1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Let me remind us before we begin our reflection on today’s Scripture readings that we’re 2 weeks into the 6 weeks Easter Season.
What is the Easter Season all about?
It’s coming to terms with what it means
to follow a resurrected Lord!
You may remember that last Sunday I reminded us that the season of Easter in 50 days long and the focus of our reflections is upon recapturing the joy and expectation of that first Easter Season.
In the Spirit of this Easter Season we’re being called upon by God to “Step Out” and reveal the Lord we know to those around us.
Show video – the Most Interesting Man In the World!
So let me ask us a question:
1. How interesting are you?
2. How interesting is your life?
3. Do other people like to be near you – around you – are they able to speak with you?
4. Has anyone said to you lately “I just love to be near you? I like being your friend?”
5. Do you think anyone might just be thinking that about you?
6. Have you ever thought that of anyone?
7. Is there anyone whom you love to be near?
8. What sort of people are they?
Deep down most of us want to be interesting – we want other people to want to be around us.
Some of us want this but don’t seem to be able to pull it off while others of us just don’t give a rip! We’re happy with our own company and if nobody else wants to be around us that “just fine.”
I, for instance, love to be in the presence of someone who looks for and finds God in everything and when they can’t find Him immediately they know that it’s just a matter of time and faithfulness before He reveals Himself to them. Such people are so so good to be around – don’t you think?
I should qualify that with this caveat – I’m not talking about “Being a Polyanna – that’s someone heavy on sentiment but light on reality. Someone with a need for good feelings but no substance – no character – just a need to feel loving and being loved.
What I’m talking about is someone with substance and character and imagination and the desire and ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary – to find God all about them . . . despite appearances to the contrary!
These are the sorts of interesting people I love to be around – I must confess!
They’re not bland or boringly predictable – they’re fascinating, interesting, intriguing!
These are the people that despite appearances seem to always look for and find God underneath, behind, above and beside everything! I love being around these people because they draw me into their wonderment!
So are you the sort of person that other people like to be around or are you a bit of a downer?
How fascinating – interesting or just plain old fun are you to be around?
I ask this question and want to explore it a bit - because it seems to me that a vital Christian should be someone other people want to be near!
Look at Jesus – look at how the people loved to be near Him – in His presence.
Can you remember anyone whom you loved to be near. My guess is that they had a faith in the reality of God!
You see, I’m asking this question to give us all a chance to look honestly at ourselves and then to reflect upon how ready we are to Step Up and intentionally try to draw people to our Lord!
If we truly follow Jesus then we’re going to be like Him – we’re going to be - loving, interesting, fascinating, enchanting, mystical and magical, kind and gracious! We’re going to attract people to ourselves because of our relationship with our Lord!
As we saw in our reading this morning, in the early days of the Church people were flocking in to become a part of this wonderful movement!
The Apostles didn’t have to promote a special teaching or offer special incentives to the citizenry of Jerusalem.
The people were coming because what they saw was magnificent – wonderful – compelling. The Christians were genuinely good and kind people and they couldn’t stop talking about their risen leader – the holy man Jesus Christ!
The Christian community was growing so fast that the 11 remaining Apostles of Jesus didn’t know exactly what to do to handle their burgeoning numbers!
But that’s another story.
Today we’re going to zero in once again on the experience of the very early Christians.
In this case on two of Jesus’ disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus just days after Jesus’s devastating crucifixion!
Let me read our Gospel Reading once again but this time from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message:”
As I read this:
· I want us to see how attractive Jesus was to these two very desolate men.
· There’s something else I’d love you to look for – I’d love us all to see how this story is in fact the story of every Sunday’s Liturgy.
You see the early Church Fathers saw this story of Jesus’ encounter with 2 of His disciples on the Road to Emmaus as the story of each and every one of us as we come to encounter Jesus.
Let me remind all of us what I believe the goal of our Lord is as we do this.
I’m convinced that He wants to so fill us with Himself that we will be like Him – a magnet for all of humanity!
In fact that we will be “like Him” – attractive, intriguing, . . . someone others want to be around – to learn from!
So listen in and see if you can spot what I’m getting at here:
Luke 24:13 That same day two of them were walking to the village Emmaus, about seven miles out of Jerusalem. 14 They were deep in conversation, going over all these things that had happened. 15 In the middle of their talk and questions, Jesus came up and walked along with them. 16 But they were not able to recognize who he was.
Luke 24:17 He asked, “What’s this you’re discussing so intently as you walk along?”
They just stood there, long-faced, like they had lost their best friend. 18 Then one of them, his name was Cleopas, said, “Are you the only one in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard what’s happened during the last few days?”
Luke 24:19 He said, “What has happened?”
They said, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene. He was a man of God, a prophet, dynamic in work and word, blessed by both God and all the people. 20 Then our high priests and leaders betrayed him, got him sentenced to death, and crucified him. 21 And we had our hopes up that he was the One, the One about to deliver Israel. And it is now the third day since it happened. 22 But now some of our women have completely confused us. Early this morning they were at the tomb 23 and couldn’t find his body. They came back with the story that they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. 24 Some of our friends went off to the tomb to check and found it empty just as the women said, but they didn’t see Jesus.”
Luke 24:25 Then he said to them, “So thick-headed! So slow-hearted! Why can’t you simply believe all that the prophets said? 26 Don’t you see that these things had to happen, that the Messiah had to suffer and only then enter into his glory?” 27 Then he started at the beginning, with the Books of Moses, and went on through all the Prophets, pointing out everything in the Scriptures that referred to him.
Luke 24:28 They came to the edge of the village where they were headed. He acted as if he were going on 29 but they pressed him: “Stay and have supper with us. It’s nearly evening; the day is done.” So he went in with them. 30 And here is what happened: He sat down at the table with them. Taking the bread, he blessed and broke and gave it to them. 31 At that moment, open-eyed, wide-eyed, they recognized him. And then he disappeared.
Luke 24:32 Back and forth they talked. “Didn’t we feel on fire as he conversed with us on the road, as he opened up the Scriptures for us?”
Luke 24:33 They didn’t waste a minute. They were up and on their way back to Jerusalem. They found the Eleven and their friends gathered together, 34 talking away: “It’s really happened! The Master has been raised up—Simon saw him!”
Luke 24:35 Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread.
The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is, in fact, the story of each and every one of us one at the Mass.
Jesus encounters us in the Mass if we want to meet with Him!
In fact, each Mass is a restatement of the story of the Road to Emmaus.
The early Church has always seen the structure of the Mass is based on this gospel passage.
1. Our Lord walks alongside us – just as He did with those first 2 disciples.
Look what our Lord does as He meets these 2 disconsolate disciples. He listens to them. There’s no pretense, no contrived piety. Jesus has all the time in the world to hear us out.
2. Then the scriptures are expounded upon. The traveler helped the men on the road to Emmaus understand their experience by showing them how God’s plan for human beings revealed in the Scriptures.
Reflecting on this, the disciples said: “Didn’t our hearts burn within us while he talked to us…?”
When you and I hear how God loves us and has been reaching out to us not only throughout the history of the world but also throughout our own short History.
Look at what’s happening here – Jesus, God incarnate, was reaching out to two of His disciples! Not the supposedly “important” ones but to 2 of his own!
You are one of them!
But now only does He reveal God’s working in our Lives but then He reveals Himself personally to us!
3. The two disciples invite their anonymous fellow-traveler to share a meal. He agrees, but becomes their host! Around the table they become his guests!
He takes bread, blesses it, and gives it to them to eat.
And, in that moment of bread-sharing, the two men had their eyes opened and recognized their traveling companion as their Lord – Jesus Christ!
It’s in the breaking of bread with his followers that the Risen Lord Jesus is most profoundly and truly present. This is the Real Presence.
Our Risen Lord is the Bread of Life. Eat the bread consecrated at Mass, and we receive into our very being the Divine Companion for our journey through life.
And so the message for us is this: We must become as Christ to everyone lost and wandering and wondering.
Like Jesus we must listen to them and then when their hearts are open, we must reveal God’s beautiful wisdom to them. We must show them how much He loves them and what He has done to come and rescue and care for them.
We must be willing to go into their homes and to break bread with them. It’s in this communion that the love of Jesus will touch their very hearts!
You see a person who is interested in me and is imaginative and fascinating in the ways they bring God’s wisdom into my life – this person is very very attractive and the sort of person I want to be near as often as possible.
Can you see now that it’s not really a question of how interesting they are but how interested they are in me – that’s the key to drawing your family and friends into the Circle of Love we call Christianity!
You see as we allow ourselves to love others as Jesus loves them He begins to reach through us and reveal Himself to them and it’s then that the ordinary and even tragic situations of our lives begin to be seen as extraordinary.
You see our friends and family members may not see the hand of God in our lives.
Perhaps they need someone to reveal His fingerprints in their lives.
Despite appearances, something is happening beneath what we are able to observe. God is at work beneath and within our lives. Once we realize who this unique travelling companion really is, our hearts too will burn within us, our eyes too will be opened, and we too will look at life with the assurance of faith.
Easter faith will transform our disillusionment into missionary zeal. Some of us may be called upon to give public witness, as did Peter. Most will preach with the example of our lives. All can enter this mystery as we recognize Him in the breaking of the bread.
The story of the road to Emmaus is a perfect model for our Christian life. It reminds us first of all that none of us walk the journey alone. Even when we don’t recognize His presence, Jesus joins us in the everyday realities of life.
The breaking open and interpretation of scripture is essential to making sense of our life experiences and through the celebration of Eucharist and table fellowship we’re nourished to not only continue the journey but to share the good news with others.
Let me now pray for each and every one of us that we will step up and become God’s magnets! Amen and Amen!
