S. FAUSTI - Of this episode, taken from a secondary tradition, Luke makes an exemplary page to show us how the Risen Lord is still present in our lives of believers and how we can meet Him. The two pilgrims are figure of the Church. It changes heart, face, and path when, in the double table of the Word and of the Bread,it "experiences" the Living One and joins itself to Peter's proclamation of faith, by whom He "was seen". In this story,in which they proceed from "not recognizing" to "recognizing" the Lord Jesus, Luke the synthesis of the whole path proposed to his reader. From the beginning he had fixed to himself to make "recognize" to Theophilus the truth of the Word in which he was instructed . And he makes this in two successive steps, which correspond to the two parts of the Gospel: the listening of the Lord announcing the Word and the vision of His face that culminates on the cross. The center of the two catechesis is the mystery of the Son of the man , dead and risen , before whom every man "is foolish and slow to heart in believing ". The sense of the whole Gospel, which Luke proposes to the believer, is to make "know" Jesus well to him, so that he can "recognize" Him without exchanging Him for another one! The two disciples know the Scripture. They reject however the scandal of the Cross, ignoring that it is the key to enter in it and understand it .The dead and risen Lord - whose the Gospel tells us and we memorized in the Eucharist - brings us to receive the story of Jesus as the realization and explanation of the whole plan of salvation. We can too, like the women and like Peter, go on pilgrimage to the tomb. Like them, we find it empty. The Living One is not there. But he did not leave us. He is in the ways of the world, until His Kingdom is accomplished. He, the only Son, who always resides among the Father, came out in search of the other ninety-nine lost brethren. He follows them, encounters and accompanies them, to transform their exile from flight into pilgrimage. The nostalgia - which remains and expresses itself in desire. "Maranà thà" – from sad sorrow for a earl ever more unlikely return , it becomes a joyous run toward Father's house. Like to the two of Emmaus, He becomes close to everyone of us . He makes our own steps both of disappointment and of hope, both of death and of life. He meets us in our daily traveling business, joining Himself to our journey, wherever we go. He does not turn away from us, even if we are moving away from Him. The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost. Our heart is dead and frozen. Our eyes, impregnated by fear, are incapable of recognizing Him. They have been closed since when, at the foot of the tree, the lie opened them to our nudity. But now He who was crucified on the tree, He warms our hearts and clears our sight. He in person explains the Scriptures to us and opens our eyes. Even if He becomes invisible, we know that He came in to stay with us. With His strength we make the Holy Journey which puts us in communion of faith and of life with the first disciples. We too "recognize" the Living One. He was also "seen" by them. But only for a short time, to establish their and our faith.
-->This is the only difference between them and us. After all, it is the same the path that leads to recognize Him and the resulting force is identical . Both those by whom He was seen , and everyone of us to whom He was witnessed, we come to Him through the announcement that reveals Him as the Risen One, the memory of His Word and His "gesture” of breaking the Bread. The Word and the Bread, with which He remains in our spirit and in our flesh, are Church's viatic until the end of time. Man becomes the Word that hears, and he lives of the Bread that he eats. The Word and the Body of the Son assimilate us to Him, giving us His own Spirit, which is the strength to live as the children of the Father and as brothers among us. During His life Jesus only cared for someone and only temporarily: healed sick persons, even the resurrected deads, will die again. The encounter with the Risen One, by the power of the Word that warms our hearts, accomplishes the total and definitive miracle, which makes us pass from death to life. It gives us new life, the dark face becomes bright, the deaf ears become alert, the eyes oppressed by fear open to the sight, the feet turn from the escape to the return to the brothers and the mouth from the quarrel passes to the profession of faith .
Gospel, Luke 24:13-35 Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking together about all that had happened. And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but their eyes were prevented from recognising him. He said to them, 'What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along?' They stopped, their faces downcast. Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, 'You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.' He asked, 'What things?' They answered, 'All about Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and the whole people; and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified. Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have now gone by since it all happened; and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning, and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive. Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.' Then he said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?' Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself. When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them saying, 'It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?' They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, 'The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.' Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.
Reading 2, First Peter 1:17-21 And if you address as Father him who judges without favouritism according to each individual's deeds, live out the time of your exile here in reverent awe. For you know that the price of your ransom from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors was paid, not in anything perishable like silver or gold, but in precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ. He was marked out before the world was made, and was revealed at the final point of time for your sake. Through him you now have faith in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory for this very purpose -- that your faith and hope should be in God.
S. FAUSTI - Of this episode, taken from a secondary tradition, Luke makes an exemplary page to show us how the Risen Lord is still present in our lives of believers and how we can meet Him.
RispondiEliminaThe two pilgrims are figure of the Church. It changes heart, face, and path
when, in the double table of the Word and of the Bread,it "experiences" the Living One and joins itself to Peter's proclamation of faith, by whom He "was seen".
In this story,in which they proceed from "not recognizing" to "recognizing" the Lord Jesus, Luke the synthesis of the whole path proposed to his reader.
From the beginning he had fixed to himself to make "recognize" to Theophilus the truth of the Word in which he was instructed . And he makes this in two successive steps, which correspond to the two parts of the Gospel: the listening of the Lord announcing the Word and the vision of His face that culminates on the cross.
The center of the two catechesis is the mystery of the Son of the man , dead and risen , before whom every man "is foolish and slow to heart in believing ".
The sense of the whole Gospel, which Luke proposes to the believer, is to make "know" Jesus well to him, so that he can "recognize" Him without exchanging Him for another one! The two disciples know the Scripture. They reject however the scandal of the Cross, ignoring that it is the key to enter in it and understand it .The dead and risen Lord - whose the Gospel tells us and we memorized in the Eucharist - brings us to receive the story of Jesus as the realization and explanation of the whole plan of salvation.
We can too, like the women and like Peter, go on pilgrimage to the tomb. Like them, we find it empty. The Living One is not there. But he did not leave us.
He is in the ways of the world, until His Kingdom is accomplished.
He, the only Son, who always resides among the Father, came out in search of the other ninety-nine lost brethren. He follows them, encounters and accompanies them, to transform their exile from flight into pilgrimage. The nostalgia - which remains and expresses itself in desire. "Maranà thà" – from sad sorrow for a earl ever more unlikely return , it becomes a joyous run toward Father's house.
Like to the two of Emmaus, He becomes close to everyone of us . He makes our own steps both of disappointment and of hope, both of death and of life. He meets us in our daily traveling business, joining Himself to our journey, wherever we go. He does not turn away from us, even if we are moving away from Him. The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.
Our heart is dead and frozen. Our eyes, impregnated by fear, are incapable of recognizing Him. They have been closed since when, at the foot of the tree, the lie opened them to our nudity.
But now He who was crucified on the tree, He warms our hearts and clears our sight.
He in person explains the Scriptures to us and opens our eyes. Even if He becomes invisible, we know that He came in to stay with us. With His strength we make the Holy Journey which puts us in communion of faith and of life with the first disciples. We too "recognize" the Living One.
He was also "seen" by them. But only for a short time, to establish their and our faith.
-->This is the only difference between them and us. After all, it is the same the path that leads to recognize Him and the resulting force is identical . Both those by whom He was seen , and everyone of us to whom He was witnessed, we come to Him through the announcement that reveals Him as the Risen One, the memory of His Word and His "gesture” of breaking the Bread. The Word and the Bread, with which He remains in our spirit and in our flesh, are Church's viatic until the end of time.
RispondiEliminaMan becomes the Word that hears, and he lives of the Bread that he eats.
The Word and the Body of the Son assimilate us to Him, giving us His own Spirit, which is the strength to live as the children of the Father and as brothers among us.
During His life Jesus only cared for someone and only temporarily: healed sick persons, even the resurrected deads, will die again.
The encounter with the Risen One, by the power of the Word that warms our hearts, accomplishes the total and definitive miracle, which makes us pass from death to life. It gives us new life, the dark face becomes bright, the deaf ears become alert, the eyes oppressed by fear open to the sight, the feet turn from the escape to the return to the brothers and the mouth from the quarrel passes to the profession of faith .
Gospel, Luke 24:13-35
RispondiEliminaNow that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem,
and they were talking together about all that had happened.
And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side;
but their eyes were prevented from recognising him.
He said to them, 'What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along?' They stopped, their faces downcast.
Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, 'You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.'
He asked, 'What things?' They answered, 'All about Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and the whole people;
and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified.
Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have now gone by since it all happened;
and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning,
and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive.
Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.'
Then he said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?'
Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.
When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on;
but they pressed him to stay with them saying, 'It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them.
Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them.
And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?'
They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions,
who said to them, 'The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.'
Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.
Reading 2, First Peter 1:17-21
And if you address as Father him who judges without favouritism according to each individual's deeds, live out the time of your exile here in reverent awe.
For you know that the price of your ransom from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors was paid, not in anything perishable like silver or gold,
but in precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ.
He was marked out before the world was made, and was revealed at the final point of time for your sake.
Through him you now have faith in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory for this very purpose -- that your faith and hope should be in God.