Peter and John walk up to the Temple in Jerusalem for the hour of prayer (Acts 3:1-10). As they come to the “Beautiful Gate,” a voice calls out to them, begging for alms: it is a crippled man carried to this prime spot every day. The apostles know him; still, he gets no gold or silver. Peter invokes Jesus Christ, and the disabled person feels God’s healing power. The man follows the command to rise and walk.

Peter raises him up, now healed. And then it is a race! They try to keep up with the former cripple, now running and ‘jumping for joy,’ his leaps popping him up above the crowd.

Luke’s Gospel tells the familiar story of the Emmaus Walk. Two disciples, crushed with grief over the events of Good Friday that ended with the horrible death of their master Jesus, decide late on Sunday (Resurrection Day!) to escape Jerusalem and walk for a couple of hours to the village of Emmaus. On their way, they meet a stranger who seems unaware of what has happened, and they share their great sorrows. Some confusion: women from their group visited the tomb that morning and saw that he was gone! Angels in a vision told them that Jesus was alive and had risen! The stranger explains to them the words of the prophets about this Anointed One, the long-awaited Messiah. He stays for a meal, takes bread, blesses and breaks it, and gives it to them. With a burst of recognition, “their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”

For our Easter walks we have with us Saint Peter Julian. We hear him tell Madam Lepage: “How good is the good Lord to have made us know, love, and receive the divine Eucharist! What more can a hungry soul desire?

Let us pray:

Dear God, fill all of our hungers and desires with your love. Open our eyes with each breaking of the bread as we recognize the Bread of Heaven, our true Savior, the Real Presence in this Holy Eucharist! Amen.