MEDITATIO

Brethren, let us turn to the account of Christ’s appearances to his disciples after the Resurrection, which are most important, first, as showing that such an unconscious communion with him is possible; next, that it is likely to be the sort of communion now granted to us, from the circumstance that in that period of forty days after the Resurrection, he began to be in that relation towards his Church, in which he is still, and probably intended to intimate to us thereby what his presence with us is now. Now observe what was the nature of His presence in the Church after his Resurrection. It was this, that he came and went as he pleased; that material substances, such as the fastened doors, were no impediments to his coming; and that when he was present his disciples did not, as a matter of course, know him. (…) The two disciples on the way to Emmaus do not seem to have been conscious of this at the time, but on looking back, they recollected that as having been, which did not strike them while it was. “Did not,” they say, “did not our heart burn within us?” (…) Let us observe, too, when it was that their eyes were opened… when he consecrated and brake the Bread. There is evidently a stress laid on this in the gospel… for so it was ordained, that Christ should not be both seen and known at once; first he was seen, then he was known. Only by faith is he known to be present… He removed his visible presence, and left but a memorial of himself. He vanished from sight that he might be present in a sacrament; and in order to connect his visible presence with his presence invisible, He for one instant manifested himself to their open eyes; manifested himself, if I may so speak, while he passed from his hiding-place of sight without knowledge, to that of knowledge without sight.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team

This is the first day of another creation. Today God creates “a new heaven and a new earth” (Is 65,17; Rv 21,1)… Today is created the real man, the one who is “in the image and likeness of God” (Gn 1,26). See what sort of world is begun today, this “day that the Lord has made” (Ps 117[118],24)… This day has done away with the pain of death and has brought into the world “the firstborn from the dead” (Col 1,18). Today… the prison house of death has been destoryed, the blind recover their sight, “the daystar from on high rises and comes to the help of those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death” (cf. Lk 1,78-79)… Let us also hasten to the contemplation of this extraordinary sight…, that we may not be overtaken by the women. Let us take in our hands the spices of faith and conscience for these are “the good odor of Christ” (Lk 24,1; 2Cor 2,15). Let us not seek “the Living One among the dead” any more (Lk 24,5), for the Lord turns away anyone who thus seeks him, saying: “Do not touch me” (Jn 20,17)… Do not let your faith represent his bodily state of service any more but worship the one who is in the Father’s glory, in “the condition of God”…; forget “the condition of a slave” (Phil 2,6-7). Let us pay heed to the good news brought by Mary Magdalen more swiftly than a man, thanks to her faith… What is this good news that she brings? That which comes “not from human beings nor through a human being but through Jesus Christ” (Gal 1,1). “Listen, she says, to what the Lord has told us to tell you – you whom he calls his brothers: ‘I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (Jn 20,17). O what beautiful, good news! He who ,for our sake, became as one of us that he might make of us his brethren… draws all humankind with him to the true Father… He who, for the sake of his many brethren (Rm 8,29), became the Firstborn of the good creation through his flesh, has drawn all nature along with him.

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team