Daily Liturgy
Wednesday, April 7
you are a God not of the dead
nor of those paralyzed by their fears and limitations
but the God of the living.
Raise us up and make us walk forward
in joy and hope,
as companions on the road
of him, whom you raised from the dead,
Jesus Christ, our Risen Lord for ever.
your Son is in our midst
but his face is hidden.
Help us to recognize him
in our companions on the road:
in the man who has no food or job,
in the woman who has been deserted,
in the child begging at the street corner.
Give us a heart,
that we may not pass them by with vacant eyes;
for this man or this child or this woman
is your Son for us,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading 1: ACTS 3:1-10
Peter and John were going up to the temple area
for the three o’clock hour of prayer.
And a man crippled from birth was carried
and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day
to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple.
When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple,
he asked for alms.
But Peter looked intently at him, as did John,
and said, “Look at us.”
He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
He leaped up, stood, and walked around,
and went into the temple with them,
walking and jumping and praising God.
When all the people saw him walking and praising God,
they recognized him as the one
who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple,
and they were filled with amazement and astonishment
at what had happened to him.
Responsorial Psalm: PS 105:1-2, 3-4, 6-7, 8-9
R. (3b) Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R. Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Alleluia: PS 118:24
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: LK 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ 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.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the Eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Intercessions
– Risen Lord, journey with your Church when it is persecuted or struggling with hardships that threaten its unity, we pray:
– Risen Lord, journey with your communities when they are beset by strife, injustices and loss of fervor, we pray:
– Risen Lord, keep walking with us when we are confused, in doubt or slow to understand you, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God of light and life,
we are dull of hearts and slow to understand
how your Son journeys with us
every moment of life.
Help us to recognize his presence
in these humble signs of bread and wine
and let him put fire in our hearts
when we hear his words
and become aware of his nearness
in this Eucharist, in the events of life,
and in the people around us,
for he is our Risen Lord for ever.
Prayer after Communion
Lord, our God,
we have heard your Son’s words
that question our apathy and gloom
and he has stirred our hearts.
We sat at table with him
and he broke for us the bread of himself.
Send us out now to our brothers and sisters
to bring them the Good News,
that your Son is risen and alive,
and that now, we can go with one another
his journey of life and hope.
We ask you this in the name of Jesus, the Lord,
who lives with you and stays with us,
now and for ever.
Blessing
With the Gospel of today, could we say together with the disciples of Emmaus: “Were not our hearts burning within us, when Jesus was walking with us on the road and speaking his Good News to us?” May the Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary
We were hoping…but
The Emmaus incident is recorded only in the Gospels according to Luke. The two disciples who were crestfallen over the murder of their Master are now leaving Jerusalem. The risen Christ encounters them on their way but they could not recognise him. We remember the story of Lazarus who returned from death but he was the same, as he had been before he died. But the Risen Christ is in his Glorified form and it is not merely returning to the previous form of life.
The walk to Emmaus is every disciple’s walk into the disappointment served up at times by life. Disciples are necessarily ones who hope, who believe that things will be better and strive to bring justice and compassion to the world. But they can also be so easily disappointed. And at times losing all hopes for a way out. It was to such disciples that Jesus came, unrecognised but with total understanding of their hopelessness.
Their dreams had been shattered by the shame and humiliation of the cross and they are now walking in sadness. How many times have we been like the two on the road, uttering those same words: “We were hoping that He was the one to save us”, say the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Now, those hopes are shattered. Similar things happen in our lives too: We were hoping that the marriage would have remained intact and the family united. We were hoping that wars, violence and terrorism would have ceased. We were hoping that our children would have remained in the Church. We were hoping we would have better political and economic situations.
The disciples’ hopes had been shattered. They had moved into depression, as it happens with us when we face failures in life. The risen Jesus goes in search of the ones who are walking away. Reminds them that he hasn’t gone anywhere, rather he walks with them all the time. By narrating this story Luke was explaining the work of the Risen Christ in the Christian community ever since the resurrection of Jesus.
It is in the act of Breaking of the Bread that they recognise Jesus. Both, the explanation of the Scripture on the road and Breaking of the Bread in the evening constituted that day’s Eucharist. And that changed them. They would never be the same again. When we encounter the Lord in the Eucharist, in the Word of God and among those around us, we cannot be the same again.