Third Sunday of Easter
We gather this weekend after the solemn celebration of Easter and Divine Mercy Sundays, We also remember that the celebration of Easter continues until the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday and then Easter Time ends and the paschal candle is placed near the baptismal font. This Sunday’s gospel recounts Jesus appearance on the evening of Easter Sunday to two disciples who were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, their life with Jesus had come to an abrupt end as all seemed to be lost. For in the past few days Jesus, their beloved Leader, friend and Teacher, had been arrested, tried, sentenced, tortured and killed. Now they are feeling that without his presence, his inspiration his support and encouragement, they simply cannot go on. They are so disappointed and disillusioned about what had happened that they have even decided to leave the Church, the community of his followers they are walking away from it all. Slowly but surely they are putting Jerusalem and the other disciples behind them.
They are heading for the village of Emmaus, to start a new and different way of life. And there Jesus was walking along the road with them as they were talking about what had happened in Jerusalem in the days before and how the authorities had put Jesus to death. Jesus explained all the passages of scripture that were about himself but it was only at the breaking of the bread that they recognized him later in the day. They then went back to tell the apostles that they had seen the Lord and told their story and how they recognized him at the breaking of the bread. The Emmaus story is the story of the church it is the story of you and me as the two disciples represent all of us who claim that we are Christians with all our doubts and disagreements our joys and sorrows. We come together in faith each Sunday in answer to a call, often a quiet murmur from the recesses of our hearts in which Jesus calls out to us saying come to me you who are weary and overburdened and I will give you rest. We are searching just as the companions on the road to Emmaus were and they were weary from all that had happened to them often times we are also weary from the things that happen to us.
In the scriptures we find the explanation and understanding of events and relationships which have shaped the faith of so many people over the long years of the churches history. Our faith is lived out in the real world, the world of family, work, recreation, politics and economics as well as many other things. We don’t live in two separate worlds one spiritual and the other secular. Those who would have us believe that we can separate our lives into two compartments are mistaken as faith and life go together.p It is the application of scriptures to the events of our own lives and times that reveal that God is walking with us and maybe even working through us. But with all and in everything it is in the breaking of bread that we recognize Jesus the Son of God who is with us on our journey. It is in the sharing of the Bread of life that we are made one with each other and with Christ. Our faith grows and our relationship with God and his people unites us in bond of love. We are formed into one Body, the Body of Christ. We are on this journey in fellowship with one another being led by Jesus who calls out to us to follow him from the Cross of Good Friday as well as from the empty tomb of Easter Sunday.
As we grow in faith, we are led to understand those past events as experienced yet again in our time and place. The Risen Lord uses so much gentleness with us! He doesn’t oblige us to ‘believe’ but He offers us the means that enable us to judge based on the measure of our own hearts. As St Augustine wrote in the opening of his Confessions ‘our hearts are restless until they rest in you’ As we recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread may we be joyful agents of conversion of one another. As we show the caring face of the Church those who need us wherever they may be.
Fullerton T 