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Presence by Absence (3rd Sunday Easter Year A 2020 Reflection)
Luke 24
The 6th century BC was very dark hours for the people of Israel. The Jewish kingdom was conquered by the Babylonian Empire and the Jewish people were deported to different parts of the Babylonian Empire. The Temple of Jerusalem was razed down to the ground and there could be no loner religious sacrifices of Jewish people. It was the most critical and dangerous time for the Jewish people because they might lose their identity as God’s chosen race.
However, it turned out a time of blessing in fact. Against all these miseries, the Jewish people gathered and edited their scriptures this time. Most of the books of the Old Testaments we use now came out in the final form in this period. During these years of oppression, the Holy Spirit was ever more active among the people of Israel, not in Jerusalem or in any parts of Israel but in a foreign land.
When Jesus was crucified and died, it looked all his powerful deeds and words during his ministry on earth completely and abjectly failed. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus in today’s gospel were ‘sad’. They were dismayed and gave up their hope and walked away from Jerusalem. But Jesus walked together with them. He didn't give them up. He opened the Scriptures and revealed the mystery of salvation from Moses down to Christ. The hearts of these two disciples caught on fire at the words of Jesus.
They invited Jesus to their home while not knowing it was Jesus. Probably they wanted to listen to him more. And there, at the breaking of the bread, Jesus removed their blindness. Finally, they recognized the presence of the Risen Jesus. But at the same time, they realized the risen Lord had been with them all the way!
We might be feeling these days we are deprived of Jesus because we cannot celebrate the Mass together as a community. But can we say Christ is now absent among us because we don’t celebrate the liturgy? Often, God is present by his absence. Let us open the Bible. Let us hold the Rosary. Let us examine carefully our life. Let the Holy Spirit work now!
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By Fr Swann KimLuke 24
The 6th century BC was very dark hours for the people of Israel. The Jewish kingdom was conquered by the Babylonian Empire and the Jewish people were deported to different parts of the Babylonian Empire. The Temple of Jerusalem was razed down to the ground and there could be no loner religious sacrifices of Jewish people. It was the most critical and dangerous time for the Jewish people because they might lose their identity as God’s chosen race.
However, it turned out a time of blessing in fact. Against all these miseries, the Jewish people gathered and edited their scriptures this time. Most of the books of the Old Testaments we use now came out in the final form in this period. During these years of oppression, the Holy Spirit was ever more active among the people of Israel, not in Jerusalem or in any parts of Israel but in a foreign land.
When Jesus was crucified and died, it looked all his powerful deeds and words during his ministry on earth completely and abjectly failed. The two disciples on the way to Emmaus in today’s gospel were ‘sad’. They were dismayed and gave up their hope and walked away from Jerusalem. But Jesus walked together with them. He didn't give them up. He opened the Scriptures and revealed the mystery of salvation from Moses down to Christ. The hearts of these two disciples caught on fire at the words of Jesus.
They invited Jesus to their home while not knowing it was Jesus. Probably they wanted to listen to him more. And there, at the breaking of the bread, Jesus removed their blindness. Finally, they recognized the presence of the Risen Jesus. But at the same time, they realized the risen Lord had been with them all the way!
We might be feeling these days we are deprived of Jesus because we cannot celebrate the Mass together as a community. But can we say Christ is now absent among us because we don’t celebrate the liturgy? Often, God is present by his absence. Let us open the Bible. Let us hold the Rosary. Let us examine carefully our life. Let the Holy Spirit work now!