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The Third Sunday of Easter (Year A)

Today’s Gospel was written for Christians who attend Sunday Mass, and while Saint Luke recorded his Gospel, he kept this in mind and planted various hints and clues in what he wrote that we can pick up on.

The account of the Appearance on the Road to Emmaus is structured upon the Mass. First of all, Luke records that this appearance took place on “the first day of the week” (24:1, 13), which is Sunday, the day that Christians gathered to celebrate the Eucharist because that is the day when Jesus rose from the dead in the Resurrection.

Secondly, Jesus “interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures” (v. 27), which is exactly what happens in the first half of the Mass: the Liturgy of the Word. First, we read from both the Old and the New Testaments, and the readings are correlated so that we see how the New fulfills the Old. Then, the priest gives a homily in order to show how this is the case, how the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ expressed in the Gospel and the New Testament readings is the fulfillment of the history of Israel and the rest of mankind, which is recounted in the Old Testament. For example, today we listen to St. Peter use Psalm 16 in reference to the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:22-28).

Then, Luke recounts how this experience of the traveling disciples of the risen Christ culminates in their sharing a meal with him. Just as at the Last Supper and as in Mass, Jesus “took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them” (v. 30). Luke describes this experience as “the breaking of the bread” (v. 35), which is an early Christian name for the Mass. Jesus is made known to the disciples in the breaking of the bread, so says Luke. This is the second half of the Mass: the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

With this in mind, do the words of the disciples ring true for you when they said, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?” Do you listen carefully to the readings proclaimed at the ambo by the readers, and if so, are you able to understand how the readings fit together in harmony? Are the Scriptures opened up to us in the homilies our pastors preach? Do our hearts burn within us at Mass, wherein we get excited about God’s inspired Word – so much so that we desire to own and read a Bible in the privacy of our homes?

More importantly, do we recognize Jesus in “the breaking of the bread,” which is the Eucharist? Each time that you and I approach the sacred host in the communion line and say “Amen” to “The Body of Christ,” we acknowledge that we are consuming the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus! Let us make our “Amen” in truth and sincerity.