Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
April 3, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040324.cfm

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They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we had hoped that he would be the one to redeem Israel …

… And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and so enter into his glory?”

Luke 24: 19-21; 25-26

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The Emmaus disciples travel home confused, disappointed, walking on the thin edge of doubt, caught in the pluperfect form of hope that struggles to believe.

How special these two must have been to Jesus that he comes to them to soothe and redeem their bewilderedness!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Each of us walks the road of faith, sometimes confident, and sometimes as befuddled as these two on the way to Emmaus. Good friends – holy friends – help us open our eyes to the presence of God in our lives. We pray in gratitude for the companions who accompany us on our life journey. We consider our openness to God’s presence in our companionship, and ask for the grace to inspire one another’s faith.

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Poetry: Emmaus Journey by Irene Zimmerman, OSF – from Incarnation: New and Selected Poems for Spiritual Reflection

All was chaos when he died.
We fled our separate ways at first,
then gathered again in the upper room
to chatter blue-lipped prayers
around the table where he’d talked
of love and oneness. 

On the third day Cleopas and I
left for the home we’d abandoned
in order to follow him.



We wanted no part of the babble
the women had brought from the tomb.
We vowed to get on with our grieving. 

On the road we met a Stranger
whose voice grew vaguely familiar
as he spoke of signs and suffering.

By the time we reached our village,
every tree and bush was blazing
and we pressed him to stay the night. 

Yet not till we sat at the table
and watched the bread being broken
did we see the Light.

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Music: I Can See (The Emmaus Road) – Steve Green