+ GOSPEL: Luke 24:36b-48
In this account of an appearance after his resurrection, Jesus opens the minds of the disciples to
understand him as Messiah. Jesus convinces them that he has been raised and sends them on a
mission to proclaim the message of repentance and forgiveness.
Jesus himself stood among [the disciples] and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said
to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my
hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have
flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his
hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he
said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish,
and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with
you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the
psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from
the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be
proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of
these things.”
After the gospel is read, the following is said responsively:
P: The Gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to you, O Christ.
