Today is April 23, Wednesday in the Octave of Easter.
We read at today’s Mass, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.” (Acts 3:6)
Two powerful encounters greet us in the Scriptures today. In the first, Peter heals a man lame from birth — not by wealth or earthly power, but by invoking the name of Jesus. It’s a sign of how the Apostles continue Christ’s mission and how their witness is confirmed by miracles, just as the Lord’s was.
In the Gospel, we meet the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Still Easter Sunday, the “day of days,” this account invites us into the mystery of pilgrim spirituality. As the English Dominican Father Bede Jarrett once wrote, “That is why He came — to give us His company always. We are pilgrims, and yet He comes with us. That robs the pilgrim of any real pain.”
Christ came to journey with us
How often we imagine we’re walking alone. But the truth is this: Christ came to journey with us. Not to remove all suffering, not even to explain it — but to be in it with us. He is our companion on the road, our leader and our guide. And through his presence, the pain of the pilgrim path is changed — it is no longer endured in isolation but shared in communion.
The journey with Christ culminates, as it did on the road to Emmaus, in the breaking of the bread. There the disciples recognize him–and so do we. At every Mass, Christ is made known again to his people. The Eucharist is the moment of encounter, where we come to know that we are not alone, and that the risen Christ walks beside us.
Let us draw close to him in this sacred week, the Octave of Easter, this “little Easter” that radiates the joy of the Resurrection anew each day.
Let us pray,
O God, who gladden us year by year with the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection, graciously grant that by celebrating these present festivities, we may merit through them to reach eternal joys. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
