LAW

SUNDAY 19TH APRIL 2026: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER.

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Supper at Emmaus or The Pilgrims at Emmaus, Rembrandt 1648, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”     Luke 24:32.

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Today’s gospel is one of the most famous events in Scripture. Do you remember the risen Jesus’ instruction to his followers? “And when they came together, he gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised” (Acts of the Apostles 1:4). And yet here are two men, followers of the Lord, leaving Jerusalem, directly disobeying the Risen Lord’s clear order! One might ask why, as no explanation is given in Scripture, but one can hazard a guess: they were terrified that what had happened to Jesus would happen to them if they became known as his followers. But without one word of censure, the risen Jesus, unrecognizable to them for some reason, simply approached them, joined them as they walked along, and began to explain the moments in Holy Scripture which prophesied his death and resurrection – and generations of scripture scholars would give their eye teeth to have been on that walk with them! They were, of course, transfixed with what he had to say, as they remarked afterwards, so much so that they seem to have almost begged him to stay with them and dine with them. This he did, and just as he broke bread with them, he vanished from their sight (except, of course, he hadn’t: he was there in the consecrated bread he was breaking at that moment..). They, now filled with the strength and presence of God, returned immediately to Jerusalem and couldn’t wait to share their good news with the others. No longer scared, no longer mice, but men, but men who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Their courage would not last long…

Today’s first reading is also evidence of the new, real, strength God gave them. This passage, from the book of Acts, occurred immediately after the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the terrified followers of Jesus, probably locked away in what became known as the Upper Room, or the Cenacle. None of them could bear the thought that what had happened to the Lord might well happen to them as his followers. And can you blame them? That initial excitement of seeing the Risen Lord did not readily translate into the bravery that would face death. Take one good look at the man in the Shroud of Turin to see the brutal treatment he endured, the marks of the nails, the scourging, the evidence of the crown of thorns, and on and on. This was punishment of the cruelest possible nature. It meant that the entire Christian church was locked away securely in that Upper Room, afraid to show themselves lest they too be crucified. If God’s Holy Spirit had not descended upon them, you would not be reading this, there would be no Christian presence in the world, humanity would have been left to its own fate (the Jewish people not being interested in propagating their belief in God). But God had other plans.

Today’s second reading from the First Letter of St. Peter echoes last week’s reflection on Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables. You will remember the incident with the saintly bishop who saved Jean Valjean from being thrown back into prison for stealing the bishop’s silverware. In saving him, the bishop declared he had ransomed Valjean’s soul for God, so that from now on he was of God. St. Peter says, “you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb”. We were all born to be children of God, not for some other debased ideal such as wealth or power or self-glorification. No: we are called to reflect God’s beauty and goodness in our lives, reflected in the glory of Jesus’ example of self-giving to the end. So today’s Scripture should produce in us what Jesus’ presence did to those two people running away to Emmaus: Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? Please God, that should be the exact same reaction today, 2000 years later, with us all, not on the way to Emmaus, but to union with God in heaven!

Disputation of the Sacrament, Raphael 1510, Stanza della Segnatura, Apostolic Palace, Vatican City State.

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SUNDAY 15 MARCH 2026: THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – LAETARE SUNDAY.

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The Light of the World, William Holman Hunt c.1856, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK.

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[Jesus said,] “We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”       John 9:4-5.

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The picture above is quite famous, representing Jesus literally as the light of the world (though there are three versions: this one in Manchester, and two others, one in Keble College, Oxford, and the third in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London). Jesus is knocking on a  (our?) door hoping for admission. But look at the condition of the door itself; overgrown with weeds, and  presumably difficult to open. In addition, there is no clear handle. We have a problem. We have to decide whether to open it – from the other side – and it will take quite an effort to achieve! Hence a perfect Lenten situation. And believe it – Jesus will knock! It might be that, on the inside of that door, could be our perfect life, wrapped comfortably up in ourselves, not open to the world, but warm and cozy inside. Who would want to open it at that ungodly hour? And will Jesus knock twice? And louder? But more important, will we hear it and respond? And taking the cue from the first reading, which says, “not as we see does God see, because humanity sees the appearance but the LORD looks into the heart” (adapting the language a little), so perhaps that door is the door to our heart. And perhaps today, in Lent, that might well be the state that our heart is in; not perhaps bad, but maybe closed to the world. And the second reading today states boldly that “you (which is to say all of us) are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth”. But a closed door with no window in it cannot even light up the pathway, let alone the neighborhood or the world…

Jesus performed a miracle in this gospel, empowering a man born blind to see for the first time. Remember that being the Son of God, Jesus possessed omnipotence, all power, which he never – ever – used for himself but only for others. Remember the insults he endured on the cross? “If you’re the Son of God, come down from that cross!” (Matthew 27:40, Mark 15:29-32, and Luke 23:35-39). Could he? Yes. Did he? No. His supreme power was for the exclusive benefit of others, never himself. And in today’s gospel he cured a blind man. It was surely the clearest sign that the Messiah had arrived – who could cure a man born blind?  Yet the powers- that-be did NOT want to know about it. As the gospel says today, “for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone acknowledged him as the Christ, he would be expelled from the synagogue” – shunned in other words. One wonders what it would have taken to convince the Jewish leaders; but I suspect what they really wanted was a military conquering warrior who would expel the Romans and re-establish the kingdom of David. And today’s first reading is none other than the revealing of King David to the prophet Samuel. The scene is a little, forgive me, comical. Jesse, to whom the prophet Samuel was sent by God, had seven sons. Six were each presented to the prophet, with God whispering “no” to Samuel as each appeared. Then Samual’s question, “do you have any more?”  Er, yes, and David was brought in, the One, the youngest, out in the field tending the sheep… (from which Jesus possibly received the image of the Good Shepherd, so strong in Christian scripture and even adopted by Jesus himself, John 10-18). “Yes” said God to Samuel “this is the one.” And the House of David was, as it were, born that moment. That is exactly what the Pharisees should have said that day about Jesus – He is the One! That would been in direct contrast to today’s gospel event. Instead of the instant recognition of the Messiah being present, responsible for an event unknown in history (sight restored to one born blind) there was instead hostility to Jesus in their midst. Instead there was a huge effort to disown his miraculous cure as it took place on the Sabbath... Hence he, Jesus, must be a sinner as no “work” might take place on that day; “we know that this man is a sinner” as they said. The “work” in this case was clearly rather strange, with Jesus making a sort of paste from earth and his spittle, and placing it on the man’s sightless eyes. But this was “work” in the opinion of the powers-that-be. And it was that attitude which was to lead him to the cross. So the contrast was between the unwavering belief shown by Samuel following God’s wishes by choosing David (which could have seen Samuel arguing with God as David was the youngest, the least experienced and fit more to be a shepherd than a king!) and the Pharisees who saw nothing in Jesus’ miraculous event unparalleled in history, and, instead, accusing the Lord of being a  sinner! As Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains”. They see, but did not believe or accept the evidence of their own eyes. They denied it, so their sin remained. Had they simply accepted the evidence of  the miracle, there would have been joy rather than denial, glorying God rather than condemning the Prince of Peace.

Pope Francis as The Good Shepherd!

 

And with that image let us remember that this Sunday’s old traditional name was – and is – Laetare Sunday, the name of which is taken from the entrance antiphon for today’s Mass: “Laetare, Jerusalem: et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia…” or, in English, “Be glad, Jerusalem: gather together all you that love her: rejoice and be glad…” (and I copied that from my Roman Missal for the 4th Sunday of Lent, which I bought in 1962, just as everything changed…). We are now in the middle of the Lenten season, and the church allows a little celebration as such, hence the more joyful rose vestments the priest is permitted to wear today: Gaudete cum laetitia!

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Reflections on next Sunday’s Mass Readings will be posted on Wednesday.

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