Gospel Reflections for April 26 2020
Jesus will physically arrive in your life soon
The Gospel describes a time after the Resurrection when Jesus appears to two disciples leaving Jerusalem who had earlier seen His crucifixion. They are deeply disillusioned.
Their hope that Jesus would remove the hated Roman Empire also died on that cross. Imagine if you knew a person who could cure coronavirus …and then dies!
Yet Jesus appears and walks quietly alongside them. He listens closely to their feelings and then reveals what it all means. They beautifully exclaim, “Were not our hearts burning as He explained everything!”
However, real recognition happens later when Jesus “breaks bread” with them. That is the earliest name given to the Eucharist, and is what happens at every mass. Jesus does again for them what He had done earlier at the Last Supper, and again on Good Friday on the cross. (see my article, What Happens at Mass?)
All the Sunday Gospels after Easter affirm the physical resurrection of Jesus, and that His life provides real and concrete happiness, peace, and fulfillment. Jesus appears later to over 500 people and even eats meals with them. That is important. Ghosts do not eat real food, only a living person can. Jesus verifies that He is real.
Our video masses at stbrunochurch.org have shown pictures of the Eucharist. They can be spiritually uplifting for sure, but it is the real Body and Blood of Our Lord, which He Himself created that gives us real strength, real courage, and real happiness in our world today. We look forward to the day when we can gather again in our parish churches for that gift.
In the meantime, your faith must be just as real and visible for it to be meaningful and effective. It is not enough to have just a spiritual feeling about Jesus. It must be shown in your life in real and visible ways, for others to see. You show that by how you speak, how you behave, and how you treat each other.
Jesus is the person who can change your disillusionment with the world into hope for the future. After all, in just a few generations the entire Roman Empire became Christian because of that real loving example of those first Christians …and they did it one person at a time.
You are that person that can make a difference right now.
God Bless!
F. Dave
Dear Father Dave,
Jesus is with us, always. I believe that with great conviction.
His life, death, and resurrection staggers the intellect. It awakens our souls and brings us to our knees in faith. And that beautiful faith covers us in love.
God bless you, always.
Kathleen A.
Well said!
Fr. David,
Mimi and I have an “appointment” in 45 minutes to receive communion for the first time in a long time due to this nasty virus. So your comments on the gospel today were especially powerful – Thanks again!
God bless!
Larry,
You are very welcome!
It is hard to visualize how I can make much difference, being holed up at home. But in addition to attending video Masses, I have been able to participate in a couple of Zoom video meetings with friends. I am thankful for that opportunity.
In one video group, one of our members had to move to Northern California. We figured that we had lost him from our group. But with video conferencing he is as close as any other member of the group. Thanks be to God that we have this way to relate to one another in this crisis.
Yes, Zoom, and other meeting platforms have been the unexpected blessing at this time.
Father Dave, Dick and I have been sooooooooooooooooooooooooo blessed with our precious Faith, our loving God, our precious Jesus ,our beautiful Blessed Mother. our incredible Faith!!! This time at home one dwells on the beautiful gifts given to us!!!Sooooooooooooooooooooooo precious that our Jesus would teach us to love, die in love for us and have a Heaven filled with love awaiting for us!!It is anincredible beautiful faith whose heart is LOVE!!! I’m looking at our beautiful rose garden and I see little buds that burst open and blossom into the most beautiful roses !! We must burst forth like them and share Jesus’ love with the world!! I also see the thorns and it hurts me to think how Jesus suffered for us!! and then the Cross!!! He loveeeeeeeeeeeeed us that much!! We must respond in LOVE!!! The Coronna Virus is a wake up call for everyone, all of us to LIVE A LIFE OF LOVE, JESUS” LOVE!!!!! Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee you, Guessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Who!!!!
It is easy to understand their discouragement. In our own earthly minds we think how things should be. We don’t get it that God has his ways. Like Wes talked about getting together on the computer could be part of Gods plans. We have been having daily prayer meetings. It has been great with that interaction, we need more of that.
When they recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread, Jesus became real to them. That is where I need to be and I do miss Mass. So at prayer time I can receive spiritual communion.
God didn’t cause this Virus however He does have a way of making all things work together for His good.
Yes, God’s plans always outlast ours
Fr Dave,
I just recently learned the conversion story of Adolf Hess, the “animal ” of Auschwitz, It shows the power of Christians who perfectly lived their faith. Because, instead of brutalizing Hess after the war when he was in a Polish prison, the Christian guards treated him with kindness & respect. This so amazed & touched him that he asked to see a priest. Ultimately, he confessed, received communion & left an apology to the Polish people for all the awful things he had done.
I had not realized Hess had converted. Amazing! Thanks for letting all of us know.