The Death and Resurrection of the Christ is God’s Divine Plan
Acts 2:14, 22-33
In the First Reading, on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after Jesus’ Resurrection, St. Peter addressed a Jewish crowd after the miracle of God the Holy Spirit filling and indwelling the disciples gathered in the Upper Room of the Last Supper (Acts 2:1-13). In delivering the address, St. Peter exercised his role as the Vicar of Christ and the ordained leader of the Church (Mt 16:17-19). This passage is the first of the sermons Peter delivered, giving the kerygma (Greek for “proclamation”) ofthe Gospel message of salvation (Acts 2:14-39; 3:12-26; 4:8-12; 5:29-32; 10:34-43). Each of Peter’s addresses delivered the substance of the Gospel message of salvation in Jesus Christ, the theme of which we proclaim in the Second Memorial Acclamation at Mass: “Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord Jesus, come in glory!”
In the Second Reading, St. Peter describes the effect of Christ’s death and resurrection on believers in the context of the Egyptian Passover liberation. The Christian’s faith journey is like the Exodus Passover experience of Israel. Christians are sojourners in a strange land, delivered by the blood of an unblemished Passover victim, Jesus Christ.
Christians first experience His deliverance passing through the waters of Baptism just as the Israelites passed out of slavery through the waters of the Red Sea to become free people who journeyed to the Promised Land. The Sacrament of Baptism transforms us from someone enslaved to sin and death into a new creation in Christ. Guided by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s gift of the Sacraments, we make our way on our faith journey through this earthly existence on our way to eternity in the Promised Land of Heaven. We have hope and faith in our final deliverance from the sufferings of our temporal life because God raised Jesus from the dead according to His foreknowledge and divine plan determined before the creation of the world.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ disciples from Emmaus respond to both God’s word in Sacred Scripture and His sacramental sign when they recognize Jesus in the “breaking of the bread.” Their response was a reversal of the condition of Adam and Eve when their “eyes were opened” to sin. The wording “their eyes were opened” is the same in the Greek translation of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace in Genesis 3:7 and repeated in Luke 24:31 and 35. Jesus “opened” the Scriptures to the Emmaus disciples in the same way He brought about the “opening” of their eyes in the breaking of the bread. The miracle continues as the ears and eyes of the faithful in every generation continue to be “opened” to Christ in hearing His message of salvation in the Liturgy of the Word and in recognizing Christ in the breaking of the bread in the Eucharist.
Do you recognize that Christ the Lord is “risen today”? Do you share your experience of Christ with others by talking about the difference Jesus has made in your life? Have you considered joining a Bible Study to learn about how God’s plan for man’s salvation in the Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ, so you will understand and recognize Christ like the Emmaus disciples in the “breaking of the bread” that becomes Christ in the Eucharist?
There is a significant similarity between Jesus’ actions at the dinner with the Emmaus disciples and the events of the Lord’s Supper in Luke 22:14-19:
Luke 22:14-19 (Lord’s Supper)
Luke 24:30 (Emmaus meal)
he took his place at table with the apostles
while he was with them at table
Then he took the bread
he took the bread
said the blessing
said the blessing
broke it and gave it to them
broke it and gave it to them
Jesus’ actions at the meal with the Emmaus disciples are the very same as those of Jesus at the Last Supper three days earlier (as the ancients counted with the Passover meal taking place at sundown that became the Jewish Friday). That night, Jesus took, blessed, and broke the bread (see Lk 22:19). It was in the “breaking of the bread” that the Emmaus disciples’ spiritual eyes were “opened,” and they recognized/knew the Christ!
