Burning Hearts: Reflections on the Readings for the Third Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

If you haven’t already read the readings you can find them here.

Acts 2:14, 22-43
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35

Are you passing up the opportunity to encounter Jesus in the Mass? Every Mass is an encounter with Jesus. It unifies us. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) explains that there are three aspects of this unification of Christ, the Church, and the people: “Unity of all her members with each other as a result of their union with Christ; Christ as head of the Body; and the Church as the bride of Christ.” (CCC 789)

On the day of the Resurrection, Jesus again united Himself with us in celebrating the Mass.

In the first reading we hear Peter, on the day of Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressing the crowd, “devout Jews from every nation under heaven.” Peter who, up until now we have seen as impetuous but fearful, even to the point of denying Jesus, and uneducated fisherman, standing boldly to tell these people, “listen to my words.”

He reminds them of mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through Him [Jesus] in your midst.” He invokes the memory of David, who said, “I saw the Lord ever before me,” and who “foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ.” He then tells them that “God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses.” The Resurrection isn’t a myth. There are witnesses.

In this psalm of David, we hear that our faith and trust is in the Lord, that He is “my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who hold fast my lot.” In one of the omitted phrases we hear, “They multiply their sorrows who court [choose] other gods.” Again we hear the importance of the choices we make, “I set the LORD ever before me.” The response gives us the explanation, “Lord, you will show us the path of life.”

The first letter of Peter also has many implications for us. First of all, he talks of how we conduct ourselves in the time of our sojourning. It reminds us that we are not of this world, that our time here is temporary, for a sojourn is to live in a place temporarily. He then reminds us that we will be judged by our works as we read in the letter to the Romans (2:6). And St. James reminds us “Indeed someone may say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.” The things we do, the way we treat our neighbors, witnesses to our faith.

Peter also reminds us of Jesus’ eternal existence and that His coming and Resurrection “gave him glory, so that your [our] faith and hope are in God.”

One of the many ways we can witness to our lives of faith and our hope in Jesus is through the Mass. The Mass is a direct connection with Jesus in His word (the readings and homily) and in the Eucharist. The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) tells us, “The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.” (Lumen Gentium 11, CCC 1324) The centrality of the Mass is brought out in today’s gospel reading from Luke.

There are some who say that the Mass is an invention of the Catholic Church, and some even go so far as to say that it did not occur until several centuries after the Resurrection. However, to do that they have to discount the Last Supper which began Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf culminating with His death on the Cross. Additionally, in today’s gospel we see that on the day of His Resurrection, Jesus celebrated the Mass with the two disciples on their way to the town of Emmaus. Aside from John chapter six (Bread of Life discourse), this is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament.

This encounter is broken down into the two main parts of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Jesus comes upon the two disciples who are discussing the events of His Crucifixion and death. They tell Him that some of the women of their group had gone to the tomb and finding it empty, encountered angels “who announced that he was alive.” Other disciples went to check this out, but they did not see the Lord.

At this Jesus went into a discourse about how this suffering was necessary and was all according to Scripture. “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.” So besides reviewing Scripture for them He also interpreted and explained its meaning with regard to Him or, in other words, gave them a homily. It is no wonder their hearts were burning within them. Who could give a better homily than Jesus Himself?

When they reached the village they asked Him to stay with them. Next comes the climax of the encounter. “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.” The implication here, of course, that, true to their request, He remained with them in the bread He had blessed, the Eucharist.

As we should also do when we leave the table of Jesus at Mass, they “they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem ... Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.”

How many of us do the same? We often hear, at the end of Mass, “Go forth, the Mass is ended.” But some of the other dismissals tell us what we are to do when we go forth: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” or “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” These echo words we have heard in the various gospels. In John we heard, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21) And in Matthew Jesus also sends us forth, “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. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

We get the word Mass from the Latin Missa, to send. This is also the root of the word mission. And thus we are a missionary people in a missionary Church. We have a purpose in life, given to us by Jesus and repeated at the end of every Mass.