St. John Baptist De La Salle
H. Francisco Posada, L.C.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Christ, our King, Thy Kingdom come!
Preparatory prayer (to put me in the presence of God)
Lord, I ask for the grace to recognize you in others, in the circumstances in which I live, in everything that happens to me and which I often do not understand. Give me the grace to see you and let me be changed by your love.
Gospel of the day (to guide your meditation)
From the Holy Gospel according to Luke 24:13-35
On the same day of the resurrection, two of the disciples went to a village called Emmaus, about eleven kilometers from Jerusalem, and they commented on all that had happened.
While they were conversing and arguing, Jesus came up to them and began to walk with them; but the eyes of the two disciples were veiled and they did not recognize him. He asked them, “What things have you come here talking about, so full of sorrow?”.
One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger who does not know what has happened these days in Jerusalem?” He asked them, “What?” They answered him, “About Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. How the chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and crucified him. We had hoped that he would be the deliverer of Israel, and yet it is now three days since these things happened. It is true that some women of our group have puzzled us, for they went early in the morning to the tomb, did not find the body, and came back saying that angels had appeared to them, and told them that he was alive. Some of our companions went to the tomb and found everything as the women had said, but they did not see him”.
Then Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, and how hardhearted you are to believe all that was spoken by the prophets! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer all these things, and so enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and going on to all the prophets, he explained to them all the passages of Scripture that referred to him.
When they were near the town to which they were going, he pretended to go farther; but they urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is now evening and it will soon be dark.” And he went in to stay with them. When they were at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from them. And they said to one another, “No wonder our hearts burned, as he spoke to us on the way and explained the scriptures to us!”.
They arose immediately and returned to Jerusalem, where they found the Eleven gathered together with their companions, who said to them, “The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon.” Then they told what had happened to them on the road and how they had recognized him in the breaking of the bread.
Word of the Lord.
Meditate on what God tells you in the Gospel
Sometimes God meets us without our knowing it. Someone who seems to be on another wave because he does not understand what we are feeling, in the case of the disciples of Emmaus, their sadness. This feeling they had clouded their minds and did not allow them to recognize Jesus. We can be victims of a blindness that cannot be cured with an operation because it is deeper. Their heart believed something, they had different expectations from what happened, but the Lord knows how to meet them and change their lives.
Ask yourself today, how does Jesus come to meet you and want to talk to you? There are as many ways as there are people in the world. One of the lessons that this period of Holy Week leaves us with is that God has plans very different from those we can imagine, he wants to use means that we would not use, he does not want the easy way, but he commits himself to carry the cross with us and for us.
This Gospel passage also shows us a true attitude that is becoming more and more present in our society. This reality is that of turning away and not responding to God's love, or rather, giving it a negative response. Jesus is surprised and rebukes the disciples who, after having seen all that he had done and suffered, could not recognize who Jesus really was; they remained with the idea they had of him and could not get it out of their heads until Jesus himself came into their lives.
Ask the Lord not to be hard of heart to acknowledge and respond to him; to help you if you find yourself in this situation.
«The Gospel recounts the encounter of the risen Jesus with the disciples of Emmaus and how they recognized the Lord in the breaking of the bread. Christianity is an encounter with Jesus, the Christian is the one who allows himself to be encountered by the Lord. We are born with a seed of restlessness, even without knowing it: our heart thirsts for the encounter with God, it seeks him, often by the wrong paths. And God thirsts to meet us. We see that Jesus respects our path, he follows our times, he is the Lord of patience, he walks beside us, he listens to our concerns, he knows them. Today, in this Mass, we pray for all those who suffer from sadness, because they are alone or because they do not know what future awaits them or because they cannot carry on their family because they have no money, because they have no work. So many people who suffer from sadness. Let us pray for them today.»
(Homily of H.H. Francis, April 26, 2020, in Santa Marta).
Dialogue with Christ
This is the most important part of your prayer, prepare yourself to talk with much love with the One who loves you.
Purpose
Propose a personal one. The one that involves the most love in response to the Beloved... or, if you believe that this is what God is asking of you, live what is suggested below.
Invite Jesus to my home or some activity I am going to do today. He is a real person and wants to accompany me.
Farewell
We thank You, Lord, for all Your benefits, You who live and reign forever and ever.
Amen.
Christ, our King!
Thy Kingdom come!
Most prudent Virgin, Mary, Mother of the Church.
Pray for us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
