Gospel Reflection – Sunday 2nd Week of Easter
“He then opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
We sometimes use the expression ‘changing the goal posts’ to describe a situation when a new, previously unknown, condition is prescribed. Today’s Gospel does just that. The Old Testament had given some information about the long awaited saviour of Israel, the Messiah, or in Greek, the Christ. He was to be in the line of King David, he was to be born in Bethlehem, and he was to be God’s chosen one. Jesus adds a new criterion for being a Messiah – that he must suffer and die.
Nothing in the Scriptures suggested this, which is why the death of Jesus destroyed the hopes of his first disciples. To them, his death meant failure. God had abandoned him and their hopes were in vain. But Jesus changes the goal posts to include suffering and death as part of his being the Messiah. Rather than a sign of rejection by God, his death needs to be understood in another framework.
I have always found this helpful. There is much about God’s ways I do not understand. There are times I just have to accept that God’s goal posts are different to mine. God’s perception is bigger than mine. Jesus reveals this to his disciples, ‘your way of understanding wasn’t big enough’. Notice how even when they see Jesus, the Gospel says, ‘they could not believe it’. Jesus needed to explain to them and stretch their understanding to accept what their eyes saw. Jesus is raised. A new dimension of human living is revealed. God’s love is stronger than death!
The reading from the Acts of the Apostles this Sunday expresses a similar viewpoint, that ‘Christ would suffer’. But remember that the Acts and the Gospel of Luke were written by the same author so there is continuity between the two texts. In both the Gospel and the Acts, Luke draws upon the long history of God’s participation in the story of Israel. Mention is made of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. In this way, Luke is trying to make sense of the Jesus event in the light of the people’s past experience of God. Luke is trying to show that there is continuity between Israel’s story and the new Christian movement, and thus to show that God is faithful to the ancient promises.
A major issue facing both the Jewish people and the early Christians in the first century was the traumatic experience of the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in the year 70 CE. What did this event mean? Had God abandoned Israel? Can God be trusted to keep faith? It is these questions about God’s fidelity that shape the way Luke tells the Jesus story. Sensitive to the needs of the early Christian community, Luke affirms that God is faithful and that the blessings promised to Israel are now being fulfilled by the inclusion of all nations in God’s promises. Jerusalem is the starting point for a movement that will reach out to the world.
Reflecting on this Gospel passage, Pope Francis draws our attention to the three key verbs: look, touch, and eat.
‘To look is not only to see,’ the Pope points out, adding that ‘it is more; it also involves intention, will.’ When Jesus asks the disciples to look at his hands and feet, therefore, he is not only offering visual proof of identity. Rather, Jesus is inviting his disciples to look at his wounded limbs as ‘a first step against indifference, against the temptation to look the other way before the difficulties and sufferings of others.’ Jesus’ wounds are still present for those with the courage to look at them.
Similarly, Jesus’ invitation to the disciples to confirm his presence by touch has a teaching element too. ‘By inviting the disciples to touch him,’ the Pope suggests, ‘Jesus indicates to them and to us that the relationship with him and with our brothers and sisters cannot remain “at a distance”.’ Having seen the wounds, we must be close to the wounded.
Finally, by eating with his disciples Jesus again did more than prove he was physically present at that specific moment. As the Pope points out, ‘eating, when we do so together, among family or friends … becomes an expression of love, and expression of communion.’
Once again, the Gospel suggests Jesus’ action had a deeper meaning about Jesus’ continuing presence among his followers. As St Augustine said of the Eucharist, we become what we consume, which means something truly amazing: The Risen Jesus still eats with us!
Prayer for the week
Lord Jesus, we are grateful of your sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins.
You showed us the real meaning of service when you committed and sacrificed your life as a ransom for many.
Please forgive us for having little faith in You.
Remind us to always listen to your word and nurture our spirit of Serviam so that we can become worthy to be called your servants.
Help us to live lives worthy of your sacrifice in our words and actions, especially towards others. We make this prayer in your name, Amen.
