The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
Today’s Gospel reading comes after the story of two disciples traveling to Emmaus after Christ’s crucifixion. They left Jerusalem, sad and confused that their savior had died. They believed in Him, but it appeared that He wasn’t actually the Son of God. And to make it worse, the women claimed He had risen! But how could this be so?
A man approaches and joins the conversation. They explain to this stranger everything that had happened, and the man urged them to believe that what the women said was true.
And then they gathered at table that evening. He blessed and broke the bread.
They spent hours together before they finally realized that the man they were with was Jesus. They walked and talked and sat down to dinner with Christ and didn’t recognize Him.
What was that pivotal turning point? What was the breaking of the bread?
It was the Eucharist.
The disciples, who loved and mourned for Christ, finally recognized Him in the Eucharist, the Source and Summit of our faith.
They were so filled with excitement that they left and immediately went back to Jerusalem, even though it was nearly evening.
They found the Apostles and told them they had seen the resurrected Lord Jesus.
Do we recognize Christ in the Eucharist just as the disciples did? Does the Truth of the Mass excite us and make us want share the Good News?
Do we believe that Christ really is one with “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”?
These men and women were witnesses, as Jesus calls them. They walked by faith and sight. Two thousand years later we have sight of Christ in the Eucharist, but we cannot walk beside Christ physically and converse with Him in the same way way the disciples did.
Those who witnessed Christ resurrected, who doubted out of fear of being brokenhearted, out of worry of putting their trust in a false god, ultimately believed — and many had their lives taken for it.
They were martyred not just for their faith, but for what they saw and touched and heard and tasted. They didn’t hand over their lives for rumors, but for what they actually witnessed. Who would die saying they saw such a miracle if they really had not?
If you find yourself doubting like the disciples did on the road to Emmaus, let this reading be a testament and give you hope. Walk with Christ and tell him what you are feeling. Spend time with Him and share your fears. Open your heart to Him and let it burn within you.
Marissa Rankin is a classical singer in Nashville, Tennessee. She and her husband live with their rescue pup, Ewok, and share their home with foster dogs. She is the creator of Covenant Co., a series of resources for engaged and married Catholics, where she aspires to remind the Church that marriage is a vocation, too! https://www.covenantco.org