Sunday 23 April 2023 – III SUNDAY OF EASTER

+ From the Gospel according to Luke (24, 13 – 35)

And behold, on that same day [the first of the week] two of the [disciples] were on their way to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself approached and walked with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
And he said to them, “What are you talking to each other along the way?” They stopped, with sad faces; one of them, named Clèopa, answered him: «Only you are a stranger in Jerusalem! Don’t you know what has happened to you these days?». He asked them: “What?” They answered him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; how the chief priests and our authorities handed him over to be sentenced to death and crucified him. We hoped that he was the one who would deliver Israel; with all that, it’s been three days since these things happened. But some women, of ours, upset us; they went to the tomb in the morning and, not having found his body, they came to tell us that they had also had a vision of angels, who affirm that he is alive. Some of our people went to the grave and found the women as they said, but they didn’t see him.”
He said to them, “Fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said! Wasn’t it necessary for Christ to suffer these sufferings in order to enter into his glory?” And, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures what referred to him.
As they neared the village to which they were going, he acted as if he were going to go further. But they insisted: “Stay with us, because it is getting dark and the day is now at sunset”. He entered to stay with them.
When he was at table with them, he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. But he disappeared from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us as he spoke to us on the road, as he explained the scriptures to us?”
They left without delay and returned to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven gathered together and the others who were with them, who said: “Truly the Lord has risen and appeared to Simon!”. And they narrated what had happened along the way and how they had recognized it in the breaking of the bread.

Word of the Lord.