Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. – Luke 24:16

       The Walk to Emmaus is a favorite opening Bible story of mine every time I give retreats. It never fails to make my retreatants immediately reflect. How on earth could the two not recognize Jesus when they were supposed to know Him well? They were His disciples! They saw Him, followed Him, walked with Him, and lived with Him.

       Some scholars say Jesus’ appearance changed when He rose again from the dead, a possible reason why the two didn’t recognize Him. But you can get a practical answer and clue in the reading itself. They were downcast. They were frustrated and disappointed. Jesus, their only hope, died right before their eyes. They felt depressed and defeated. They thought it was over.

       It’s OK to feel down and sad. But don’t dwell on it too long. Because when restoration comes, when victory happens, when the Resurrected Christ appears in your life — and He will — you might miss seeing Him. Because you got used to “looking down.”

       Today, start looking up. Because when everything seems to have died on you and there seems no other way to go, that’s the time you look up! Alvin Barcelona (apb_ayo@yahoo.com)

Reflection:Has something died in your life? A relationship, your finances, your dreams? Don’t look down too long. Your resurrection is coming. Prepare to recognize it!

Lord, I believe that like You, I too will be resurrected. Grant me the faith to dwell on the things that will rise and live again. Amen.

St. Gianna Beretta Molla, pray for us.

More than alms, Peter and John gave the beggar what he truly needed – healing. The miracle resulted from their deep faith and prayers, the same way they witnessed Jesus minister to the sick and the poor. The Acts of the Apostles relates the miracles worked by the Apostles. This shows that the Apostles serve under the grace of the Lord.

1 Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. 2 And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. 4 But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” 7 Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. 8 He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.

R: Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord.

1 Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name; make known among the nations his deeds. 2 Sing to him, sing his praise, proclaim all his wondrous deeds. (R) 3 Glory in his holy name; rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord! 4 Look to the Lord in his strength; seek to serve him constantly. (R) 6 You descendants of Abraham, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones! 7 He, the Lord, is our God; throughout the earth his judgments prevail. (R) 8 He remembers forever his covenant which he made binding for a thousand generations — 9 which he entered into with Abraham and by his oath to Isaac. (R)

Like the two disciples who encounter Jesus on the way to Emmaus, it takes time for us to recognize the presence of Jesus. Sometimes we become busy that we lose our faith perspective. We shift from faith mode to self-reliant mode. Let us always be aware that Christ is with us at all times and be comforted by His presence.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.

13 That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, 14 and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. 15 And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, 16 but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. 17 He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. 18 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?” 19 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, 20 how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. 21 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. 22 Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning 23 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. 24 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.” 25 And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. 28 As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. 29 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. 30 And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. 31 With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. 32 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?” 33 So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them 34 who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” 35 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.

think: Where is your “Road to Emmaus” — the place where God surprised you recently?

Read the Bible in one year Leviticus 23-24

T O D A Y’S BLESSING LIST

thank You, Lord, for: ______________________________________________________

HEARTS THAT SEEK THE LORD

Yesterday, we said that the biblical heart is more than just an emotional fount and repository. The heart is the center and seat of thought, the central node of the person from where decisions, not just emotions, begin.

          To be cut to the heart is not just to be affected emotionally. It means to be affected in the totality of one’s personhood, to be touched to one’s core. 

      The two disciples on the way to Emmaus “looked downcast” as they discussed “all the things that had occurred.” Though we do not need to read too much to what is said, I do read a little sadness. I sense some disappointment and an experience of being clouded in some way as far as their vision was concerned. “Their eyes were prevented from seeing Him.”

          I would like you to go back to a particular occasion, among possibly many, when you felt down and out, when God has seemingly “turned off all the lights.”

       It happened to a father and his young son in the catastrophic earthquake in Armenia in 1989, as reported by Scott Hahn. An 8.2-magnitude earthquake had devastated Armenia where 30 thousand people died. He had told his son many times, “No matter what happens, Armand, I’ll always be there.” Knowing that his son’s school crumbled like an accordion, he lost no time in digging, using his bare hands. He dug till his hands were raw, and on the 38th hour, he heard a muffled groan under a piece of what used to be the wall. He pried the board open and cried: “Armand!” And from the darkness came the response, “Papa!”

       It was a case of a father’s heart burning with love for his son, and a son’s heart equally in flames. It was exactly the same case of the two mourning disciples whose “hearts’ intention” was never to give in to despair. Even as they moved away from Jerusalem, their hearts were burning inside them — open to finding what they searched for.

       “Rejoice, O hearts that seek the Lord!” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

---------- REFLECTION QUESTION ----------

When was the time you felt afire with hope, as if Jesus had answered your prayer at the 11th hour?

Lord Jesus, as I grope in the darkness, let me hear Your gentle voice saying, “I am here. Come to me.” Amen.