Gospel (Lk 24,35-48) - At that time, [the two disciples who had returned from Emmaus] narrated [to the Eleven and those who were with them] what had happened along the way and how they had recognized [Jesus] in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said: "Peace be with you!". Shocked and full of fear, they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your heart? Look at my hands and feet: it's really me! Touch me and look; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you can see that I have." Saying this, he showed them his hands and feet. But since they still did not believe for joy and were filled with amazement, he said: "Do you have anything to eat here?". They offered him a portion of roasted fish; he took it and ate it in front of them. Then he said: "These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you: all things written about me in the law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and said to them: «Thus it is written: Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and in his name conversion and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all peoples, starting from Jerusalem. . You are witnesses of this."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The Gospel we heard takes us back to Easter evening. Jesus The evangelist Luke, before the final greeting, closes his gospel with this page. The two disciples on their way to Emmaus had hurriedly returned to Jerusalem and were telling the others what had happened to them. And here Jesus "in person" appears among them and greets them again saying: "Peace be with you". Jesus still finds them incredulous, amazed, full of doubts. In fact, they mistake him for a ghost. And not just that evening. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, writes that Jesus "showed himself to the disciples alive, after his passion, with many trials, for forty days, appearing to them and speaking about the things concerning the Kingdom of God" (Acts 1,3). We could say that it took Jesus 40 days to make his disciples understand the mystery of his death and resurrection, so central is this mystery for Jesus to faith in him. Defeating their unbelief, their doubts, their uncertainties, was Jesus' "work" in the 40 days after Easter. They had seen and were disappointed and perhaps they no longer wanted to abandon themselves to the trust they had had, and perhaps they felt they had the right to go back to living as before. It is easy, in fact, to close oneself in one's resignation and let evil continue to carry out its work of destruction and death.
That evening Jesus entered again behind closed doors and placed himself in the center of the disciples. They were scared when they saw him. They were talking about him, yet they didn't know how to recognize him. Jesus again greeted them, giving peace to them who were still confused, doubtful, incredulous, stubbornly attached to their beliefs. We all need this peace! The peace of the Lord is communion, it is the joy of living, it is a new heart that regenerates, that restores life and hope. Peace is also the gift of a people with whom to live the dream of Jesus dead and risen.
The disciples were attached to their doubts. We must be aware that there is a subtle temptation in doubt, that of never choosing and thus maintaining an internal reserve. Doubt can obviously arise, but cultivating and caressing it ends up making us believe we are smart and intelligent, but in reality making us sad. Jesus is seen as a ghost. And ghosts are scary. I am an unreal, intangible presence. Jesus appears several times to the disciples, yet they struggle to recognize him and believe that he is alive and present among them. The apostles think he is a ghost. But Jesus shows them that he is "flesh and blood", so much so that he eats with them. And he continues to love them "opening their minds to understand the Scriptures." We could say that those forty days were like a great school during which Jesus explained Moses and the Prophets to them and this time the evangelist also adds the Psalms. By listening to the Scriptures and the preaching of Jesus, the disciples dissolved their doubts and their hardness and were freed from fear and fear. But Jesus showed them the strength of his resurrection with which he had defeated evil and which had to be communicated to everyone: "in his name conversion and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all peoples, starting from Jerusalem".
Jesus breaks down the walls of the room where they had locked themselves out of fear, and hears all the people before him. To that frightened group, Jesus says that they must go to all peoples, no one excluded, everyone has the right to be able to encounter in the Gospel, the good news of salvation which consists in conversion, that is, in the fruit that is harvested after preaching and in the gift of forgiveness from the Lord. Since Easter, the universal dream of Jesus has been clear. At the end of the meeting, Jesus tells them: "You are witnesses of this". It is the first time that the Gospel of Luke uses the term "witnesses" in relation to the disciples. The experience of the 40 days with the risen Jesus and the three years they lived with Him is a gift that they cannot keep for themselves. Easter transforms them into disciples who hope and believe that death is conquered and that every wound can be healed. The risen Lord wants us to be passionate witnesses and not uncertain and prudent officials; joyful witnesses and not fearful disciples protected by closed doors; witnesses, who live what they communicate and who by communicating learn to live it. He wants us witnesses to counter the law of the impossible that knows everything, but kills hope. We are invited to become witnesses who believe in the power of love that makes the old new and calls us from death to life.