Third Sunday of Easter
/Dominica III Paschae A
23 April 2023
The gospel is one of several instances where the grieving apostles and disciples do not immediately recognize the resurrected Jesus: “their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.” On the rare occasions when I am not in the priest’s collar I can attest that it is comical how people don’t recognize me. Without the normal garb I just blend into the crowd. Years ago, I was at the mall in civilian attire. In the distance I saw a couple parishioners walking toward me in the midst of the shoppers. While still a distance off, I did one of those head nod acknowledgments. The couple didn’t notice. That got me thinking of doing an experiment: How close can I get to them before they recognize me? So, we kept walking toward each other and walking closer and closer and we passed literally shoulder-to-shoulder. They never saw me. I was very excited to tell them about this but then I realized that I couldn’t because the experiment makes me look a little creepy! So, I never told them.
Now I am not claiming that those disciples on the road to Emmaus failed to recognize Jesus because of his attire. No, it is a much deeper matter than that. However, the inability to see Jesus even though he was walking with them and speaking to them raises lessons for us. What lessons can we draw from the gospel that will help open our eyes to Jesus’ presence, even though at first we might not recognize him or see him in the way that he is in our midst?
Firstly, Jesus let those disciples speak about what was on their minds and hearts. They told him all about the hopes they had in Jesus and how he was dead and now allegedly alive. Can we speak to God about our life, our hopes, our disappointments? That’s what a vibrant prayer life should be. Can we speak to others about Jesus? We need to be willing and able to do so. Can we give others we meet the room to speak and share about their lives? If not, we are short-circuiting our journey and theirs on the road of discipleship.
Secondly, do we give our hearts what they need to be on fire for Jesus? After the disciples on the road recognized Jesus they admitted that his Scripture interpretation had set their hearts burning within them. Do we turn to the sharp, two-edged sword of the Scripture, reading it and reflecting upon it in prayer, so that our hearts may be on fire? If our hearts aren’t on fire, set on fire by reliance upon the Scriptures, then we may be lacking the impulse needed for the next step in recognizing Jesus. If we aren’t burning for more, in other words, why would we ever bother looking deeper? You have to first be hungry to seek out good nourishment.
Thirdly, sharing life honestly with God and others and being enflamed by the Scriptures isn’t an end to itself, but should lead to recognizing Jesus more clearly in his highest presence among us: namely, in the Eucharistic “breaking of bread” which is his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. Jesus remains with us in his Real Presence, a presence given to those worthily prepared so that a deeper life with Jesus can take place. When Jesus broke bread with the two disciples “their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” We need to see in this passage an indication of the new way that the Lord planned to be with his Church and to remain with us. He is with us even though our eyes may not quite see him in the same way as when he walked the earth. This passage is a lesson that the Lord is training his disciples to look for him where the Church gathers at the sacred altar in the breaking of the bread. Preparing ourselves ready for Holy Mass, do we then seek to find the Lord in this privileged place where he decided to reveal himself, and to give himself to us? Do we seek to train our eyes on him by committing to prayer in our chapel before the Lord present in the monstrance for adoration? That’s a place we should go to improve our vision for like the downcast disciples on that road to Emmaus we often do not see the reality of what is around us and we may miss that the Lord is with us.
Fourthly, upon recognizing that Jesus was with them in the breaking of bread, what is the final lesson from the disciples on the road to Emmaus? It is this simple comment from the gospel: “So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven.” In other words, having encountered Jesus led those disciples to live life more fully with and in the Church. They had been fleeing Jerusalem and the apostles. They had been heading west, going in the opposite direction, from where the Church was gathered in those very early days after the Lord’s death, in fact on the very day of the Resurrection itself they were heading out of town, away from the community of believers. But now they return to the eleven remaining apostles and the other disciples. Encountering Jesus and having deeper communion with him is a must for a disciple. But take careful note of an important lesson: one cannot have a complete relationship with Jesus without also having a deeper relationship with his Body the Church. The Head and the Body, Jesus and the Church go together. Always. As those disciples on the march away from the Church learned, to be drawn into deeper life with Jesus requires deeper life with the Church. And so, they returned to where the apostles were presiding.
The gospel provides an itinerary for the spiritual life of each of us here. The Church proclaims that the Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon Peter. Where we are blinded by our sin, distracted by the routine and demands of life, and spiritually immature, we have a pattern in the gospel that gives us direction and must always lead us here… because here Jesus is made known to us in the breaking of bread!