Peace be with you...

Today, Christ resurrected meets again his disciples with his desire of peace: «Peace to you» (Lk 24:36). This is how HE says to them to disappear the fears and forebodings the Apostles that had accumulated during their days of passion and loneliness.

Let's take note of today's Gospel (Luke 24:35-48). It says: The two disciples told what had happened on the road and how Jesus made himself known when He broke bread with them. As they went on talking about this, Jesus himself stood in their midst.

And He said to them, «Peace to you». In their panic and fright they thought they were seeing a ghost, but He said to them, «Why are you upset and why do such ideas cross your mind? Look at my hands and feet and see that it is I myself.

Touch me and see for yourselves that a ghost has no flesh and bones as I have». As He said this, He showed his hands and feet. In their joy they didn't dare believe and were still astonished. So He said to them, «Have you anything to eat?», and they gave him a piece of broiled fish. He took it and ate it before them.

Then Jesus said to them, «Remember the words I spoke to you when I was still with you: Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled». Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

And He went on, «You see what was written: the Messiah had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Now you shall be witnesses to this».

Well, in the Gospel reading, Jesus proves to His disciples that He is not a ghost but totally real.

It is the resurrection of Christ which gives meaning to all our mishaps and sufferings, which helps us to recover our peace of mind and calm us down in the darkness of our life.

All other small lights we may find in our life become meaningful under this Light.

«Everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled...»: and again «He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures» (Lk 24:44-45), as He had already done with the disciples at Emmaus.

The Lord wants us to understand the meaning of the Scriptures for our life; He wants our poor heart to become a flaming heart, like His: with the explanation of the Scriptures and the chunk of bread, the Holy Eucharist.

In other words: our Christian task is to see His story to become a story of salvation as He wants us to understand and live with it amidst the troubled world.

Blessings to us all in this season of Easter...