A blessed Sunday to all! It is now the third Sunday of Easter, and we are taken back to the road to Emmaus. Two disciples were going away from Jerusalem because of much disappointment at what happened to Jesus. It seems that they wanted to escape and forget everything. Jesus appeared to them without them knowing that it was Jesus. They said to Him, “Both handed him [Jesus] over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel”. For them, hanging on the Cross is still an act of losing. They did not understand God’s plan because they did not believe in the resurrection of Jesus at first. But they were mistaken because believing in the resurrection of Jesus means that the Cross is victory, and it is true for all of us who believe in Jesus. In the last 2,000 years since Jesus rose from the dead, the Cross has become a sign of salvation for us all. Before, it was just one of the most brutal methods of death for criminals. It was shameful to die on the Cross as it is a method of capital punishment - a death penalty. The disciples initially thought it was the end of Jesus, but it was not.

When we do not understand what Jesus’ rising from the dead means, we plunge into a deep darkness in our lives where the problems of life and negativity seem to swallow us. We remain in the tomb, unable to go out with hope. However, if we truly believe that Jesus has risen, and reflect it with all our hearts, then we must believe that even problems, hurts, wounds, pains, setbacks, mistakes, and delays in our lives when offered and carried in Christ, could now be overturned as sources of grace and wisdom in our lives. We, too, could share in the resurrection of Christ here now and by eternal life. There’s no defeat anymore.

We could conquer evil and sin through Christ with the hope that no matter how difficult it gets, we shall pass through all things doing good things and, in the end, inherit eternal life. This is the promise of Jesus but few of us understand it as we drown in the worries of life which Christ does not want for us. Moreover, some of us use different ways to escape in the form of worldly pleasures, vices, or sin but the only thing that we need is the Holy Mass. When Jesus broke the bread, the eyes of the disciples were opened. They believed and understood. Then they hurried back to Jerusalem to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus and the fact that they had seen Him. There’s no need to escape anymore and the once lamented death of Jesus – a hopeless case as they thought it to be, became their joy and fountain of hope because Christ has truly risen as He said.

Amen.

Alleluia. +

Marga de Jesus | OLA Social Communications