Easter Octave 2018 - Thursday - Recounting our Encounters with the Risen Christ

Yesterday, we heard how Jesus had appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Today, we hear how those disciples return to Jerusalem, and, as missionaries, they recount their experience of seeing, speaking, engaging, and eating with the Risen Christ.

There is a perfect model for our own missionary discipleship, to recount to others our experience of seeing, speaking, engaging, and eating with the Risen Christ.

Share with others how you have seen God work in the world. How have you seen God mending wounds, where have you seen God working miracles. The disciples met God—met Jesus—on the road to Emmaus, where have you met God? In your family home growing up? On a retreat? In the catechism classroom? Or on the streets? In the destitute?

Share with others your experience of speaking with God? How has God spoken to you in your prayer life? Through what Saints has God spoken to you? What books or spiritual writings? What scripture passages have spoken to you in your own times of sorrow and dark valleys? What Church teachings have made the most difference in your life?

Share with others your experience of Jesus moving you, engaging you, sending you out. How has Jesus moved you out of your comfort zone? How has he converted you from one way of thinking to another? What virtues, spiritual gifts, spiritual fruits has he caused to grow in you? Share with others the joy and peace that comes from making a good confession.

And share with others your experience of encountering Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Share with others the importance of coming to Mass, Sunday Mass, Daily Mass, and eating with Him. Share with others how attending Mass has changed your life? What caused you, perhaps, of being lukewarm about Mass, to zealous for it?

“The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way.” Don’t be afraid to tell your story, to share, even in very simple terms, how you have encountered Jesus walking with you in your life’s journey. For right when the disciples shared their story, Jesus appeared in their midst, and continued to open their minds and hearts to the Scriptures, to the wisdom of God.

There are people in our lives who are longing to meet Jesus through these very means. Jesus wants to appear to the hard-hearted, the unbeliever, and the sorrowful. And he is waiting for us to share Him with them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received.

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

Easter Thursday 2017: He opened their minds to understand

Even though the disciples had the testimony of Mary, the testimony of Peter and John, the testimony of the disciples who had met the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, even though their very topic of conversation had been the resurrection, when the risen Jesus appears in the Gospel today, the disciples are panicked, fear-stricken, and confused.

Why? Because they did not understand. So, Jesus offers them peace, he meets them in their ignorance, and then helps them understand what has happened by opening the scriptures for them.
Here is a perfect model for evangelization. We are to go out into the very confused world, a world which denies Christ, which is really afraid of embracing Christ, offering peace to them, and helping them to understand.

It is one of the Act of Mercy to instruct the ignorant. Not only are we to proclaim THAT Jesus rose from the dead, but we must help them understand it, help them realize how that changes everything.
Instructing the ignorant is listed as first among the spiritual acts of mercy. We see Jesus instructing his disciples throughout the Gospels, and he even commands the apostles very clearly: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

While much of the world has heard about Jesus Christ, most are ignorant of what Jesus actually taught, the truths which are passed on faithfully and taught clearly by the Holy Catholic Church.
To Communicate the truth of our faith is certainly more than memorizing a lecture and entries from the catechism. We are to witness to the resurrection in our way of life: what we buy, when and where we work, how we talk, how we dress, why types of entertainment we engage in, are engagement in politics and volunteer work, all this must point to the our belief that Jesus is risen.

But still, to be able to communicate clearly the Catholic faith, to be able to open the scriptures and help people understand, we must prepare ourselves for this work through study—the constant “renewal of our minds” as St. Paul says. To not only explain what we believe but why we believe it.
Many people know that the Church teaches that abortion, contraception, homosexual activity, IVF, are sinful, but not really why she teaches these things—the biblical foundations and also the natural law and the science behind them.

The Spiritual gift of understanding is given to every Catholic in their baptism—He’s “opened our minds to understand” and we are to cultivate that gift to the best of our ability, through prayer and study, that we may give ever clearer and faithful witness to the resurrection of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with paschal joy, let us pray more earnestly to God that he, who graciously listened to the prayers and supplications of his beloved Son, may now be pleased to look upon us in our lowliness.
1. For the shepherds of our souls, that they may have the strength to govern wisely, the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd.
2. For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace given by Christ.
3. For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness which no one can take from them.
4. For our own community, that it may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ Our Lord.