Easter Wednesday

Readings: Acts 3:1-10; Psalm 105; Luke 24:13-35

Something prevented them from recognising him. What was it? Was it fear or dismay? A blindness caused by humiliation and defeat? That they never for a moment expected a resurrection so the last thing to enter their minds was that it could be Jesus? Or something else.

Their difficulty in recognising that He had indeed risen from the dead was slowly dissolved, by the sound of his voice, by the words of his teaching, by his opening up of the Scriptures for them, showing how the words of the Scriptures apply to the Christ, to what was to happen to Him ...

Still without recognising Him, they ask Him to stay with them, although He makes as if to go on. At their invitation he stays. What does it mean? They are finding comfort in what He is saying to them, in His presence, although they do not yet fully recognise that it is He. But then He took bread, blessed, broke and gave it, and in these Eucharistic actions they recognise Him, in the breaking of the bread, in the breaking (so it seems) of His presence with them.

The message is clear and powerful, from the first community of believers to us many centuries later. Do not be afraid. Be of good heart. He remains with you as He remained with us, in the opening up of the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread.