Thursday in the Octave of Easter, April 21, 2022

Luke 24:35–48

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.  While they were still speaking about this, he stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” But they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed, he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.  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 and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

“He stood in their midst.”  Since the Lord was appearing to the Apostles after the two disciples had returned to Jerusalem, when it was already dark, this must have occurred fairly late at night.  Previously, the Lord had appeared very naturally, as someone mistaken as a gardener and as a fellow traveler.  Here he comes among the Apostles very suddenly.  Because of this, they think right away that he is a ghost.  They had thought this of him before, when he was walking on the water towards them.  “Peace be with you.”  In Hebrew, Shalom, the customary greeting.  We notice that when the Lord appears after his Resurrection, it is without flashes of light or sounds of trumpets.  Even his sudden appearance here happens without fuss.  He does not go in for self-indulgence as we often do.  “Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts?”  He wants his Apostles to think about how they would answer these questions, but he does not need to hear their answers.  They had seen him raise the dead.  Why should his Resurrection surprise them?  “Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”  He offers the Apostles to touch him because of their little faith.  He had told Mary Magdalene not to touch him because her faith was already great.  She did not need to touch him to know that it was him.  Her faith was ready for greater things.  For the first time, he appears in such a way that his wounds were visible.  We ought to think about what the Apostles saw.  In paintings and illustrations, the Lord’s wounds look fairly sanitary, but in real life they must have struck the Apostles with horror.  The holes in his hands and feet from the nails would have  been jagged and elongated from the weight of his Body hanging from the nails.  The scourging would have left ghastly marks and welts all over his Body.  On this occasion, the Lord spares them the terrible sight of the would in his side.  Yet, he does not limp, does not stoop, is not in pain. He presents himself as one who is victorious over sin and death.  

“Have you anything here to eat?”  His asking for food and then eating it tells the Apostles that he is neither a ghost nor someone who was crucified and then buried alive and escaped, half-dead.  On the Cross, in his thirst, he had asked for something to drink.  Now, he asks his Apostles for something to eat not because he wants or needs it, but because they need to see him consume it, for the sake of their faith.  “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 and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”  Having assured them that he was truly risen, he proceeds to explain how the Scriptures pointed not to a political and military Messiah, but to one who would come to save the world by his suffering and dying.  He corrects the misinterpretation that they had been fed by the self-serving Pharisees.

He sums up his “opening” of the Scriptures to them by saying, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations.”  As he had preached, so must his message be preached.  People must be told of the love of God and urged to repent so that they might enter heaven.  He looks them in the eye and says, “You are witnesses of these things.”  We tend to use the word “witness” quite loosely, but originally it had only a juridical meaning.  A witness had knowledge of some event or crime (usually) and therefore had a duty in a court to tell what he knew.  If a slave was a witness, he or she could be examined, that is to say, tortured, to furnish details or to confirm what he or she had already testified to.  The Lord, in identifying the Apostles as “witnesses” informs them that they have not merely the opportunity to tell people what they had seen and heard, but the duty to do so.  St. Paul, speaking of his preaching, says, “The love of Christ compels us, because we are convinced that if one died for all, then all were dead.  And Christ died for all: (2 Corinthians 5, 14).

The love of Christ compels us too to bear witness to what we have seen and heard.