Third Sunday of Easter, 4/18

Happy Easter!! Easter is so great that it needs more than one day, it gets a whole season. Maybe that can be a clue for our Christian life that the season of Easter is actually 10 days longer than Lent! We are “celebration people” because Christ rose from the dead, life has defeated death, love defeated evil, light defeated darkness.

The Gospel passage this Sunday is from Luke, and begins at the end of another story: that of the disciples on the way to Emmaus. Of these disciples, we know that after the Crucifixion of Jesus, they were filled with sadness and disappointment for they “had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel.” But the risen Jesus appeared to them and “opened their eyes” through the breaking of the bread.

This encounter with the risen Lord is such a powerful event that it leads them like the Samaritan women and others in the Gospels to go and “share the Good News” with the other disciples. And as he did with them, the risen Jesus appears to all of them, standing in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he says.

The risen Christ comes to bring peace to our troubled hearts. God does not leave us alone in our anxieties, in our frustrations, in our disappointments and lack of understanding. He comes to us in our homes. While we do not experience Jesus who can be touched physically, he has sent us his Spirit to visit us in our hearts and similarly bring peace and joy.

When we allow Christ to visit us and encounter the risen Lord in our hearts, we too will be filled with the same Spirit that led the disciples of Emmaus to go and share the Good News with others. In this Easter season, we pray that the grace and joy of the Resurrection may reach our hearts. He has risen, Alleluia! Let us be rejoice and be glad!

Patrick Travers, SCV