Lk 24: 35-48
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Patiently Helping Us to Understand
Early in his transformation of faith, the future St. Ignatius spent an unplanned eleven months in Manresa, Spain. For him, it was a time of powerful emotional and spiritual ferment – strong desolations, false consolations and, eventually, deeper consolations and perceptions that formed a basis for the Spiritual Exercises. Ignatius later said of himself: “At this time God treated him just as a schoolmaster treats a little boy when he teaches him. This perhaps was because of his rough and uncultivated understanding…”
In the Gospel today, Jesus similarly acts like a kind teacher to the frightened and confused disciples. He first gently convinces them that he is not a ghost, then patiently opens their understanding of his death and resurrection and points them toward their continuing mission. The risen Jesus, mercifully, is no longer a teacher who might justifiably get frustrated by the dullness of his students.
—Allain Andry is the Charlotte cohort coordinator for Contemplative Leaders in Action, an Ignatian spirituality and leadership program for young adults that is a program of the Office of Ignatian Spirituality. He is also a spiritual director at St. Peter Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, the Jesuit parish in the Diocese of Charlotte.
Prayer
Jesus, why am I troubled and why do doubts arise in my heart? This Easter season, open my mind and heart to understanding of your Passion and Resurrection. Grant me the grace to be, like the disciples, a witness of these things. Amen.
—Allain Andry