Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Third Sunday of Easter, Vigil

April 22, 2023

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/4.22.23_Landry_ConCon_1.mp3

 

The following text guided the homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy for me to be with you as we enter into the consequential conversation the Risen Lord Jesus wants to have with each of us this Sunday, when we enter into one of the most famous dialogues of all time, one that reveals so much about how he seeks to engage each and all of us during the journey of Christian life.

* It’s the conversation that took place the night Jesus rose from the dead, when he met two disciples walking along the seven-mile path downhill from Jerusalem to Emmaus. That the two disciples were heading away from Jerusalem going downhill into darkness was not just an historical fact, but also a symbol of how they were heading away from the light of faith that Jerusalem symbolizes. Their hearts had just been put in a blender. They had believed in Jesus, deeming him to be the long-awaited Messiah. Yet their hopes were crushed when they saw him mangled and executed by the Romans. Earlier that day, women had said that his tomb was empty and that they had seen a vision of angels saying he had arisen, but they were obviously reluctant to believe again and have their hopes crushed anew. Jesus met them along the way — he met them where they were at, with all their questions and doubts — but their sadness, and likely some undescribed changes in Jesus’ resurrected appearance and voice, prevented them from recognizing him. This seeming stranger stuck his nose into the middle of their conversation and asked, “What are you talking about?” They thought he had no idea, as if he were the only person in Dallas on Nov. 23, 1963 who hadn’t heard of the Kennedy assassination the previous day. So they told him about their hopes for this person named Jesus, a “prophet mighty in deed and word,” who they thought might be the one to “redeem Israel,” but who was “betrayed and crucified.” The incognito Jesus, however, upbraided them, called them “foolish and slow of heart to believe” and, starting with Moses and all the prophets, interpreted for them all the passages of Sacred Scripture that referred to why the Messiah “had to suffer these things to enter into his glory.” Doubtless he would have mentioned the just Abel’s being killed by his envious brother Cain, Isaac’s carrying the wood for the sacrifice on his shoulders, Moses’ through the Passover leading the people through the Red Sea and desert into the promised land, Isaiah’s prophecies about the Suffering Servant, the Book of Wisdom’s foretelling that the just man would be beset by evil doers, the many Psalms, like 22 and 69, that had foretold so many details of the crucifixion, the prophecy of Jonah spending three days in the belly of the earth, and so much more. As he was talking, the light of truth began to penetrate the great darkness of their sadness. They would later recount that their hearts, which had been previously slow to believe, began to burn as this Companion spoke to them along the way, even though they still had no idea who he was. They didn’t want the conversation to end. Hence they invited this Wayfarer into their home: “Stay with us!,” they said. Jesus, who never wants to impose himself on us, accepted their invitation.

* But Jesus had something far greater in mind than merely staying with That’s why when he was at table, “he took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them.” These four verbs are the ones that the evangelists used to describe the multi...