{"id":6329,"date":"2020-05-01T23:12:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T13:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6329"},"modified":"2020-05-03T14:36:33","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T04:36:33","slug":"he-blessed-he-broke-he-gave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/he-blessed-he-broke-he-gave\/","title":{"rendered":"He Blessed, He Broke, He Gave"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

He Blessed, He Broke, He Gave<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

This is the First Sunday after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. After the resurrection of Christ, our Lord appeared to many of His disciples and to others many times. If you read through the Gospels and in the book of Acts, you\u2019ll be able to see at least twelve documented times that Jesus appeared after His resurrection. There probably may have been more that were not documented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one of these appearances\nHe appeared to over 500 people at one time. St Paul says this in Corinthians,\n\u201cHe was seen by Caiaphas then by the twelve and after that He was seen by over\n500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain to the present but some\nhave fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James then by the Apostles, then\nlast of all He was seen by me as by one born out of due time.\u201d An undeniable\nproof of the resurrection is the appearance to many eyewitnesses and as St Paul\nsays at one point it was to over 500 people at the same time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s Gospel, we are\npresented with two of those appearances. The first is on the same evening of\nthe resurrection – He enters into the closed doors where the Apostles were\ngathered and he enters with \u201cpeace be with you\u201d in the upper room. The second\nappearance we read today is that Thomas was not present and He struggled to\nbelieve that Christ had risen and appeared to them. So Christ appears again, a\nsecond time eight days later, which would be the following Sunday. This time\nThomas was gathered with them and our Lord demonstrates and shows the wounds in\nHis hands and His side. These are some of the appearances of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about His\ndisappearances? We know that Christ appearing to them will give them tremendous\njoy and peace, but what about his disappearance? When He would leave them \u2013 how\nwould that leave them? Remember as a child whenever we would have guests over\nour house and it would come time for them to leave, there would be always be\nthis sad feeling. When they come there\u2019s joy \u2013 family is coming over, friends\nare coming over, but when they come to leave you feel this sense of sadness and\nemptiness. We see here Christ appearing, but what about when He comes to\ndisappear? It is always joyful and happy to say hello and welcome, but very difficult\nto say goodbye. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another appearance that took place just before the appearance we read in today\u2019s Gospel in the Upper Room, is a very beautiful appearance that happened with two disciples who were travelling on the road to Emmaus. St Luke presents to us this story on the day of the resurrection, on the Sunday. They leave Jerusalem and head seven miles a way to a village called Emmaus. As they were travelling on their way to Emmaus, they were talking. As they were talking, Christ appears and joins them. They did not know it was Him because their eyes were restrained. The Lord asked, \u201cwhat conversation is this that you have with one another?\u201d One of them named Cleopus answered and said, \u201care you the only stranger in Jerusalem and have you not known the things which happened there these days?<\/em>\u201d Christ entertains the question and says, \u201cwhat things?<\/em>\u201d

 They then said to Him,

\u201cThe things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel<\/em>.\u201d (Luke 24:19-21)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see here that the\ndisciples had some loss of faith, they referred to Christ as the prophet, not\nthe son of God. They said that they were hoping<\/em> that it would be Him who\nwould redeem Israel, as if now their hope have somewhat been dashed. Christ\nresponds to them and says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201c\u201cOh foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?\u201d<\/em> And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.\u201d (Luke 24:25-27)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially Christ walks with\nthem and gives them the greatest Bible study in the history of mankind. He\nexplains the starting from Moses and Genesis and throughout the prophets, and\nexplains how all of these point to the crucified One \u2013 to Christ. When they had\ngotten near to Emmaus, which probably had felt like five minutes when walking\nwith Christ, it was now time to say goodbye. Christ would continue His journey,\nand the two would go to their home. It was at this point they were meant to say\ngoodbye. What actually happened was they constrained Him saying \u201c\u2026for it is\ntoward evening, and the day is far spent<\/em>.\u201d They clung to Christ and said\ndon\u2019t leave us, stay with us, come into our home, have a meal. The Lord went to\nstay with them, however it did not last very long. He sat with them at the\ntable and He took bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. This action\nof Christ is unique to Him \u2013 the same action in the last supper and the same\naction in the feeding of the multitude of the five thousand. It was a trademark\nof Jesus. It was then their eyes were opened and they knew Him and He vanished\nfrom their sight – disappeared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days we are focusing on Christ\u2019s appearances, but I would like us to think of his disappearances, like how He vanished from their sight. After He vanished, they said to one another, \u201c\u201cdid not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?<\/em>\u201d <\/sup><\/strong>So they rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were<\/em> with them gathered together, <\/sup><\/strong>saying, \u201cThe Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!<\/em>\u201d And they told about the things that had happened on the road, and how He was known to them in the breaking of bread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did He disappear, why at\nthat particular moment at the breaking of the bread? The reason is profound but\nsimple. Jesus was pointing them to the way that He would remain present with\nthem. When they begged Him saying stay with us, this was the way that He would\nstay with them \u2013 through the Eucharist. This is how He would remain with them.\nAfter His crucifixion and death, He appeared in different glorified forms, but\nnow He is saying this<\/em> is the way He will remain with you \u2013 the breaking\nof the bread, the eucharist, He is with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a story that came out of Russia during communism when the Priests and Bishops were thrown into prison and they could no longer celebrate the Eucharist. When they were sitting in the cell, they thought, \u2018well they are giving us bread and cranberry juice, why don\u2019t we pray the liturgy with the bread and cranberry juice.\u2019 One of them said, \u201cbut we do not have an alter, not even a table<\/em>,\u201d they cannot put the offering and the Eucharist on the floor. So one of the priests lied down with his back on the floor, and they prayed the liturgy on the chest of the priest. Christ was present with them even in the prison cell. This is the extent that is taken to have Christ stays with us. In every liturgy, our Lord is answering this request of those two disciples who begged Him to \u201cstay with us.\u201d In every liturgy He is saying I am with you in the breaking of the bread, and he says to us I am with you always even to the end of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glory be to God forever Amen.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He Blessed, He Broke, He Gave Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily This is the First Sunday after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. After the resurrection of Christ, our Lord appeared to many of His disciples and to others many times. If you read through the Gospels and in the book … Continue reading “He Blessed, He Broke, He Gave”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[311,56,44],"class_list":["post-6329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-blogs","tag-appearance","tag-holy-fifty","tag-resurrection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6341,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6329\/revisions\/6341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}