3rd Sunday of Easter 26.04.

2020
Kibiko-Sisters House

Christu amefufuka!
My dear friends, we have reached the 3rd Sunday of Easter and we can see that the
joy of Resurrection cannot be limited only in one day, the Sunday of Easter, but this
period is longer than the Lent period to show us that the joy must be more longer
than the sadness, that the sufferance. Like in our earthly life…we live here for a
while, maybe sometimes in hard conditions, maybe sometimes we suffer because
diseases, or unhappiness situation, but we believe that one day this sufferance will
finish and we enter in eternal happiness in Heaven if we remain faithful until the end.
Now we continue to hear and to meditate about the presence of Christ after the
resurrection and his message to the apostles and of course for me. In this Sunday we
hear that he appeared to another two person, which are not apostles from the group of
eleven, but they are close to the group.
And are many messages that we can learn from today readings like…1. If we want
to know Jesus is not necessary only to look in the Gospel or only in New Testament,
but if we want to understand better we must star with Old Testament, like He
started to tell about Him to this two disciples (Starting with Moses-through prophets-
breaking breads), because for Hebrews, the bible is divided in to 3 parts. Torah(Law),
Nebiim(Profets) and Ketubim (Scriptures), so Jesus He used the whole Bible to tell
about Him. And we see also I the first reading from the Acts, that Peter star his
preaching from Old Testament to announce that David foreseen the resurrection of
Jesus long time ago „I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may
not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will
dwell in hope. For thou will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One see
corruption.”
Maybe we can see in this way of Emmaus, the journey from the disbelief to a
strong faith that help you to go to tell to the others, or from the second reading from
saint Peter how much value we have…„you know that the price of your ransom from the
futile way of life, handed down from your ancestors, was paid not in anything perishable like
silver or gold but in precious blood of Christ as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ.”
But today in the next I hope few minutes I want to put in front of you the Gospel
like a teach of the Holly Mass.
„That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a
village”. This is what we do as the preliminary act of every Mass. We who are
pilgrims on a journey come together on our journey. We come from our home, from
our rooms to Father’s house. We know now that we come to meet whit Jesus, to find
something new about Him and our faith. “it happened that while they were conversing
and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them” When father enters in
procession is the first appearance of Jesus and then when father great …The Lord be
with you…and then…He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?.
Something is not good, they have something that grinds (macina) the insides of
them…Is the moment of Penitencial act. Like us, Lord invites them to speak with
him about what is troubling them. And they start to tell Him about their sadness, their
disbelief, way is so hard to belief in the resurrection…they seem hopeless and have
turned away from this good news.

Fr. Andrew Peter

 3rd Sunday of Easter 26.04.2020
Kibiko-Sisters House

The penitential rite is a moment when the celebrant (who is really Christ) invites us
to lay down our burdens and sins before the Lord who alone can heal us. We too often
enter the presence of God looking downcast and carrying many burdens and sins. We
too like these two disciples may be walking in wrongful directions. And so the Lord
says to us, in effect, “What are thinking about and doing as you walk along.
Where are you going with your life.
In response to their painful heart and struggles(lupte) the Lord breaks open the
Word of God, the Scriptures. The text says: Then beginning with Moses and all the
prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures (Luke
24:27). What the Church do, start from OT (only in the Easter period the both readings
are from the NT) to know how God worked to redeem the world, and then to not
remain without understanding something He preach through the priest. The homily
can help our hearts and mind to eat something from the word of God to be heal, and
we can say like the disciples : Were not our hearts burning (within us) while he spoke
to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us? (Luke 24:32) My dear friends
whatever struggles we may have brought to the Mass, the Lord bids us to listen to his
Word as the Scriptures are proclaimed.
After the moment of word, next we prepare our self for the Eucharist moment,
and before this moment we make prayers like the disciples “Stay with us, for it is
nearly evening and the day is almost over. (Luke 24:29)”. We pray many times during
the universal prayer that God to stay with us because sometimes is so dark in our lives
and the shadows are growing long. Stay with us Lord and those we love so that we
will not be alone in the dark.
Christ stay with them stay whit us, and then happened that, while he was with them
at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them (Luke 24:30).
What moment is this? The last supper, the establishment of Eucharisty, when
Christ told them…Do this in memory of me…Remember me….What happen there
whit this to…”Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he
was made known to them in the breaking of bread.” They remembered Him at the
breaking of bread.
This is the act of consecration that opens their eyes. Is this not what Holy
Communion is to do for us? The liturgy and the sacraments are not mere rituals, they
are encounters with Jesus Christ, and he is gone from our earthly, fleshly, carnal
sight, he is now to be seen in the Sacrament of the Altar, and experienced in the liturgy
and other sacraments.
Missa imekwisha, Nendeni na Amani…Not able to contain their joy or hide their
experience the two disciples run seven miles back to Jerusalem to tell their brethren
what had happened and how they encountered Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The
Mass is ended, go in peace.” This does NOT mean, “OK, we’re done here, go on
home and have a nice day.” What it DOES mean is: “Go now into the world and
bring the Christ you have received to others. Tell them what you have heard and
seen here, what you have experienced. Share the joy and hope. You are being
commissioned, sent on a mission to announce Christ to others. How is the dismissal
for me…Is a joyful moment, is the moment that I can go to announce the joy, or I am
like nothing happened. A image of Mass, maybe in shadow, but we can see that the
Mass is in Holy Scripture, and we can understand better the importance of Eucharist,
the breaking bread and to ask ourselves…How important is Holy Mass to me?

Fr. Andrew Peter