December 23 / Luke 24:28-35

Luke 24:28-35

Let’s continue to pray for Jim and Marty.

“Notice what you notice.” The Road to Emmaus… One of my favorite Scripture lines: …He was known to them in the breaking of the bread. (v. 35) We are a Eucharistic church – not only weekly on Sundays, but even midweek on Wednesdays. The Eucharist is part and parcel of who we are, and it’s been that way for me from my earliest days in the Catholic Church. Years ago in my early born-again years I was part of a non-denominational, Spirit-filled church. The Eucharist was part of our Sunday service, but not in our formal liturgical sense. Our pastor or one of the church leaders (me even, once) would give a short reflection and we would serve the bread and wine. The one time that I recall being asked to do the reflection I used this Road to Emmaus incident and closed with that thought that I quoted above, how Jesus is known to us in our breaking of the bread. So, nice memories associated with this story.

For some reason, unfathomable to me as I read this story, I’ve always had this picture of Jesus and these two disciples around a campfire – Jesus sharing with them from the Old Testament Scriptures, then the meal and the breaking of the bread. However, counter to my flawed memory, Luke is specific as to their actions. Jesus and the two disciples drew near to Emmaus, it was toward evening, Jesus went in to a residence with them, and they were at table together with Him when He blessed and broke the bread, then He “vanished from their sight”. How I got that all turned around, I’ll never know.

Now, finally however, we begin to see faith and hope from the “eleven and those who were with them”. The two Emmaus disciples are happily recounting their story of meeting Jesus, then the “eleven” counter with their own story of Jesus appearing to Peter. Sounds like the first “Glory Sightings Sunday” in history! GLORY!!!

Slava Bohu!