3rd Sunday of Easter_Year A_2023

Introduction: Our God is near to those who seek Him and who want to
live in His presence, doing His will. The Emmaus incident is the story of
a God who will not abandon us when we are hurt and disappointed. As
Francis Thompson put it, He is The Hound of Heaven Who relentlessly
follows us when we try to escape from His love. The message of today’s
Scripture readings is that the followers of Jesus are to maintain contact with
their risen Lord through prayer, the Eucharist, and the Bible. The readings
also remind us that our belief in Jesus’ presence in the consecrated Bread
and Wine should help us to understand better his presence in the Bible and
in the believing and worshipping community. Putting the two appearances
(to the Emmaus disciples and to Peter), together, it is clear that the risen
Jesus wants Peter to act as spokesman for him and that the faithful who
seek to follow Jesus should seek his company in the Eucharist, in prayer,
and in the Bible under the direction of Peter and his successors.
Story: Broken dreams: Dr. J. Wallace Hamilton, in his book Horns and
Halos in Human Nature, tells of one of the weirdest auctions in history. It
was held in the city of Washington, D.C. It was an auction of designs,
actually patent models of old inventions that did not make it in the
marketplace. These 150,000 old inventions were declared obsolete and
placed on the auction block for public auction. Prospective buyers and on-
lookers chuckled as item after item was put up for bid, such as a bed-bug
buster or an illuminated cat that was designed to scare away mice. Then
there was a device to prevent snoring. It consisted of a trumpet that
reached from the mouth to the ear and was designed to awaken the snorer
and not the neighbors. One person designed a tube to reach from his
mouth to his feet so that his breath would keep his feet warm as he slept.
There was an adjustable pulpit which could be raised or lowered. You could
hit a button and make the pulpit descend or ascend to illustrate a point
dramatically. Obviously, at one time somebody had high hopes for each of
those designs which did not make it. Some died in poverty, having spent all
of their money trying to sell their dream. They represented a mountain of
disappointments. One hundred fifty thousand broken dreams! Is there
anything sadder? Today’s Gospel describes the shattered dreams of two of
Jesus’ disciples at the tragic and unexpected death of their Master whom
they trusted as their promised Messiah.
The first reading, from Acts, is taken from the beginning of Peter's first
public proclamation about Jesus and tells us how God raised Jesus from
death, thus fulfilling the Messianic prophecies about the promised
descendant of David.
The Refrain for today’s Responsorial Psalm (Ps 16), has us singing, “Lord,
you will show us the path of Life.”
In the second reading, Peter exhorts the early Christians to place their
Faith and Hope in God Who has saved them through the precious Blood of
His Son and Who has raised Jesus from the dead.
The Emmaus incident described in today’s Gospel shows us a God who
will not abandon us when we are hurt and disappointed. The message of
today’s Scripture readings is that the followers of Jesus are to maintain
contact with their Risen Lord through prayer, the Eucharist, and the Bible.
The readings also remind us that our belief in Jesus’ presence in the
consecrated Bread and Wine should help us to understand better his
presence in the Bible and in the believing and worshipping community.
Putting the two appearances (to the Emmaus disciples and to Peter),
together, it is clear that the risen Jesus wanted Peter to act as spokesman
for him, and that the faithful who seek to follow Jesus should seek his
company in prayer, the Eucharist, and the Bible under the direction of Peter
and his successors.
Life messages: 1) Jesus meets us on our Emmaus Road. The risen
Lord meets us on the road to our Emmaus, both in the ordinary
experiences of our lives, and in the places to which we retreat when life is
too much for us. We, too, have hopes and dreams about better health,
healing, finance ial security and family relationships. These hopes and
dreams often shatter. The story promises us, however, that Jesus will come
to us in unfamiliar guises to support and strengthen us when we least
expect our risen Lord. Emmaus moments come to us when we meet the
risen Christ on our life’s journey through rough times.
2) The road to Emmaus is a road of companionship. Jesus, now freed
from the space-time limits of his earthly life, is present in our midst and
wants to be our Friend.The risen Lord desires that we walk with Him and
with one another: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk
through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flamescorch you.For
I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isaiah 43:2-
3). He wants to join us in our travels of life: “I am a Companion of all who
fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts” (Psalms 119:63).“Where
two or three are gathered in My Name, I am there among them” (Matthew
18:20).
3) We meet Jesus daily in our life’s journey.The Church instructs us to
hear Jesus on a daily basis through our faithful reading of, and meditation
on, the Bible; through our participation in the Eucharistic celebration at
which we receive Jesus as our spiritual Food and Drink ; through our
personal and family prayers; and through our family meals. When we meet
our risen Lord through the Word of God, we commune with him. We renew
our relationship with Jesus through prayer. All these meetings prepare and
enable us to encounter the risen Jesus living in all the people we meet and
to do Him humble, loving and selfless service in each of them.
4) Do our hearts burn when we listen to the Risen Lord in tradition
teaches us that the reading of the Scriptures, the study of the Scriptures
and the proclamation of the message of the Scriptures are the primary
ways in which we meet God. Vatican II (Dei Verbum 21) tells us that Jesus
is to be equally venerated in the Eucharist and in the Bible. Therefore, we
need to study the Bible, learn the Bible, memorize the Bibleand meditate on
the word of God. We know that Christ lives in the Bible, and so we need to
spend time in the Bible to have a deep, intimate, loving, caring, long-term
relationship with Jesus Christ. We know we are to brush our teeth every
day. Likewise, we are to read the Bible every day, making it habitual,
because people either read the Bible daily or almost never. When we read
the Scriptures daily, we meet and converse with Jesus Christ! Abraham
Lincoln, whom many consider the best President of the United States, said:
“The greatest gift that God gave to human beings is the Bible.” Another
President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, said that it was a
principle of his to read the Bible through each and every year. Yet another
great President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, said, “A
thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.”
Goethe, the great German philosopher, said that the beauty of the Bible
grows as we grow in our understanding of it.
5) We need to find Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread. In the Gospel
story for today, we learn that we find Christ is in the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. When we approach the altar to receive the Sacrament, we see
and receive Christ. In John 6, Jesus says, “Whoever eats My Body and
drinks My Blood shall live with me eternally.” The Eucharist is true "soul
food," the Bread of life for eternity. It feeds us and fulfills our spiritual
needs. It is a pity that often we don’t realize what is happening during the
celebration of the Holy Eucharist, the sacred banquet of all believers. In
this meal, we are in communion, not only with Jesus, but also with our
family and friends who have preceded us in death. The Eucharist is not
simply Bread and Wine for today – it is a banquet for all eternity.
Slide 1: Intro: seek Him and live in His presence, doing His will
Slide 2: Story: : Broken dreams
Slide 3: 1st Reading: God raised Jesus to life and we are witnesses
Slide 4: Responsorial Psalm: Show us, Lord, the path of life
Slide 5: 2nd Reading: Your ransom was paid in the precious blood of Christ
Slide 6: Gospel: They recognized Him at the breaking of bread
Slide 7: Life Message 1: Jesus meets us on our Emmaus Road
Slide 8: Life Message 2: a road of companionship
Slide 9: Life Message 3: meet Jesus daily in our life’s journey
Slide 10: Life Message 4: Do our hearts burn when we listen to the
Risen Lord
Slide 11: Life Message 5: find Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread