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. EASTER ENCOUNTERS 2008 |
The Sunday Gospel with daily meditations on the Gospel theme -- encounters that define and illuminate our journey of faith |
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The Third Week of Easter - April 6 - 12, 2008 I KNOW . . . THROUGH THE BREAKING OF BREAD .
THE SUNDAY GOSPEL: Saint Luke 24:13-35 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. DAILY ENCOUNTERS: I KNOW...THROUGH THE BREAKING OF BREAD MONDAY OF THE WEEK OF EASTER 3 – April 7 The table fellowship of Christians implies obligation. It is our daily bread that we eat, not my own. We share our bread. Thus we are firmly bound to one another not only in the spirit but in our whole physical being. The one bread that is given to our fellowship links us together in a firm covenant. Now none dares go hungry as long as another has bread, and anyone who breaks this fellowship of the physical life also breaks the fellowship of the Spirit. Dietrich Bonhoeffer TUESDAY OF THE WEEK OF EASTER 3 – APRIL 8 We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone any more. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship. We have known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community. Dorothy Day WEDNESDAY OF THE WEEK OF EASTER 3 – APRIL 9 …the wine of Christ’s blood, drawn from the many grapes of the vineyard that he had planted, is extracted in the winepress of the cross. When men receive it with believing hearts, like capacious wineskins, it ferments within them by its own power. Gaudentius, 4th century THURSDAY OF THE WEEK OF EASTER 3 – APRIL 10 One is the table that is prepared for rich and poor alike. And though a person may be rich, yet to this table the rich can give nothing. And should another be poor, this one shall have no less honor because of poverty in regard to the things which here belong to all. For this favor is from God, and what wonder that it should be for the rich and the poor alike? For the same is the table that is prepared for the poor person…as for the emperor...Such are the gifts of God who gives, not according to dignity but according to the will and the mind of each. Leo the Great, 5th century FRIDAY OF THE WEEK OF EASTER 3 – APRIL 11 But it is not only the martyrs who share in his passion by their glorious courage; the same is true, by faith, of all who are born again in baptism. That is why we are to celebrate the Lord’s paschal sacrifice with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The leaven of our former malice is thrown out, and a new creature is filled with the Lord himself. For the effect of our sharing in the body and blood of Christ is to change us into what we receive. Leo the Great SATURDAY OF THE WEEK OF EASTER 3 – APRIL 12 Christ has planted his table like an oasis along our pathway, in order that when we become weary with travel, weak and hungry in our souls, discouraged and wounded because of our false steps, stumbling, and falling, we may then enter there and be refreshed with the living Bread of Life. Carl Olof Resenius |
