Sunday Homily, 19 April 2026 - Fr Paul Rowse, OP

The two disciples were downcast because they couldn’t see that Good Friday was necessary.  They witnessed the terrible events of that dark day and saw only hopes dashed, that is, human ambition for the chosen people thwarted.  The Lord showed himself in every way to be God’s anointed for Israel, that is, until he gave up the spirit after his body was pierced through.

But the sacrifice of Jesus on Good Friday wasn’t a random event.  Nor was it unforeseen.  The Lord’s death is an indispensable pre-condition for all else that must happen.  Without the death, there can be no life.  Without the sacrifice, there is no salvation.  Without the cross stood up on the earth, there is no ladder into paradise.

The necessity of Jesus’ death can be seen through the pages of the Old Testament: this is the message of this episode in the Gospel.  The Lord takes these two disciples, and us with them, through the Pentateuch and the prophets to show them how to read those writings in a paschal way.  Here we have a quick course over an afternoon’s walk on how to read the Old Testament by the light of the New, that is, by the light of Jesus.

There is a line of argument which runs that Christians ought not to use the Old Testament, that we should just leave it to the Jewish people.  But this Gospel passage reveals for us that the Hebrew Bible belongs not just to Old Israel but also to the New Israel, the Church.  We have great affection for our Jewish brothers and sisters.  The Lord, who was born a Jew of his Jewish mother and raised by her with her Jewish spouse, went through the Hebrew Bible with these two Jewish disciples to bring them to full knowledge of its meaning.  Thus, the Lord hands the Hebrew Bible back to these two Jewish disciples, and though them the whole Church, with the fuller meaning now firmly in mind.

Now, I would give my right arm to know exactly what the Lord said about himself in Moses and the prophets!  But we might be able to piece it together from what we know of the Old Testament and from what St Luke tells us about the conversation.  The two disciples did not understand the “full meaning” of the Hebrew Bible: they did not see how Good Friday fits in with what they read there.  So, my suspicion is that the Lord makes the connection between the Old Testament heroes and notions of sacrifice.  And it might have sounded like this:

• The Christ is the new Abel, because he too offered a sacrifice acceptable to God, but his sacrifice is eternally acceptable, once for all, because he offered himself.

• The Christ is the new Melchizedek, because he too offered a sacrifice of bread and wine, but his bread and wine is his flesh and blood for the life of the world.

• The Christ is the new Solomon, because he too built a temple for sacrifice to God, but his temple wasn’t a stone building but the temple of his very body which was itself sacrificed.

• The Christ is the new Jeremiah, because he too was rejected by his own people while foreseeing a new covenant, but he went all the way to his death to effect it.

And on it goes, one by one, through the Hebrew Scriptures, showing how each one of them points to Christ and how the message of their lives is fulfilled by his sacrifice.

As these two disciples hear the risen Lord speak about their ancient heroes in this way, making the connection between the heroes’ day and Good Friday, their hearts burn within them.  Finally, at long last, these two understand how all people they know so much about are connected.  The heroes of old aren’t just connected to one another by their history, but also by their orientation towards Christ and his cross.  And so, for the first time in the history of Israel, the Hebrew Bible makes complete sense to Hebrews.

To us, the Old Testament can seem like little more than dark history, an optional background that we could apply if we need to make Christ stand out.  But that is not how the Lord taught it to us.  The Old Testament is, or at least is also, the collection of Israel’s witnesses to the death and resurrection of Christ.  We know who Christ is because Israel knows who Christ is.

So, you and I will take up the entirety of the Scriptures and appreciate how the Lord is present on every page.  We belong to both Testaments and they belong to us.  We ignore parts of it at our peril.  We pray that all Israel and all Christians will accept the full meaning of the Scriptures, and so have hearts which burn full of love for the risen Lord, to whom be the glory for ever and ever.  Amen.  Alleluia.

Fr Paul Rowse, OP

Parish Priest