Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14, 22-33
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35
When I lived in Chicago, I attended the Cathedral Parish. One Sunday morning, I was distracted by the beauty of Lake Michigan as I drove along Lake Shore Drive on my way to Mass. I almost cut off another driver as we exited the Drive. I tried to apologize and his anger was apparent in the gesture tossed my way. Some forty minutes later, I met him again as I received Communion. He was the Eucharistic Minister. Our meeting gave new meaning to “knowing him in the breaking of the bread.”
The story in today’s Gospel can be understood on many levels. It takes place on an ordinary road traveled by two ordinary men who did what people do when they walk together. They talked and it is not surprising that they discussed what was most on their minds—the strange happenings of the previous days.
Jesus joins them and the travelers tell the story through the prism of their pain. They are disillusioned and without hope. Jesus tells the story back to them. This time he tells it through the Scripture and tradition that they know so well. It sounds like a different story and they are heartened. They invite Jesus to eat with them. And it is in that meal, they recognize him—“in the breaking of the bread.” Since this is an ordinary meal, some Scripture scholars suggest that perhaps they had been with Jesus when he fed the 5,000. Many see the story as a Eucharistic reference since Luke’s Gospel was influenced by the liturgy.
The link between our family table and the Communion table is strong. Consider how our experience would be enriched if we consciously brought the memory of Eucharist to our family meal and the intimacy of our family meals to the Eucharist. Just as the disciples’ experience on the road and at the table transformed them, our meals will transform us.
It is easy for us to see ourselves walking that ordinary road with the disciples. The story brings us into direct contact with the power of the Scripture and the Sacraments to connect us to God and the Church. Emmaus helps us to expect God in our lives. The Gospel goes on to tell us that when the disciples reached Jerusalem, they found others who had had similar experiences. And so it is that when we tell the stories of finding God in our lives, our experience is verified by others. This is the Church—where we meet the Lord again and again in our lives.
My encounter on Lake Shore Drive was not a “faith encounter” but my meeting with the Eucharistic Minister at the altar was an invitation to a conversation on the steps of the Cathedral. As my nephew would say, “Who knew?”
