Recognition of Christ

April 6, 2008

Third Sunday of Easter

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear. Acts 2: 32-33

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?” Luke 24: 30-32

Piety

Jesus, stay with us. Teach us what we need to know. Open our ears and our eyes and our hearts so they are burning with us for your Good News. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/040608.shtml

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus are having a spiritual conversation. They are intellectualizing the events of the Passion of Christ. They are in desolation because things did not go the way they expected them to go. They were upset and rightly so about the death of Jesus. They believed what they had seen and could not believe what the women had described because they probably thought the body had been stolen away by enemies. We believe what we want to believe. Things that defy our belief are not even considered. How could someone they knew was dead be among the living. It was too much to hope for.

The Christ of the Resurrection is the stranger who comes into our presence. How we make each other welcome and what makes us welcome is the wonder of Liturgy. We all have togetherness when Christ is part of the gathering. He makes us one with each other. He is the meaning of brotherhood. We are called to welcome the stranger as we would welcome Christ. Our effort to make the strangers comfortable by welcoming the

Christ in each of them is what brings growth to a community. What we do together is what gives life to the Community and allows strangers to find a home with us because they are no longer strangers in Christ. In the common ritual that Mass shares we can find a home all over the world. Latin might have made that easier for our sense of hearing years ago, but our own native languages make it possible to hear more clearly what the Lord is saying. The language might be strange, but the welcome of love to the stranger who comes is the common language of heaven that reveals Christ to each of us. “Wherever there is love, God is there.”

Piety is best expressed in the love we have for one another. Stranger breed distrust is we do not face down the differences and see beyond the appearances where the Christ of each person lives expressed in their goodness. Study teaches us how best to see beyond the appearances. The simple invitation of “Stay with us” allows Christ to be found in the sharing of a meal together. A good conversation sets our hearts on fire when the conversation brings Christ to the fore. Study unfolds a plan for discovering and uncovering the goodness of the stranger.

Action

Conversations have to be worked at if they are to bring out the Christ of another’s heart. Good conversations are the action that we need to commit ourselves to if we are going to discover and uncover the Christ in each other. Every good action brings a Christ reaction in our hearts. God has raised up Christ from the throes of death and we will know him in the joy we have in our hearts when we share him.