“With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.” (Luke 24:31.)
Saint Ephrem the Syrian offers the following insight on this verse from today’s Gospel Proclamation:
- Even when the army
- surrounded Elisha
- a voice proved the key
- to the eyes of the shepherd.
- When the disciple's eyes
- were held closed,
- bread too was the key
- whereby their eyes were opened
- to recognize the Omniscient:
- saddened eyes beheld
- a vision of joy
- and were instantly filled with happiness.
- So likewise that Wood,
- which is the Tree of Knowledge,
- can, with its fruit, roll back
- the cloud of ignorance,
- so that eyes can recognize
- the beauty
- of that Tabernacle
- hidden within;
- but because Adam and Eve
- ate it in sin,
- the vision that should have caused joy of heart
- resulted in grief of heart.
(Hymns on Paradise, 15.)
Collect
May your people exult for ever, O God,
in renewed youthfulness of spirit,
so that, rejoicing now in the restored glory
of our adoption,
we may look forward in confident hope
to the rejoicing of the day of resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
in renewed youthfulness of spirit,
so that, rejoicing now in the restored glory
of our adoption,
we may look forward in confident hope
to the rejoicing of the day of resurrection.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
