That very day, the first day of the week,
It was the first day of the week, the day that would come to be known as the Lord's day, because it was the day he rose from the dead. It was a day that would be hallowed and celebrated from then on as the fulfillment of the Sabbath, because, while on the Sabbath Jesus rested from his work, on Sunday he rose from the tomb.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
Yesterday we saw that our expectations and emotions can make it hard to recognize the risen Christ in our midst. Today was see that conversing and debating fair no better. One would expect that since they were talking about Jesus, trying to figure out the meaning of the things that just happened, they would be more ready to recognize him and not prevented. But this sort of human reasoning proved to be more of a distraction than a help for discernment. We see in this that it was particularly in the resurrection that God made foolish the wisdom of the world (see First Corinthians 1:20).
We too may try to get lost of the details of something so as to not have to face the full implications of it. We have all sorts of ways to protect ourselves from things we don't want to face. But even when we do, Jesus has ways to find us and reveal himself to us.
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
It seems that these two disciples on the road needed to come to terms with what actually happened, and not simply their thoughts and opinions about it. They needed to face the sorrow of the lose of Jesus so that they could recognize his return.
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
It was much easier to argue about what it all meant than to face up to their disappointed hope that they "were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel". Yet it was precisely from these apparent ashes of crucifixion and death that the proverbial phoenix rose.
It was not simply by his presence that Jesus moved them beyond their despair to hope. It was not simply his interpretation of the Scriptures. Instead, it was finally only in the context on the breaking of the bread that they recognized the risen Lord.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him
We need to learn, like these disciples, to set aside trivial debates. We need to meditate on those same core truths of our faith that Jesus elicited from them. We need to hear them in the context of the Scriptures. We need also to see the gaps, the places where it looks like our hopes are still unfulfilled by the story as we know it. And then, to make sense of the rest, we need the breaking of the bread to recognize the fullness of his presence.
When we suffer we can bring our own pain with us to the mass and find the place where pain begins to make sense. We see that our offering is taken up in his own offering. We recognize ourselves in him, grains of wheat that must die in order to give life. But we recognize this truth finally in the one who is himself the life giving bread.
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Once we realize our own riches, the hope to which we are called, we will be bold like Peter to share them.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
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