THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER: YEAR A EMMAUS: STAY WITH US LORD

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER: YEAR A

EMMAUS: STAY WITH US LORD

ENTRANCE ANTIPHON

♥ The entrance antiphon of today uses phrases: “…JOY, SING…”

♥ when the Lord is [stays] with us, we cannot but be joyful, we sing for joy.

COLLECT

♥ Today’s collect uses the phrase: “…May your people EXULT forever in renewed YOUTHFULNESS of Spirit… REJOICE now… REJOICE in heave…”

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS

♥ “….offering of your EXULTANT Church….You have given her cause of for such GRATE GLADNESS…”

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS

♥ “… the INCORRUPTIBLE GLORY of the Resurrection…”

FIRST READING (ACTS: 2:14, 23-33)

♥ “ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST”: The Holy Spirit is playing a great role in the life of peter and his apostles. And one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is JOY

♥ We sing a hymn: “If the SPIRIT OF THE LORD is in my soul like David the victor I will sing…”

♥ PETER STOOD UP WITH THE ELEVEN: When Jesus was arrested Peter was hiding. Now he is COURAGEOUSLY, with LOUD VOICE telling the people of Israel about JESUS.

♥ ARE WE AFRAID to proclaim Christ in words and action? Here Peter is preaching FEARLESSLY and in the Gospel we will find TWO DISCIPLES, after recognizing the Lord, INSTANTLY GO AT NIGHT to tell about Jesus to their friends.

♥ SHEMA: HEAR O ISRALE (Dt 6:4-5): it is connected with listening: it is more than sound waves entering our ears. It means pay ATTENTION to or FOCUS on, it means RESPONDING to what you hear. Listening to God means keeping the COVENANT God made with us. That means to LISTEN and to OBEY. In Hebrew there is no word for DOING. SHEMA means both LISTENING and DOING.

♥ In the Gospel Reading we find two disciples LISTENING to JESUS all along the way. As a FAITHFUL how do I LISTEN to the WORD OF GOD and as a PASTOR how do I BREAK the word of God. Jesus is breaking the Word of God so beautifully. Do I break it piece by piece? Peter is preaching Christ so courageously. Do I listen to God speaking to me through various people and events. Do I respond to him.

♥ JESUS WAS PUT INTO THEIR POWER BY DELIBERATE INTENTION AND FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD. The same thing happened to Job. Do we grumble when something wrong goes into our life. How do we respond to our pain, suffering, trials and temptations?

♥ …YOU KILLED HIM… yes we kill Jesus through our sins, bad examples, or make him alive in by LISTENING to his WORD and living it in our life.

♥ DAVID: I SAW THE LORD BEFORE ME ALWAYS: Jesus is always with us in the EUCHARIST. He himself said: “I am with you ALWAYS till the end of life” (Mt 28:20) He said: “I am the ALPHA and the OMEGA- the beginning and the end” (Rev 1:8). Do we go for FREQUENT VISITS to the BLESSED SACRAMENT as told to us by Don Bosco?

♥ DAVID: he too speaks about= gladness, joy, hope, being filled with gladness through GOD’S PRESENCE. In the EUCHARIST we have the REAL PRESENCE, the ARK OF THE COVENANT, which was always with the people of Israel, CLOUD BY DAY AND FIRE BY NIGHT, the alpha and omega, I am with you always till the end of life…JESUS is also called the SON OF DAVID.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM

♥ KEEP THE LORD EVER IN YOUR SIGHT: This is the same language that David uses in the first reading who said I SAW THE LORD BEFORE ME ALWAYS.

♥ “There is FULLNESS OF JOY IN YOUR PRESENCE:” Do we find our joy in God’s presence or in money, wealth, sex, clothing, material possession, pornography, blue films, drugs, drinks etc.. The Psalmist says: ONE DAY WITHIN YOUR COURT IS BETTER THAN THOUSAND ELSEWHERE (Ps 84:10) Do we come for SUNDAY SERVICE [EUCHARIST] to find fullness of joy in our life.

SECOND READING

♥ Today’s second reading uses the word RANSOM= it means, “a WRITTEN NOTE OF MY PUNISHMENT IS CANCELLED. I don’t have to go to the court. It is as though a potential bomb has been defused. And we commemorate this event in the EUCHARIST= body broken for you, blood shed for you. He did this for our USELESS WAY OF LIFE. Peter said in the first reading: YOU KILLED HIM. Our useless way of life killed Jesus sinless though he was. ARE WE STILL LIVING A USELESS WAY OF LIFE.

GOSPEL READING

♥ The TWO DISCIPLES in the Gospel reading are you and I. we too get DISCOURAGED with life and try to RUN AWAY FROM OUR PROBLEMS, pains and suffering. It is so sad to know that so many young people have COMMITTED SUICIDE out of discouragement.

♥ On the way, they were unburdening their pain, discussing what happened with them, with their master, how injustice was done to Jesus, how he was killed. How some women told them that his body was not found. At this moment Jesus himself comes up, HE JOINS THEM and WALKS by their side. CAN YOU SEE JESUS WALKING WITH YOU IN YOUR LIFE, IN YOUR ORDINARY, DAILY LIFE.

♥ Jesus asks: WHAT MATTERS are you discussing= this show that Jesus is interested in our life. Do we go often to meet him, to be with him, to spent time with him.

♥ SOMETHING PREVENTED THEM FROM RECOGNIZING THE LORD. What prevents us from recognizing the Lord, from meeting the Lord in the daily EUCHARIST, in the CONFESSIONAL, in our DAILY LIFE while encountering our neighbours, in our work place =, is it our pride, sin, money, wealth, sinfulness…  

♥ CLEOPAS’ KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS: that Jesus is = Jesus of Nazareth, great prophet, said the did good things and FOUND FAVOUR in front of God and people. This is not enough. Jesus is not yet the “LORD AND SAVIOR OF CLEOPAS”. What is our knowledge of Jesus.

♥ CLEOPAS’ HOPE: That he would set Israel free. What is our hope. What are you hoping from the Lord? Is it eternal life/salvation or something lower than that like cleopas.

♥ WOMEN: Jesus showed himself to the women before than men. Why not men first. We were with him all the time.

♥ DID NOT FIND THE BODY: Jesus had told on the Cross to the good thief: TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE. And how can you expect his body to be in the tomb. But the creed says: “ON THE THIRD DAY he rose again. How do struggle with this. For him THOUSAND YEARS ARE LIKE YESTERDAY and come and gone. “TODAY OR ON THE THIRD DAY” is our problem-problem of human beings. God is ALPHA AND OMEGA. He is the same YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER (Heb 13:8). 

♥ JESUS EXPLAINS TO THEM THE SCRIPTURE THAT TELLS ABOUT HIMSELF: Jesus is BREAKING THE WORD of God. He TAKES CARE to explain everything. Do we, PRIESTS the ministers of the Word of God, take that much of care to break the word of God? Do we prepare ourselves? If not than our people will be as Jesus said: FOOLISH MEN, SLOW TO BELIEVE. When people have weak faith, to some extend WE ARE TO BE BLAMED. We have not taken care to break the word of God properly. On the other hand as disciples/faithful people of God have we listened to/ SHEMA God’s word attentively like the two disciples. Some come late, after the word of God.

♥ STAY WITH US LORD: Do we ask the Lord to stay with us or we allow him to go away. After we go away from these TWO TABLES: TABLE OF THE WORD AND THE TABLE OF THE EUCHARIST, will Jesus continue to stay with us till the next Sunday or we let him go just after we leave this church.

♥ … AT THE BRAKING OF THE BREAD THEIR EYES WERE OPENED: at the breaking of the bread the yes of the disciples were opened. At the eating of the fruit, the eyes of Adam and eve were opened. Jesus has brought us new apple the Eucharist and when we eat this ‘new apple’ we don’t’ feel afraid, shy, like Adam and Eve but we are filled with joy, hope and courage like Peter who is preaching today in the first reading, we become courageous like the two disciples.

♥ JESUS VANISHED FROM THEIR SIGHT: Jesus had promised to stay with them. He did not simple VANISHED. The disciples could not see him because he was no more outside. JESUS WAS INSIDE IN THEIR HEART AND SOUL. Jesus not only ‘stays’ with them but he takes one more step: he stays in their soul and heart. Similar thing happens during the Eucharistic celebration. The priest consecrates the body and blood and the priest breaks it and shows it to the people HOLY COMMUNION/JESUS disappears physically and “STAY WITH US LORD” in our hearts and soul.

♥ DID NOT OUR HEART BURN WITHIN US AS HE TALKED AND EXPLAINED THE SCRIPTURES?: Word of God has that property of making our hearts burn. There is light in the word of God. “Thy word is a LAMP unto my feet and LIGHT unto my path” (Ps 119:105). Walk by this light. That is way the RESPONSORIAL PSALM says: “SHOW ME the path of life” 

Jeremiah 5:14 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts: “Because they have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire, and this people wood, and the fire shall devour them.”

 ♥ INSTANTLY THEY SET OUT THAT NIGHT: it was already dark, after re aching Emmaus they might have taken time to cook the bread, there was no gas cylinder at that time. It must have got very late and yet they went out to tell their friends. At the end of the Mass [after breaking the bread] the priest says “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” we too after having encountered the Lord, need to go courageously and shared this good news with others.

♥ There is the presence of God in the Eucharist and in the Community. Where two or three are gathering in my name I am there. The two disciples went to Jerusalem. In the community.

♥ The Lord says: Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood I will be in you and you will be in me.

♥ John 6:54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has ETERNAL LIFE, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. (Joh 6:54 NJB)

♥ How many Priest celebrate Mass shabbily

♥ Some come with MOBILE NUMBER written in their palms.

♥  John 6:51 “I am the LIVING BREAD which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will LIVE FOR EVER; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.” (Jn 6:51 NJB)

♥ What is the difference between animals and us if our life does not last forever. There is no use of living this life if it is going to end at the graveyard. St. Augustine says: we become what we eat.

♥ John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not HUNGER, and he who believes in me shall NEVER THIRST” (Jn 6:35 RSV)

♥ in the Retreat centers some can be in front of the blessed sacrament only by drinking water.

♥ We have HUNGER FOR WEALTH, money: it does not go away. No matter how much we make money, this hunger does not go away.

♥ Some have got the HUNGER FOR LUST. They are married, have husband/wife, have children but the hunger and thirst of this lust does not go away. It makes them restless. But when we begin to rest in front of the Blessed Sacrament he frees us from this.

♥ From today whenever you come to the Eucharistic table, consider it as your most important duty. We prepare a lot for going to PARTY, OFFICE but for SUNDAY MASS prepare much more than that. Teach others as well, teach your children. Some parents PRINT CARD FOR THE FIRST COMMUNION of their children. They are passing a very important message to their children. Teach our young people about the body and blood of Christ.