A quick note about today’s Gospel… The two disciples on the road to Emmaus with Jesus. Jesus becomes recognizable to them when he “breaks the bread,” and then he vanishes. Jesus has instituted the Eucharist in order to be with us, wherever we are, all around the world, on whatever road. He comes to us now in Holy Communion. He breaks the bread, gives it to them, and then vanishes. What is left is the Eucharist and the believers, the recipients of the Eucharist. We see Christ in the Eucharist, and we also now see Christ in one another. He has become part of us, united with us, through the Eucharist. This also helps explain why Jesus told Mary Magdalene “not to cling to him” in an earlier Easter story, when she saw the risen Lord. How peculiar it was for him to say not to cling to him because he hadn’t yet risen to his Father. After he rises to his Father, he will come to us in a new way, a Eucharistic way. After that, we can “cling to him,” and him to us, because he comes to us in the Eucharist. He allows himself to be placed on our hand, on our tongue, and to become part of us, so that we can carry him around with us, inside of us. He will now be on every road, to every city, not only on the road to Emaus, through the Eucharistic “bread.”
Sunday – Easter – Week 3 – Year A
