Today's reflection on Luke 24:35-48 is by Fr. Kevin Flaherty, SJ.
Kevin is a Jesuit priest from Cincinnati, OH who has lived in Lima, Peru for more than 30 years. He is the spiritual director for Jesuit seminarians and offers spiritual and psychological accompaniment for priests, sisters, and pastoral ministers. On weekends he helps in a poor parish where he was previously pastor.
from Luke 24:35-48
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.” ...
Full Gospel: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042122.cfm
Our Gospel reading today from the 24th chapter of Luke places us with the disciples huddled in the upper room. They're listening to two disciples who had fled Jerusalem and returned to say, 'an unknown companion on the road became Jesus in the breaking of the bread.'
Jesus appears to them in their midst, with the greeting: "Shalom, peace be with you," but they can't hear that greeting. Their hearts can't take it in. They're trapped by their own fear; panic. They don't know what will happen to them. Will they too be tracked down as criminals and even tortured and killed?
They still think they're seeing a ghost and a ghost never brings anything good. A ghost comes to haunt and torment. So he says, "Give me to eat." and he eats with them. A piece of fish. Slowly, they open their eyes and their hearts and they realize: We are with Jesus.
The crucified Jesus is the Risen Lord. And that is our deepest mystery. Jesus is the fulfillment of all scripture. He has brought us his life. The Risen Lord isn't known by any new miracles. In fact, he often appears to people as with Mary, the gardener, an unknown companion on the road, the voice calling out from the beach, and he identifies himself through his wounds with Thomas; now with the disciples. That's the deepest mystery.
Jesus is the miracle. Jesus is life—the way the truth, and the life. That is what we receive in Jesus; in the resurrection. That's why we place a crucifix above our altar. That's why with any prayer that we make through the spirit—in the Risen Lord—to God, is done with the sign of the cross.
One of the things I've most appreciated and value in my life here in Peru, is sharing the life of poor people and their faith. Maria I first met in our Parish, in a very poor area, when she was a catechist 30 years ago.
She came from a very poor family; was always bubbly and a life-giver; loves working with children. And most of her life has been dedicated to caring for children in very, very poor areas of a slum; for children who often have nowhere to go after school and she creates community of learning and of joy and of faith.
That's her life, in the midst of which she's raised three kids, two of whom have finished college. She also carries a life-threatening illness, but you would never know it.
When you meet Maria, it's a smile, it's peace, it's joy, it's a joke, but inside, you know, she carries the Risen Lord; that all of her life and her suffering and her wounds have been united to Christ and she lives a faith giving life to others.
That's what makes us witnesses. Letting the Lord's Grace into our wounds—our vulnerability. Letting us be touched by God so that we can then live in peace in God's love. And when we have been touched by Christ and the Risen Lord, then we want to reach out to others.
Then we are gifted to discovering Christ in the poor—in the wounded—and those who share our journey of life.
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