Sixth station

The Risen Christ shows himself alive to the disciples

P  We adore, O Risen Christ, and we bless you. 

A  Because by your resurrection you have given life to the world.

R From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 24,36-43)
As they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them. But they were startled and frightened, and supposed that they saw a spirit. And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do questionings rise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have." And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

G1 The Risen Christ is a patient teacher on the road to Emmaus, as well as during the meal. Here is an example of his Easter pedagogy: with the word and the gestures, he leads his disciples to the conviction of the truth of the resurrection. He brings them from the initial terror to uncontainable joy. "Handle me, and see" (Lk 24,39). The verb connotes a tangible experience. It will become the reality of the Christian message. John uses it in his first letter: "we have touched with our hands" (1 Jn 1,1). The Risen Jesus is not a shadow. The resurrection is not a fable. Easter is not a myth. Jesus is alive. The Risen Christ is real. He is a true sign of the living God.  He is his power of love. The Risen Jesus represents man's unrealised dream: his victory over death, the beautiful side of life, here it comes true. And now it is open to the man. It is palpable like a beauty of a new born baby. The world is in need of this Easter pedagogy.

G2 Man of today is waiting to meet the witnesses of the resurrection. The world must be able to touch the scars of love of the Church of Christ. Pedagogy is texture  of patience and ability of intelligence. And it is the skill of experience. We need a familiarity with the Risen Christ on the wave of prayer, of the Word and of the Eucharist. We also need to tune into the world of today: with its poverty and perplexity, its anxieties, its hopes and its uncertainties in the future.


A  Rejoice, O Virgin Mother Mary:
    Christ is risen, Alleluia.

P Risen Jesus, we admire you for your patience in the passion: the silence. We admire you for your patience in the resurrection: the pedagogy. To us, as people of today who want everything and at once, give the capacity for a love that would know how to wait, that would know how to exercise it in prayer. You are alive and not a ghost. May we believe in you as the Living one (Act 1,18). Free us from the wrong images of you we might have constructed. Make us suitable for being your signs. The world waits for them to be able to believe.
A  Amen.

A  O Mary, temple  of the Holy Spirit
    guide us, the witnesses to the Risen Christ
    on the path of light.luce.