1st Reading – Acts 2:14, 22-33

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
You who are Israelites, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:
‘I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

“My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father
and poured him forth, as you see and hear.”

Today’s first reading is part of Peter’s Pentecost speech, which he gives immediately after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:1-13).

In this speech, Peter teaches about the risen Christ in the same way that Jesus teaches about himself in today’s gospel reading. He proclaims that Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews crucified, is the eagerly awaited Messiah promised by God.

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you, and listen to my words. You who are Israelites, hear these words.

Saint Peter emerges as the spokesman of the apostles from the first moments of the Church’s existence.

Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.

Peter explains that the messianic times foretold by the prophets have now arrived, beginning with a reminder of the miracles Jesus performed, which were witnessed by members of this audience.

The Jewish nation believed that the messianic age would be inaugurated by signs, wonders, and miracles that demonstrated the mighty power of God. Jesus himself appealed to this belief when earlier in his public ministry he responded to the question posed by John the Baptist (Matthew 11:5; Isaiah 35:5): the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.

These proofs from prophecy were foundational for the ability of the Jewish people to accept this teaching.

This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.

Peter places responsibility for Jesus’ death at the feet of both the Jewish people and the Roman officials. The first group handed him over; the second put him to death. However, this is not a sign of God’s disfavor, as his audience would have been inclined to believe: this all happened according to the plan and with the foreknowledge of God.

Also, we should remember that Peter is talking to members of his own religious community, lest we allow his accusation to be interpreted in an anti-Judaic manner.

But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it.

God’s preordination of Jesus’ death does not diminish the people’s guilt. Sin is no less malignant because God uses it for good, and the sinner had no share in God’s salvific intentions.

God triumphs through human actions rather than despite them.

For David says of him:

Peter quotes the Greek version of Psalm 16:8-11, a psalm attributed to King David. It is the only use of Psalm 16 in the New Testament.

‘I saw the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted; my flesh, too, will dwell in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

This is a psalm of trust; King David has faith that God will protect him.

The tradition of Davidic authorship of the Psalms and the divine pledge of David’s everlasting dynasty (2 Samuel 7:12-16) play a key role in Saint Luke’s scriptural proof that Jesus is the Christ.

My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day.

In the psalm, King David was expressing his trust that God would not let him die from the difficulty he was facing at the time. In light of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the early Church saw a new level of meaning in the words.

Because David did ultimately die (1 Kings 2:10 tells us that David is buried in Jerusalem, and his tomb at Siloam was well known), Peter is pointing out that the psalm must not refer to David himself.

But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption.

When the words of Psalm 16 are applied to Jesus instead of David, they foreshadow the resurrection: Jesus’ body did not suffer corruption in the grave; rather, he rose from the dead.

Since Jesus was a descendant of David, Peter uses Psalm 132:11 to support this interpretation: The Lord swore an oath to David, a sure oath he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne.”

Since Psalm 16 cannot apply to David himself, it must be referring to the messianic descendant of David that God promised.

Peter isn’t claiming that David foretold Jesus’ resurrection, but rather that God’s hidden purposes are buried in the words of scripture. In light of the resurrection, these words now have a deeper level of meaning.

God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.

Peter punctuates his scriptural proofs with the apostles’ personal testimony to the resurrection of Jesus.

Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, 

This is one of the earliest statements about the inner workings of the Trinity.

as you see and hear.”

Peter speaks now under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who has been poured forth. Notice the corresponding change that has been worked in Peter: he preaches and argues boldly, whereas a mere fifty days earlier he had trembled at the word of a servant girl (see Luke 22:54-62).

2nd Reading – 1 Peter 1:17-21

Beloved:
If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially
according to each one’s works,
conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.

He was known before the foundation of the world
but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are in God.

This week we delve a little further into Saint Peter’s first apostolic letter.

Peter was originally called Simeon in Hebrew (Simon being the Greek form of the name). Jesus renamed him Kepha (Hebrew/Aramaic) or Petros (Greek), transliterated in some texts as Cephas. Simon Peter was a native of Bethsaida, a city in Galilee. Like his father John and his brother Andrew, he was a fisherman. We know that he was married because Jesus healed his mother-in-law (Matthew 8:14).

In today’s reading, Peter looks carefully at the cost of salvation and the responsibilities that accompany it.

Beloved: if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works,

Invoking God as Father may be a reference to praying the Lord’s Prayer, which Christians may have recited while performing baptisms from the very beginning.

The Didache (also known as Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, an anonymous text of the apostolic era) tells us that Christians prayed the Lord’s Prayer three times a day (cf. 8, 3).

conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,

We must remember that while God is infinitely merciful, he is also infinitely just. There is judgment, he is the judge, and we must conduct ourselves accordingly.

The “sojourning” to which Peter refers is our time on earth. A sojourn is a journey to a clearly defined destination.

realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors,

Using the image of ransoming to explain our redemption in Christ is probably drawn from the prevalent practice of sacred manumission in Asia Minor and Greece during that period. This practice involved liberating a slave by depositing a certain amount of money at the temple.

Peter’s audience was ransomed by God from the futile behavior they inherited from their ancestors.

not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.

The price of this redemption was neither gold nor silver but the blood of Christ.

Ancient Israelite Law stated that the Passover sacrifice was to be a spotless unblemished lamb (Exodus 12:5). Christian faith maintains that Christ was the only perfect lamb, and it was his blood that ransomed us — a redemption that was prophesied by Isaiah (52:3).

“If the unfortunate Jews observe the Sabbath in such a way that they do not dare to do any secular work on it, how much more should those who have been “redeemed, not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ,’ pay attention to their price and devote themselves to God on the day of His resurrection, thinking more diligently of the salvation of their souls?” [Caesar of Arles (A.D. 542), Sermons, 73,4]

In light of this redemption, Christians have an obligation to “conduct themselves with reverence” while on the journey of this life. If they fail to do so, they (and we) will be subject to divine judgment.

He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our faith and hope; it is also the main proof of Jesus’ divinity and his divine mission. Here we see a continuation of Peter’s proclamation of the resurrection, which was the core of apostolic teaching and began in our first reading as the Church was taking its very first steps.

The structure and phrasing of this final verse suggest that God had planned for Jesus to die and be resurrected since the beginning. Humanity’s redemption by the blood of Christ wasn’t just a remedy for humanity’s sinfulness.

Gospel – Luke 24:13-35

That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
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 were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
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 enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.

The story of encountering Christ on the road to Emmaus is one of the best-known resurrection stories. Besides being a beautifully written story, it contains many important theological themes. There is a parallel account in Mark 16:12-13.

That very day, the first day of the week,

This reading occurs immediately after Luke’s empty tomb story and before Jesus appears to the eleven disciples in Jerusalem. Notice it is “that very day,” the first day of the week when the empty tomb is discovered — the first Easter Sunday.

two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,

It’s been suggested that these two may be part of the seventy-two (or seventy) disciples sent out in pairs in Luke 10:1. The name Emmaus means “hot spring”; the location of the village is unknown today.

and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

Even though the two disciples are thinking and talking about Jesus, when Jesus joins them they do not recognize him. They were not apostles or intimate friends with Jesus, but disciples — which simply means they were followers.

The disciples were probably returning home from their Passover celebration, and they likely assumed that the unrecognized Jesus was a fellow traveler on the road for the same reason.

In Luke’s gospel, the theme of “seeing” is important, as shown in this story. The risen Christ will open the disciples’ eyes to see his true meaning in God’s plan.

He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast.

The two disciples are completely dejected because their hopes about Jesus have been dashed.

One of them, named Cleopas,

The writings of Eusebius, a Greek historian and 4th-century bishop, tell us that Cleopas was the brother of Joseph, Jesus’ foster father. He was also the father of Symeon, who succeeded James as Bishop of Jerusalem and after 70 AD led the Christians back to Jerusalem. (See Eusebius’ The History of The Church (3.11).)

said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” 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 were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. 

This account gives us a clear picture of the disillusionment felt by the disciples after the crucifixion, which appeared to them as a total failure.

Remarkably, they are not reluctant to describe the events of the past few days and admit they had believed Jesus was the Messiah. At a time when those closest to Jesus seem to have withdrawn in fear for their own safety, these disciples are boldly telling a stranger that they had believed in him.

Their faithfulness sets the stage for a revelation of God.

Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.

The disciples had stayed in Jerusalem long enough to hear the women’s report of an empty grave and of angels, but they obviously did not believe them or they wouldn’t be feeling downcast.

Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”

This is a reference to Peter and John (John 20:3-10).

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 Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 

Many Jews, including many of Jesus’ disciples, expected an earthly and political Messiah — someone who would overthrow the Roman occupation and restore the Davidic kingdom.

Jesus dispels this notion by pointing out the necessity of the cross. The crucifixion did not mean failure; it is the means chosen by God for Christ to achieve ultimate victory over sin and death (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).

Christ’s mission is not a political or military one, but a supernatural one: to save all mankind.

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.

Jesus, still unrecognized, explains how the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures pointed to him, enabling them to see the saving hand of God in his own suffering and death.

The teaching method that we have seen over and over in Matthew’s gospel — reinterpreting the words of the prophets in light of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection — is here attributed to the risen Christ. What a Bible study that must have been!

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. 

Jesus was not play-acting, he really would have departed had he not been invited to stay. Jesus never forces himself upon anyone; he wants us to come to him of our own volition.

But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

The disciples take this opportunity to reveal their true character. As we will see, their eyes will only be fully opened after they show hospitality to a stranger.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.

This is obviously eucharistic language; Jesus is doing exactly what he had done at the Last Supper.

We experience the same today at Mass: Jesus first nourishes us on the word of God in Scripture, then with the Bread of Life.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

The phrase translated as “eyes were opened” occurs only eight times in the New Testament; in each case, it means a deeper understanding of revelation.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”

The disciples heard the Scriptures interpreted in a way that had never occurred to them before. Jesus has revealed how his death and resurrection were truly in accord with the Scriptures.

This causes their hearts to burn within them; they have been waiting to hear this their entire lives.

People’s hearts also burned during our first reading when Peter interpreted Psalm 16 in a similar revelatory way: Acts 2:41 tells us that three thousand accepted Christ and were baptized that day.

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem

The disciples finally understand that Jesus is still alive and in their midst. Filled with new strength, they rush back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

Notice that the two disciples are not at all upset at the loss (again) of their leader. In fact, they are anxious to tell the apostles of their discovery.

where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”

Until now, the two returning disciples hadn’t heard about the other disciples’  encounter with the Risen Christ.

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The movement of the narrative follows the pattern of early Christian worship:

• the Christian story is remembered (the disciples’ profession of what transpired),
• it is then interpreted (Jesus’ explanation of the scriptures in light of what they had witnessed), and
• the breaking of bread follows.

This is the basic form of our Mass to this day.

Connections and Themes

Life is a journey.  Life is a journey, not a static reality. And it’s not just our own journey, it’s one we join that is already in progress. We join those who have gone before us: they have forged a path, they have discovered dark valleys and places of refreshment along the way.

We cannot journey alone — we need each other for encouragement and support, and to draw on the talents and insights of all.

Surprises along the way.  The way we ordinarily negotiate an earthly journey is not reflective of the true nature of the spiritual journey. The two disciples on their way to Emmaus had certain expectations of Jesus that were unmet. They hoped he would save Israel but did not expect his death. They also thought they were merely talking with a fellow traveler.

They did not realize that Jesus had indeed redeemed Israel, along with all of humanity, much less that this was accomplished through his death.

The same can be said for us. There is something happening in our lives that we may not fully comprehend. Christ is always with us as a close companion throughout our journey, and it is God who has laid out the journey’s parameters and is continuously at work within it. Perhaps we don’t recognize this because, like the disciples on the way to Emmaus, we are “slow of heart to believe.” We fail to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. We do not see the hand of God in our lives. Often we need someone to help us interpret both our spiritual tradition and the events of life.

With hearts burning within us. Once we realize that Jesus is with us throughout our lives, our hearts will burn within us, our eyes will be opened, and we will look at life with eyes of faith. We will be able to see the hand of God in the ordinary events of life and share this revelation with others. This Easter faith will transform our discouragement into a desire to spread the message. Some of us may be called to publically profess our faith like Peter, but most of us will communicate through the example of our actions, as expressed in the words of Francis of Assisi: “Preach the gospel always, and if necessary, use words.” We can all experience this mystery when we recognize him as we break bread together.