Daily Gospel Reflection
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April 20, 2022
That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the Eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Reflection
About ten years ago, I worked as a parish youth minister responsible for leading first-year high school students through Confirmation preparation. Accompanying young people as they prepare to receive the Holy Spirit through this sacrament can be challenging: many don’t want to be there. They show up to appease parents and grandparents, and, for some, it’s just another time to see friends.
I can remember one particular conversation with a parent whose child was in our program. Standing in the hallway outside the parish meeting room, this mother let me know that her daughter would not continue seeking Confirmation.
The young woman wasn’t close with any of the other teens in the group, and she didn’t have any other Catholic friends. Despite her family’s desire for her to receive the sacrament, she chose to leave the program. She may have had other reasons for leaving, but ultimately, I realized she left because of a lack of a Catholic community.
It strikes me as significant that two disciples encounter Jesus on the way to Emmaus in today’s gospel. In my own life and in the lives of the Notre Dame students with whom I work, I find that relationships and community have a tremendous impact on our faith journeys.
We support and challenge each other. We provide space to ask big questions. We accompany each other as we walk away from situations that seem confusing and hopeless, and, as Christ makes himself known among us, we go together where God calls us to share the Good News of his presence in our lives.
Today, let us reflect on how our faith communities support each of us this Easter season. How are we helping and accompanying others? How can we be more attentive to Christ’s presence among us today?
Prayer
Almighty God, your Son’s rising from the dead astounded his followers, and turned their sadness into joy, their hopelessness into buoyant courage. Like the disciples who encountered him on the road to Emmaus, may we recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, know him as the fulfillment of our deepest longings, and proclaim him alive to all we meet. We ask this through Christ our risen Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Agnes of Montepulciano became well-known for the supernatural signs that accompanied her growth in holiness.
She was born 1268 to a wealthy family. She joined the convent in her hometown as a very young girl, and vigorously applied herself to prayer and formation. She was wise, even as a youth, and was entrusted with the role of housekeeper for the convent when she was 14.
When a new convent was opened nearby, Agnes was among those who departed to help begin the new community. She inspired a number of other young women to join that new convent, and she was chosen to lead the community as abbess. She was only 15 and had to receive special permission from the pope to take on that role at such a young age.
With such a great responsibility at hand, Agnes practiced a strict discipline with herself—for the next 15 years, she lived on bread and water alone and slept on the ground with a stone for a pillow. Only when she faced a serious illness did she relent these disciplines.
She became well-known for her holiness, and special signs accompanied her prayer. She received several visions—holding the infant Jesus in her arms at one point, and receiving Communion from an angel in another. The nuns in her community saw her lifted two feet off the ground when she was praying. When the convent ran out of food, she could feed the whole community with a handful of bread after she had blessed it.
Most interesting of all, though, was the appearance of manna about her body when she prayed. She would sometimes be consumed in rapturous prayer, and a white, frosty-looking manna would appear on her cloak and in the place where she was kneeling. Her sisters reported that in these instances she looked like she had been outside in a heavy snowstorm.
The people of her hometown, Montepulciano, wanted her to return to them, so she returned to found a new convent and asked that it be placed under the order established by St. Dominic. They built the convent building on a site that had previously held a brothel.
She lived at this new convent until she died, and served as its prioress. Signs of holiness continued to follow her, including prophecies and healings—she miraculously resuscitated a child who had drowned. The community thrived under her guidance until she fell gravely ill at the age of 49.
When it was clear that she would die, her community became distressed, and she told them, “If you loved me, you would be glad because I am about to enter the glory of my Spouse. Do not grieve over my departure—I shall not lose sight of you. You will find that I have not abandoned you.”
Her tomb became a pilgrimage site, and Agnes’ body remained incorrupt there. The great St. Catherine of Siena visited her tomb, and it is said that when she bent down to kiss the foot of Agnes’ body, it lifted itself to meet her lips.
Relics of St. Agnes rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus.
St. Agnes of Montepulciano, you were the prayerful nun who showed supernatural signs of holiness, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Agnes of Montepulciano is available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International. Last accessed February 21, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
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