Thursday in the Octave of Easter

Let’s set the stage for today’s Gospel story in Luke.

The apostles are gathered listening to the story of the two disciples recounting their experience of the risen Lord on the way to Emmaus. Then mysteriously, Jesus appears in their midst. They are startled and terrified! And Jesus does two things: 1) He wishes them peace. 2) He asks them if they have any food to eat.

We have Peter, who denied Jesus just days ago. All the disciples present, except John, had deserted Jesus in his darkest hour. “Doubting” Thomas is not there.

Familiar? How often have we “denied” Jesus when we encountered a pushy vagabond asking for a dollar? Or uncomfortable with someone not properly dressed or with the program at Mass? Or the family member or neighbor who says something that offends us? Or? Or? Or we had something better to do, or were preoccupied and missed Jesus’ presence in the present moment? Or too terrified to speak out or up about some injustice in our midst? Or were we walking in the woods and missed being dazzled by all the miracles in nature? So many ways to miss seeing the Lord.

Franciscan Richard Rohr OFM suggests in his book The Universal Christ that the Christ of faith and the Jesus who eats with sinners, heals everyone who comes to him, befriends the woman at the well, and the woman “caught in adultery,” who in this spectacular moment asks, “Have you anything to eat?” is one and the same. Jesus in the flesh, who walked the dusty roads of ancient Palestine, and the glorified Jesus who was raised just days before. There he was in their midst. And there he is every day in our midst.

What lesson will I/you take away from today’s Gospel reading?

Let Us Pray:

O LORD, how glorious is your name over all the earth! All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field. The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas. O LORD, how glorious is your name over all the earth! (From today’s Responsorial Psalm)