The Road to Emmaus

(Luke 34: 13-35)

At Sunday Mass recently, we listened again to one of the most loved and important Easter stories of the Gospels. The story of the disciples’ encounter with the Risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus prompts all of us to reflect on our own journey to faith.  In their loneliness after the death of Jesus, the disciples were struggling with all that had happened, and even with all that Jesus had spoken and taught them while he was with them. On the road to Emmaus, they do not at first recognise Jesus who joins them and explains to them that the Messiah had to suffer and die. Gradually, as they listen, the disciples’ eyes are opened - their loneliness gives way to enlightenment and hope, and they recognise Jesus in the ‘breaking of the bread’.

Just as the disciples realised, we, too, are sustained by our faith in Jesus, the faith we  pray might ‘burn in our hearts’ also.  Most importantly, we experience the nourishment of our faith through Jesus, the living bread, each time we celebrate the Eucharist together. We accept the Risen Jesus as our companion on the journey - the journey that can be lonely and troubled without the strength of our faith.

As our students celebrate the Eucharist together, and as some prepare to receive the Sacrament for the first time later in the year, we ask that Jesus might speak to their hearts as they approach the altar and ‘break bread’ together; that each one of them might come to know that Jesus, though he has vanished from our sight, stays with us in the Eucharist, as at Emmaus; and that they can come to know and rely on him as their companion on the journey of life.

May the Holy Spirit help us to open our hearts to be aware of Jesus’ presence with us;  help us to make our way through the joys, sorrows and dilemmas of our lives; and bring us together one day to everlasting life. Amen.