Pastor's Message

3rd Sunday of Easter

“Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to Believe everything the prophets said!”  Luke 24:25

            “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to Believe.”            

              Last Sunday, it was Apostle Thomas, who had resisted to believe in the Resurrected Jesus. Thomas demanded of Jesus, conditions if he was to believe.

              Amazingly the Risen Lord met Thomas and fulfilled his conditions; “Thomas, put your fingers here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”

             From this generosity of Jesus, came the greatest proclamation of faith in Jesus, in St. John's Gospel; “My Lord and My God.”

             Today, it is the disciples to Emmaus who are in faith crises. These, have even abandoned the Way. Despite the disciples’ hearing of Mary Magdalene’s Message, that she had seen a vision of Angels and met the Risen Lord; Cleopas and the other disciple decide to walk back home, extremely disappointed! Jesus had not met their expectation!

            “We had hoped that he would be, the One, to redeem Israel,” they informed Jesus.

             Their Faith in Jesus and his Mission was failing fast! You hear Christ's frustration, at their ignorance, as he challenged them; “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

             The Risen Lord opened the eyes of the disciples to Emmaus to see, understand and believe in God’s Plan of human salvation. This he did with the use of Scriptures; He made the Disciples to Emmaus realize that every promise made by God to Israel had been fulfilled through him. And at the Disciples’ hospitality, Jesus revealed himself through the breaking of the bread.

             The reaction of the disciples was immediate; “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures to us?” The disciples to Emmaus, had expressed their unwillingness to believe the word of the women, that morning, but after they encountered the Risen Lord, their sadness was transformed into joyful hope and their fear disappeared. They were, the ones who had persuaded Jesus to spend the night at their home, for the night was falling; After their encounter, they took to the night for another 11 Km, back to Jerusalem. They hand a joyful and urgent message to communicate to the other disciples; He is Risen and has appeared to us.

             In every Mass Celebration, Jesus is revealed to us in the Readings that are proclaimed to us. He is also revealed, in the breaking of bread; the Eucharist. We receive Jesus in every Mass! The question then becomes; Do our hearts not burn as we behold Jesus in such a generous mystery? Let us pray for an increase of Faith.

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