30 March 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” Luke 24:27
“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.” These are the words Jesus read in the synagogue of Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry, saying, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). In Easter week they sound with new power. The Risen Christ is the Anointed One who has broken the greatest prison of all, the prison of death, and set its captives free. Isaiah continues: he comes “to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.” On Ash Wednesday, at the start of the Great Fast, many of us received ashes; now the Lord gives us a garland. The newly baptised were anointed with the holy oil of chrism, the oil of gladness, and the prophet's next promise was for them and for us: “you shall be called priests of the LORD, you shall be named ministers of our God.” Every baptised Christian shares in the priesthood of Christ, offering his whole life with Christ to the Father at the Holy Qurbana. And the people of God become builders again: “They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities.” Easter sends us to rebuild what sin has ruined, in our families, in our parishes, in our land.
Acts shows what happened when Peter finished his Pentecost sermon. “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.’” About three thousand were baptised that day. Then Luke paints the first Christian community in four strokes: “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Teaching, fellowship, the Eucharist, prayer: the four pillars of every Christian life and every parish. They shared their goods with anyone in need; “Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts.” Paul then answers those who doubt the resurrection of the dead. If there is no resurrection, Christ has not been raised; “and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” The Christian faith stands or falls with the bodily Resurrection of Jesus. It is not a beautiful symbol or a way of saying that his message lives on. It is a fact on which everything else rests, and it is the promise of our own resurrection in the body.
The Gospel is the walk to Emmaus. On the evening of the first day of the week, two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem, about seven miles, talking over everything that had happened. “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.” He asks what they are discussing, “They stood still, looking sad.” Cleopas tells the story of Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word, condemned and crucified, and then the saddest sentence in the Gospels: “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” They even tell him about the women and the empty tomb, “but they did not see him.” Then the stranger speaks: “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” The full passage goes on: at the table he takes bread, blesses and breaks it, and their eyes are opened; they say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”, and they run back to Jerusalem. The shape of Emmaus is the shape of the Holy Qurbana: first the Word, in which Christ opens the Scriptures and our hearts burn; then the breaking of the bread, in which we recognise him; then the sending, as we go back to our brothers and sisters with the news. Our Qurbana does not begin with the bread but with the Word, and it does not end at the altar but on the road home.
Theme: “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.”
The Anointed One who frees captives, the four pillars of the first Church, the faith that rests on the Resurrection, and the road to Emmaus.
“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;” Isaiah 61:1
“Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”” Luke 4:21
Apply: Repair one broken relationship this Easter week.
“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Acts 2:42
Apply: Strengthen the weakest of the four pillars in your family this week.
“He will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,” Isaiah 25:8
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” 1 Corinthians 15:17
Apply: Say the article of the Creed slowly today: ‘I believe in the resurrection of the body.’
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
“They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?”” Luke 24:32
Apply: Walk with someone who is sad this week, and come to the Qurbana ready to recognise the Lord.
The Risen Christ walks with the disappointed, opens the Scriptures and makes himself known in the breaking of bread.
Let our hearts burn with his Word, and let our feet run to tell the others.
Take-home resolution: This week, read Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 with Jesus, repair one broken relationship, and walk with someone who is sad.
Dear friends, Isaiah's words were read by Jesus in Nazareth: “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me… to proclaim liberty to the captives.” At Easter he has freed the greatest prisoners of all, the prisoners of death. He gives “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning.” The ashes of the Great Fast have become the garland of Easter.
When Peter preached, the people were cut to the heart and asked: “Brothers, what should we do?” He told them: repent and be baptised. Three thousand were baptised that day. And they devoted themselves to four things: the apostles' teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. These are still the four pillars of every family and every parish.
Paul says plainly: if Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile. Our faith is not a beautiful story. It rests on a fact: Jesus rose from the dead in his body, and we too will rise.
Then the road to Emmaus. Two disciples walk away from Jerusalem, sad. “But we had hoped,” they say. How many of us have said those words? And Jesus walks beside them, unrecognised. He opens the Scriptures, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, and their hearts begin to burn.
At the table he breaks the bread, and they know him. That is the shape of every Qurbana: first the Word, then the Bread, then the road back to tell the others. Jesus does not wait for us to be happy before he walks with us. He comes to us when we are sad.
This week, let us walk with someone who is sad, as Jesus did. Let us read the Scriptures and ask him to explain them. And at every Qurbana, let us recognise him in the breaking of the bread. Alleluia! Amen.
Children, two friends of Jesus were walking home very sad. Jesus walked with them, but they did not know him until he broke the bread!
Jesus is with us too, even when we cannot see him. At Holy Qurbana, when the priest breaks the Bread, let us say in our hearts: ‘It is you, Jesus!’
Lord Jesus Christ, risen companion on our road, you came near to the two disciples when their hope had died, and you opened the Scriptures until their hearts burned. Walk with us when we are sad and slow to believe. Open the Scriptures to us, make yourself known to us in the breaking of the Bread, and send us back to our brothers and sisters with the joyful news that you are alive. Make us one community, devoted to the teaching of the apostles, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen. Alleluia!
Isaiah hears an anointed one sent with good news to the poor and broken. In Acts the crowd at Pentecost asks, “what should we do?”, and a community of teaching, fellowship, bread and prayer is born. In the epistle Paul says plainly, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile”. On the road to Emmaus, two sad disciples walk with the risen Lord and do not know him. The reading stops before they reach the table. The key words are anointed, we had hoped and interpreted.
Setting.
A voice in the first person speaks, and we are not told whose it is: the prophet, or a figure God has chosen. The audience is a poor community back from exile, among ruins. Jesus will open this passage in the synagogue at Nazareth and say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me;” (61:1)
“to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.” (61:3)
Ashes were put on the head in mourning, and the Hebrew words for “garland” and “ashes” sound alike (pe’ēr, ’ēper). God turns one into the other, and this week the Church sees that turning done.
“but you shall be called priests of the Lord, you shall be named ministers of our God;” (61:6)
What Exodus 19:6 said of Israel is said again here. Peter applies the same words to the baptized as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) without taking them away from Israel.
How the Church reads it.
In Nazareth Jesus stops reading after “the year of the Lord's favor” (Luke 4:19) and does not go on to “the day of vengeance”. The Catechism uses this reading to show the Spirit at work in the Messiah (CCC 714). It teaches also that all the baptized share in Christ's priesthood, the common priesthood of the faithful (CCC 1546). This week the newly baptized learned that they had been anointed too, and the same is true of each of us.
Setting.
Only Luke tells this story. It is still the day of the Resurrection. Two disciples, one named Cleopas, walk to Emmaus, about seven miles away. The exact site is not known with certainty. They have heard the women's report and they are leaving anyway. The story has the shape of the Holy Qurbana, but today's reading stops at v. 27, in the middle of the journey.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,” (24:15)
He comes to them as they walk away, and on their own road. Their eyes “were kept” from knowing him (v. 16), and the passive suggests that God is the one who holds them, until the moment “their eyes were opened” (v. 31).
“But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” (24:21)
Jesus lets them tell the whole of it first. Notice who is named in v. 20: “our chief priests and leaders”, the authorities of the moment, as the disciples themselves say, and not a people. The disciples are Jews, speaking of the hope of Israel.
“Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” (24:26)
“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.” (24:27)
Moses and the prophets are not left behind at Easter. We would give much to have heard this sermon, and the Church has spent her life trying to hear it again.
How the Church reads it.
The Second Vatican Council, following St Augustine, says that the New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old made manifest in the New (Dei Verbum 16; CCC 129). The Catechism sees in Emmaus the movement of the Eucharist itself: walking with them he explained the Scriptures, and sitting with them at table he took bread, blessed and broke it (CCC 1346–1347). That is why, in the Holy Qurbana, the readings and the homily come first, and then the altar.
Why were they unable to recognize him?
Luke says only that their eyes “were kept”. The risen body is the same body in a new state (CCC 645), and faith is also at work here: they could not see what they had stopped hoping for, until he opened the Scriptures and broke the bread.