April 20, 2025
Luke 24: 13-35
We have all experienced the intensity of a small child’s feelings when we have been challenged with the words, “But you promised….” Children learn quite early the meaning of promise and are quick to hold us accountable. Adults likewise cling to a promise made in good faith. However, with adults the promise is not about a toy or treat but more likely to be centered around presence or quality of presence. Jesus promised us at the Last Supper, in the midst of the anguish of that Holy Thursday, “ I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you”. (Jn 14:18) Today, we celebrate the fulfillment of that promise of forever presence as we sing, “Jesus Christ is risen today. Alleluia, Alleluia”.
The gospel story of the disciples on the way to Emmaus invites us to see ourselves walking with a friend and talking about things that really matter, sharing our deepest feelings, our hopes and disappointments and failing to recognize the God for whom our heart searches. We meet Jesus, comfortable with an evening walk and ready to interact. He did not give up on these two disciples and He does not give up on us. Rather, He stays in the conversation and in the doing teaches us to do the same. The disciples wanted, more than anything, Christ’s promised presence. They wanted Him as they knew Him, alive and communicating the joy of His Kingdom and the love of His Father and ours.
So where is God and what is God like? He is not in the empty tomb and He is not a stranger. He is the neighbor who walks with us in the cool of the evening and waits for our invitation to our home. He is the Presence in Eucharistic action who brings us and our world into the Paschal Journey, taking us from darkness to life, uniting us in His endless gift to the Father of us all. And we, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, encounter the God who keeps His promise, feel our hearts burning within us and recognize Him in the breaking of the bread.
Like ourselves, the disciples failed to recognize Him in the easy companionship of a fellow traveler.
Our Gospel shows us the depth and breadth of that promise. First, we see Jesus, comfortable on the walk with disciples stunned by the absence of the One they had trusted. As their walk continues and Jesus reveals his true identity, thy recognize with ecstatic joy their Savior and friend.
May we, too, look and see with eyes of faith as we, too recognize Jesus in our own lives and re-commit ourselves as his loyal disciples.
Luke 24: 13-35
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Meet Sister Mary Ann Barnhorn, SNDdeN
