In The Breaking of the Bread
A Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter April30, 2017
By Rev. Bob Johnnene OFM
Mission Saints Sergius & Bacchus/ Order
Franciscans ofMercy
“Were not the
Scriptures open and our hearts burning within us as He spoke?” “By the breaking of the Bread their eyes were
opened to them” These words taken from the Gospel of today should give us
pause to think. What would it take for
us to recognize Christ today?
Jesus told us He came to bring a new covenant, a
clearer meaning of all that had been written before by the prophets. Jesus came
into being, sent by Almighty God, to open the scriptures to all people of all
nations, races and genders.
Jesus came to simplify the message of Scripture for
everyone.
Jesus came to dispel the idea that God was a vengeful
God, but was a God of mercy, forgiveness and Love. Last Sunday we celebrated
the feast honoring the Divine Mercy of God but even in light of all that has
happened since the disciples met Christ on the road to Emmaus and chatted with
him but did not recognize him until he sat with them and broke the bread there
are people who do not accept or believe.
Jesus told us that the greatest commandments were “You shall love the Lord, your God, with your
whole heart, mind, soul and body and the second is like unto it, Love your
neighbor as you love yourself” (Luke 10:27” “Do this and you shall live” (Luke 10:28)
I do not think that Christ’s teaching could be any
clearer. Yet, throughout the entire
history of the Christian faith, men try to impose all sorts of rules,
regulations and conditions onto this basic message often preventing those who
desire to know, love and serve God from doing so.
I grant you,
that sin interferes with our expression of love for God. So what is sin? Sin is
anything that hurts another, sin is anything that defames or injures your body,
soul and mind or another person.
In short, sin is doing anything that does not
acknowledge your love of your neighbor or yourself.
In order to accomplish this act of love for God and
all His children, we need strength to overcome the many temptations that plague
us every day.
We get that strength from frequent prayer
(conversations with God), participation in partaking of the bread of life given
to us by Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. “Take,
eat, This is my body” (Matthew 26:26) “As
often as you do this you do so in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:25).
The Eucharist is much more than just a remembrance of
Jesus Christ, it is His Body and Blood given to us to assimilate into our
body’s giving us the strength to overcome the enticement of Satan.
In the Breaking of the bread, we call to mind the way
Christ’s body was broken because of our sins.
In the mixing of the water and wine, we call to mind
the blood and water that poured forth from Christ’s side when pierced by the
lance.
Every time we receive the Eucharist, we strengthen our
ability to repel sin.
Just as the disciples, whose hearts were ablaze with
the Scriptures being opened to them when this stranger they met traveling to
Emmaus told them “How foolish you are,
and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah
have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” it was not until the
invited stranger sat with that their eyes were opened and they recognized
Jesus, the Risen Christ when “he was at
the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it
to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared
from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us
while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Pope Benedict has said “The road to Emmaus “is the path of renewal and maturation in faith for all
Christians,”
Pope Francis in a homily for the 3rd Sunday after Easter
recalled the three appearances of Christ after he had conquered death and sin
by rising from the dead, first to Mary Madeline, then to the Apostles and
Thomas and finally to the disciples on the road to Emmaus with these words; “And like the travelers on the road to
Emmaus, we need to find renewed joy and hope by recognizing that the Lord is
ever at our side.
These disciples sought
the living among the dead, yet Jesus led them, by different paths, to faith in
him and the power of his resurrection. Today he challenges each of us to seek
him, the Living One, and to leave behind everything that holds us back from
encountering him and sharing in the rebirth, the freedom and the hope which he
alone can give.”
We too can have our hearts and eyes opened to Christ,
living in our midst, through the Eucharist and by looking for the qualities
that a follower of Christ should be exhibiting; compassion for the poor, aged
homeless and unemployed, forgiveness toward those who have wronged them in any
way, generosity with the gifts that God has given them and love of all they
encounter as they travel life’s road.
We are called to emulate Jesus by loving everyone we
come in contact with and granted this is not an easy task especially when some
people we meet are downright nasty, but is we truly love God with all our being
we will be able to find something about the person to love and we certainly can
offer prayers for them asking God to lift their negative attributes from them
and lead them to find God and know God’s infinite mercy and love.
We can deepen that recognition of Jesus by daily
prayer and scripture reading.
Christ is the one and only head of the church, all the
rest of us are mere servants of Christ who are here to shepherd and guide His
flock toward the promised reward of everlasting life with God and all the
heavenly elect when our days on this earthly plane are over. AMEN
