Today, Fr Paul reads from Luke’s Gospel (24: 35-48) in which the disciples were alarmed and frightened when Jesus comes among them saying “Peace be with you’ and he asks them, “Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts rising in your hearts? Look at my hands and feet. Yes, it is I!”
Fr Paul says yesterday we heard how Jesus used the Eucharistic meal to reveal himself to the disciples. The Eucharist is always a time for us to get to know the Risen Christ better. Today, Jesus meets a whole lot of his disciples in the upper room where they were taking refuge and the stress in this Gospel is that the disciples are meeting a real person; not a ghost, not a spirit; but a real person and is why we see the invitation there by Jesus… look at my hands and my feet… come look, touch them…’ It is also why, even though they failed to believe it, and they are standing there dumbfounded, that Jesus asks for something to eat. Again, a ghost or spirit would not be able to eat anything. Jesus being the real person he is, risen from the dead, takes the piece of fish and eats it before their eyes. The emphasis in this Gospel, says Fr Paul, is that the Risen Jesus is real – he is a real person and he has come back among his disciples. In this Gospel Jesus appeared to the disciples in the Eucharistic meal which Fr Paul mentioned in his explanation is always a way of getting to know the Risen Christ better. Fr Paul renews his invitation to reconnect as a community, to come along and celebrate the Risen Christ among us, just as the disciples did in today’s Gospel.
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