The God who is Before Us:
Third Sunday of Easter 2026
April 19, 2026
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Acts 2:14-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
The story about the two who are their way to Emmaus reveal something fundamental about God. God is always before us. God is always in the future leading us forward. The Psalmist echoes it by telling us that God will show us the path to life. It is something that will happen in the future. Even Peter in the first reading speaks about God’s foreknowledge of the events of human cruelty. In the second reading, Peter says, “God was known before the world’s foundation but revealed in the final time for you.”
The Emmaus walk reminds us that we are on a journey through life, one that is to be shared with others. We learn a great deal when we listen meaningfully and break bread with one another. The Gospel tells us, “their minds were opened,” the experienced a raising of consciousnesses, and it is a model that we are to follow. This disposition of openness is a key to a fulfilling life of meaning and trust.
We see many instances in Scripture where God is ahead of the people to lead them forward. God leads the Hebrews from slavery into the Promised Land; God leads Israel as a pillar of cloud of fire. Jesus calls people to follow him, and as the Good Shepherd, he always goes before the sheep. Notice that God does not push us forward from the back; God invites us from the front. It does not mean that we know where we are going. We simply take one more step onward.
What does this mean for our relationship with Christ? Our traditional prayers focus upon the Christ of the past, the Jesus of Nazareth who has been raised. The new focus upon the Christ who is still ahead of us, the Christ who is still becoming, shows that he is growing toward his fulfillment at the end of time. Christ is presently both with us and up ahead of us, beckoning us forward, inviting us to grow in love, as an individual and as a collective Body of Christ.
When we break bread with one another, we open ourselves to a grander way of thinking and feeling. As we listen to and share stories, our hearts are converted to the stories of other people, just like the Disciples on the way to Emmaus. We begin to shift our thinking, through the Eucharist, from a restrictive mindset to one that is more open and inclusive. Therefore, our spirituality can no longer be self-focused or self-enclosed. As a community of faith, we develop at collective spiritual life in which we turn outside of ourselves to the needs of others. We begin to see ourselves as new creations and no longer as individuals who want to develop one’s own prayer life. We see that we are part of a greater Body, to a new life connected with the Risen Christ. We pay attention to the divine project that God through Jesus has begun in the Resurrection. As Christ was raised to new life, we were raised with him.
We now need to learn to act and think in a new way. It is not I who lives but the Christ within me. We need to act as members of Christ, the Christ who is calling us to evolve and to love as one body. The Christ who is to come is calling us toward him. We are invited to walk with him and to work with each other and with Christ to transform the earth. This forward movement to the God who is ahead impels us forward to a greater love, to a world that is still becoming, to a world that is striving to reach its fullest potential. Let’s walk on this journey with the Christ who is to come so we can make possible a transformed future for our world. When we break bread with one another, may we come to this moment in which our eyes are opened and we see the Christ in each of us called forth as one as brother and sister and friend.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Acts 6) Stephen worked great signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.
Tuesday: (Acts 7) False testimony is lodged against him but he stands angelic before them. Angry opponents stone him, including Saul, who consents to execute him.
Wednesday: (Acts 8) A severe persecution breaks out in Jerusalem and the believers are displaced to Judea and Samaria. Saul, trying to destroy the Church, enters house after house to arrest them.
Thursday: (Acts 8) Philip’s testimony and miracles in Samaria emboldens the believers. Philip heads out to Gaza and meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is reading Isaiah’s texts. Philip interprets the scripture and the eunuch begs to be baptized.
Friday (Acts 9) Meanwhile, Saul is carrying out hateful acts against the believers and is struck blind as he beholds a manifestation of Jesus. The beginning of his call and conversion takes place.
Saturday (1 Peter 6 – Mark the Evangelist) Clothe yourself in humility; be sober and vigilant and resist the devil. The God of grace will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
Gospel:
Monday: (John 6) Jesus feeds the 5000 as a flashback to the Eucharistic memory of the believers with the Bread of Life discourse.
Tuesday: (John 6) Jesus instructs them, “It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; my heavenly father gives the true bread.” Jesus proclaims, “I am the bread of life.”
Wednesday (John 6) God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world might be saved through him.
Thursday (John 6) Jesus states that all that is required is belief in him. Belief is not given to all. The way to the way is through the Son.
Friday (John 6) The Jews quarreled and opposition to the cannibalistic references of Jesus rises because his sayings are hard to accept. He tells the people, “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” If you eat of Jesus, you will live forever.
Saturday (Mark 16) Jesus appeared to the Eleven giving them instructions to proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Saints of the Week
April 21: Anselm, bishop and doctor (1033-1109), was a monastic abbot in Normandy who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093 after the Norman conquest of England in 1066 when the English hierarchy was displaced. Church-state relations peppered his term, but he became known to the church because of his theological and philosophical treatises, mostly for his assertion about the existence of God – an idea greater than that which no other idea can be thought. His method of theology is summed up in “faith seeking understanding.”
April 22: Jesuits honor Mary as the Mother of the Society of Jesus. In the Gesu church in Rome, a painting of Our Lady of the Way (Maria della Strada) is portrayed to represent Jesuit spirituality. Mary had been a central figure to Ignatius’s spirituality. In 1541, seven months after papal approval of the Jesuit Order and two weeks after his election as the first general, Ignatius celebrated Mass at Our Lady’s altar in the basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls in Rome.
April 23: George, martyr (d. 303), was killed in Lydda, Palestine. He may have been a Roman soldier who organized a Christian community in what is now Iran (Urmiah). He became part of the Middle Ages imagination for his ideal of Christian chivalry and is thought to have slain a dragon. He was sent to Britain on an imperial expedition. He became the patron of England (and of Crusaders) and the nation adopted George’s Arms, a red cross on a white background, which is still part of the British flag.
April 23: Adalbert, bishop and martyr (956-997), was Bohemian-born who was consecrated bishop of Prague amidst fierce political opposition. He was exiled and became a Benedictine monk in Rome that he used as a base to preach missions in Poland, Prussia, Hungary, and Russia. He is named the "Apostle to the Slavs." He was killed in Gdansk, Poland.
April 24: Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and martyr (1578-1622), was a canon lawyer from Swabia, Germany who became a Capuchin Franciscan in Switzerland in 1612. Prior to priesthood, he tutored nobles in France, Italy and Spain and helped interpret legislation that served the poor. He was known as the "lawyer for the poor." He was later appointed to the challenging task of preaching to the Protestants in Switzerland, where he was killed for being an agent for the king. He was the head of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in anti-Catholic hostilities. He was accused of being the king's political agent and was assaulted and killed.
April 25: Mark, the Evangelist is the author of the earliest Gospel and is associated with Peter whom he heard preach. Mark was a member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem and his mother owned a house in the city that was used as a place of prayer during Peter's imprisonment under Herod Agrippa I. He was originally a companion of Paul and Barnabas having traveled with them back to Antioch in Syria. Later, they brought him along as their assistant on a missionary journey. He is associated with Peter’s ministry later in life. He was sent to Alexandria and formed a church that is now known as the Coptic Orthodox Church.
This Week in Jesuit History
- April 19, 1602. At Tyburn, Ven. James Ducket, a layman, suffered death for publishing a work written by Robert Southwell.
- April 20, 1864. Father Peter de Smet left St Louis to evangelize the Sioux Indians.
- April 21, 1926. Fr. General Ledochowski sent out a letter De Usu Machinae Photographicae. It stated that cameras should belong to the house, not the individual. Further, they should not be used for recreation or time spent on trifles rather than for the greater glory of God.
- April 22, 1541. Ignatius and his first companions made their solemn profession of vows in the basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls.
- April 23, 1644. A General Chapter of the Benedictines condemned the calumny that St Ignatius was not the real author of the Spiritual Exercises. A monk had earlier claimed that the content was borrowed from a work by Garzia Cisneros.
- April 24, 1589. At Bordeaux, the Society was ordered to leave the city. It had been falsely accused of favoring the faction that was opposed to King Henry III.
- April 25, 1915. Pierre Rousselot, Professor at the Institute Catholique in Paris, is wounded and taken prisoner during World War I.
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