“The Lord is risen, alleluia!” Today on this third Sunday after Easter we have one of the most beautiful stories of the risen Lord :the road to Emmaus. This story has been celebrated in art and literature over the centuries but for us ,its most important significance is expressed by the disciples walking along that road: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road.” That sense of ‘our hearts burning within us’ is the response we all feel when we hear this Gospel proclaimed.

There are four themes Luke presents to us this morning that we need to linger, ponder and pray over: four words to keep in mind: 1.journey, 2.recognition and 3. Eucharist and 4. Mission.

The first of these key words is ‘journey’ because the road to Emmaus is seared into our imaginations and has a powerful effect on us because we can relate to the idea of journey.  The road to Emmaus is a metaphor for our own journey here and now.

Let me diverge here and speak of a modern version of the road to Emmaus—a movie called ‘The Way’ starring Martin Sheen  (2010) which is about discovery. Martin Sheen plays the role of an American ophthalmologist who cannot understand the choices his son has made in life, particularly his choice to spend weeks on the famous ‘camino de Santiago’. The Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James) is a large network of ancient pilgrim routes stretching across Europe and coming together at the tomb of St. James (Santiago in Spanish) in Santiago de Compostela in north-west Spain. Tom has come to Spain to take home the remains of his son who died accidentally while making this famous pilgrimage. He was a busy physician and estranged from his son who had chosen to live his life in a more spiritual way not enslaving himself to the demands of consumerism and work addiction. Tom is not religious and reluctantly decides to complete his son’s pilgrimage for him. Along the way Tom meets some other pilgrims all of whom are seeking some meaning to their lives. Gradually as he walks the hundreds of kilometers along the camino, he reflects on his life and its meaning and the life of his son who had chosen not to enter the rat race of modern life. His journey leads to self-discovery and a deeper knowledge of the meaning of his own life as he shares bread with his companions. He comes out of himself and finds meaning in this small community of pilgrims and experiences a deep reconciliation with his dead son.

Emmaus is a metaphor for our lives. The road to Emmaus is a journey of discovery.  Emmaus, where Jesus takes the bread, breaks it and gives it to the two disciples, is our final destination. Let us take a few moments and walk with the two disciples.

This story follows Luke’s account of the women and Mary Magdalen going to the grave and discovering that Jesus’ body was not there.  Two disciples—Cleopas and some commentators suggest the other is his wife—are walking to Emmaus, some 11 kilometers from Jerusalem.  The exact location of Emmaus is disputed by archeologists today.  The two are discussing what has happened to Jesus three days earlier when He was tortured and crucified. They are devastated, “we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.” They were confused, “ Some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.”  Are we not often just like these two disciples as we journey through our own lives.  We are fearful, we have doubts, we are not always faithful. We often abandon the mission.

CLeopas and his companion did not know what to make of these events until they were joined by a stranger. Jesus never abandons us. He is always walking with us. Like Cleopas and his wife, we do not recognize Jesus. He remains a stranger because sometimes in the darkness of our journey we forget that Jesus walks with us.  Isn’t that the meaning of the incarnation?  As they walk along, Jesus ‘opens their eyes’ so that for the first time they begin to understand that all the scriptures are speaking of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. If we listen carefully to Jesus’ words and take them to heart, then our eyes will be open.  We will begin to ‘recognize’ Jesus in the nitty –gritty of our daily lives. We will begin to see, as if for the first time, that Jesus is present in the stranger, the elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease, the young mother struggling to raise her children, the young man with the tattoos who is seeking his identity, the First Nations woman who has disappeared. As one commentator writes:

“Christ walks beside us as our food and strength for the journey and enables us to become, for everyone, witnesses to hope..making his presence in nourishment and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by his love.”(Sacrament of Love, Redmond, p78).  

While we journey together, let us always remember and testify that Jesus remains with us and walks the camino with us, through thick and through thin—even through our suffering and our death.  As our psalmist says, “I keep the Lord always before me;/because he is at my right hand.” (Psalm 16) or as we heard in our second reading where Peter quotes the same psalm, “You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.”

I said at the beginning there were four words that our readings are about and the second of these is the word, ‘recognition’.  I am always struck by the fact that after the resurrection, those who first encountered the Lord did not recognize him at once.  Mary Magdalen encountering him in the garden only recognized him when she heard her name called, ‘Mary’, ‘Rabbouni”.  Cleopas and his companion—and we assume that they knew Jesus well having been his followers----did not recognize him even though their hearts were burning.  Perhaps there is a lesson for us too.  How often do we fail to recognize Jesus in our lives? How often is our faith weak so that we cannot see the Lord? It is only in the personal encounter with the other, that we can see Jesus.  We have to discern his voice when He speaks our name.

The third word that is the key to this journey to Emmaus is ‘eucharist’.  It is only in being nourished with Jesus’ life-giving body and blood, with the gift of his Spirit, that our eyes are opened to the new reality of the resurrection.  “When he was at table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight.” (Gospel). This beautiful passage is redolent with meaning for us.  We truly encounter the Lord in the Eucharist and hear our name and we recognize Jesus’ presence in our lives. As we share the Eucharist, we look at each other differently. We experience our oneness in the Lord. We become community-- a community of love and joy overflowing into action. Notice that Jesus ‘vanishes’ after this Eucharist and the two disciples must carry out his mission. Our faith is strengthened so that we ‘recognize’ the Lord and are enabled to discern how we should act in our world.

“Christian truth is not ‘religious’ truth, but truth sacramentally displayed and exhibited. And it is all facts and circumstances which equie interpretation in the light of the mystery of Christ crucified and risen. The story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus can serve as a parable for the task of Christian interpretation…the occasion on which things began to make sense, was not some ‘religious’ event in a sacred space, but an act of human hospitality.” (The Glenstall Book of Readings, Nicholas Lash,p244)

Finally, notice the ending of this story of Emmaus. The fourth word: mission or call to action. The two disciples are so invigorated by this Eucharistic encounter with the Lord that they must act.  They can’t just remain where they are and so even though it is nightfall, they rush back to Jerusalem to bring the ‘good news’ to the other disciples who are still locked up   and afraid. “Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” We too are given the task of bringing others to this joyful encounter with the Lord and this will be done through our acts of hospitality, through our actions rather than with words alone. “See how they love one another.”

In recognizing the risen Lord in the ‘breaking of the bread’ as we continue with our Eucharistic celebration, may our hearts burn and overflow with joy so that we might bring this joy into a darkened world and claim it for Christ.

I will close with some words from St. John Paul the Great who died in 2005 during the Year of the Eucharist which he had proclaimed.

“”Christ walks beside us as our food and strength for the journey and enables us to become ,for everyone, witnesses to hope..making his presence in nourishment and sacrifice the promise of a humanity renewed by his love..The Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites Heaven and Earth. It embraces and permeates all creation.  ..Mary is a woman of the Eucharist in her whole life..The Eucharist has been given to us so that our life, like Mary’s, may become a Magnificat.” (JP’s last Encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistica)