make himself present through earthly wealth. Peter admits to the crippled
man: “I have neither silver nor gold.” No, Peter and John bring something more
valuable than silver or gold: “the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean,” through
whom we experience healing; through whom we experience the promise of
resurrection.
I suspect, though, that man healed at
the gate of the temple did not immediately realize that Christ was being made
present to him through Peter and John. He was probably caught up in his own
need for healing. Would the realization that the risen Christ was present in
Peter’s and John’s healing only have come to this man in hindsight? How often
does the realization that Christ is present in simple events in our lives only come
to us in (sometimes distant) hindsight?
This belated realization is also true of
the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in our Gospel reading today from Luke.
They have just experienced the worst they could ever have experienced: Jesus,
to whom they had looked as “a prophet… the one to redeem Israel,” had been put
to a shameful death on a cross! Now they are conversing with the risen Christ
on their way to Emmaus, but understandably “their eyes [are] prevented from
recognizing him.”
Just before it becomes too late, when
Jesus is about to pass through “the village to which [the disciples] were
going,” they recognize the presence of the risen Christ in two simple ways: In
the opening of the Scriptures and “in the breaking of the bread.”
In these same simple ways, the breaking
open of the Scriptures and the breaking of the bread, the risen Christ is made
known to us here and now in our celebration of the Eucharist. How else is the
risen Christ made known to us in the simple events of our lives? How quickly do
we recognize the presence of the risen Christ in our simple everyday
experiences? May we now open our hearts in prayer, and in our prayer; in our
Eucharist; in one another may the risen Christ be made known to us who long to
encounter him.
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