The Journey Continues

The Resurrection of the Lord:  The Mass of Easter Day
Luke 24:13-35
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040526.cfm

There are several readings that can be used for today. This reading from Luke is for the afternoon or evening Mass. It does not have the encounter at the tomb, but two of the disciples’ encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus and sharing a meal in Emmaus. When Jesus walks and talks with them, they do not recognize him. This is a solid theme with the resurrected Jesus, he wasn’t easily recognized by his appearance but through his actions. There was something very different about Jesus.

In their conversation on the road, the disciples tell Jesus all about Jesus and the recent events that occurred. Jesus then in reply explains the prophecies throughout scripture and how it foretold of him. I imagine this conversation to be like Jesus at the temple. Like with the temple elders, they thought they had something to teach Jesus, but Jesus ends up being the one who teaches them. In today’s gospel, the two disciples experience something similar to the elders.

Now, when they arrive in Emmaus, the two disciples invite their new friend to stay with them and share a meal. They are being hospitable to this stranger that they befriended on their seven-mile journey. When they sat to eat, Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and they knew it was him. They didn’t recognize him throughout the journey or in the words he shared, but in the breaking of the bread, in the sharing of a meal.

While we have our masses, our religious celebrations, our scripture, our prayers, our sacraments, what’s even more common is the meals we share. If you are gathering with family and friends at a table during this holiday, look around the room. How do you all know each other? What connects and ties you all together most deeply? Is it your religious practice and interpretation of scripture? Is it in your debates and arguments? Is it because you always agree? Is it because you are all the same? Or is it in this fellowship, in the sharing of the meal?

We may share in our faith, share in our work, share in our activities together, but where we see the Lord is in the sharing of the meal together. It’s a time to break from the hustle and bustle of life and be truly present with one another.  

My theater company just finished the run of a show on March 22nd. As is customary, we had the cast and crew stay and teardown the set and clean-up the theater. This group was able to deeply connect as regularly happens over the weeks leading up to production and the production itself. It all gets intense at the end, and by the time you think you’ve got the hang of it, it’s over. This group had numerous good-bye gifts for one another. I was the assistant director of the show. As we were finishing up the work, I asked the director if we were going to go to the usual Mexican restaurant after the work was done, per our company’s tradition. Given that it was a newer cast, he and I thought we could get away with just going home for much needed rest. We checked in with the rest of the group and found out the two of us were the last to know that Mexican was on.

The food was the same, but the company was different. Even for those of us who have gotten together after shows in the past, we are now different given the growth and change that happened since the last time. We were able to reflect on recent events and think about what is to come next with us together and us apart. In the parking lot, we lingered with hugs, good-byes, and hypothetical plans that may or may not occur. We were about to return back to life as changed people, but, for that moment, we were in the transitional liminal space together holding on and trying to capture the moment. 

The time Christ spent on earth between the resurrection and ascension was such a time and place. In Jesus’s tradition, it was like a Shabbat meal.  Life has been completed, but life still continues. The mission was completed, but the mission still continues. The journey was completed, but the journey still continues. 

We transition. We transform. We grow. 

We die, we rise, and we ascend. 

He is risen. 
He is risen indeed. 
Hallelujah.