SUNDAY REFLECTIONS - THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Acts 2: 14, 22-28; 1 Peter 1: 17-21; Luke24: 13-25

(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)

Dearly beloved in Christ, today’s Gospel offers us a strong reminder that the Lord Jesus is with us on every journey of our life, during good times and bad times. The two disciples in the Gospel were walking along the road to Emmaus. It had only been a few days since they had been with Jesus. They had great hope in Him, but their hopes were ruined. Not only was Jesus arrested, but he was publicly humiliated, treated like a criminal, scourged, and crucified. As they walked along the road to Emmaus, the two disciples were joined by a stranger. The stranger was Jesus, but they did not recognize him.

After the disciples shared with the stranger all that had happened in Jerusalem, this stranger began interpreting the Scripture for them, helping them understand why these things had to take place. When the three men arrived in Emmaus, the disciples asked the stranger to remain with them. Cleopas and his companion shared with the stranger all the way through. Not only were they ready to share their confidences with him, but they went all the way and shared their meal and shelter with him. It was in the process of this sharing that the moment of disclosure occurred, and they suddenly realized that the one whom they had accepted all along as a stranger was indeed Jesus, the answer to all their heart's questions.

As they were all at the table, the stranger took bread, blessed it, and gave it to them. At this, the two disciples recognized that it had been Jesus with them all along. Jesus had lifted the gloom from the two disciples' lives in Emmaus. This discovery that the one in whom they had trusted, Jesus Christ, was indeed alive and not dead, gave new meaning to their lives, their faith, and their vocation. Banishing all fear and fatigue, they went back that same night to rejoin the apostles and followers of Jesus and share the good news with them that they had met the risen Lord and that they met him in the person of a stranger.

Christ’s words of teaching and his breaking of bread brought about a profound change in the Emmaus disciples. We, too, may need that same kind of change, that change from unbelieving hearts to hearts warmed by the risen Lord. We may have a dated baptismal certificate, but our baptismal faith must be new each day. We all need greater and greater awareness of Jesus’ living presence in us and with us. The principal place for this change and this awareness is the Eucharist. If we have ears to hear and eyes to see, every Eucharist is Emmaus. Every place where we celebrate the Eucharist is the holy house of table-fellowship with the risen Lord. Every Eucharistic celebration is our opportunity to recognize his presence in our midst, in his Word and sacrament. For here we join the Emmaus disciples to look beyond the bread we eat and see our Savior and our Lord; we look beyond the cup we drink and see his love poured out as blood. What Christ shared with the disciples at Emmaus, he shares with us here and now. He gives himself to us in his teaching and in the breaking of bread. These are the gifts we receive in every Eucharist: Christ’s teaching in the Scriptures for our daily living, and his Body and Blood for our strengthening. Emmaus tells us that Jesus has risen so that we can have a continuing relationship with Him – a relationship which turns the believer into a witness.  Today, the inability to share Him is a sign of a lack of proper experience with Him.  No one gives what he does not have.  Consider how quickly we share good impressions and happenings in our lives with friends.  The same is required of our relationship with the Lord.  We are called to share with others why we are Christians (1 Peter 3:15), we are to share the moral teachings of Christ and the power of Salvation to those who believe (Roman 1:16). As we continue our Easter journey, my wish for you is that you discover that abiding hope, that you become increasingly more aware of the ritual that is the Eucharistic Mass, that Jesus becomes present to you each week in a wide variety of ways, and that my words may be Jesus’ words in an attempt to help you understand the Scriptures, and open them up for you. Then, like the two disciples, we can talk to the other disciples and share their stories – the stories of how they found that Truth who was walking beside them all along.