April 23, 2023
“As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, ‘Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.’
So he went in to stay with them.
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,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
‘Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?’
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem…
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.”
An early, scriptural, reference to the new religion founded by Jesus wasn’t a formal definition or title, but more descriptive. It was simply called “the Way.” There is something true in our hearts, lives, and experience that understands our lives as a journey. We are sojourners, travelers, explorers, wayfarers, pioneers, trekkers, and pilgrims. We are a people on the move. Sometimes we get lost, take a wrong turn, wander aimlessly, or just get stuck. This is true in our lives and in our faith. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, sometimes we head in the opposite direction of our destiny, hope, and home. Jesus always journeys with us. We are never alone on the way, no matter which way we go. Like those disciples, we may not recognize Jesus, but he never leaves us and is always there.
As they reached the village, the disciples urged Jesus, whom they still did not recognize, to stay with them and, as such, eat with them. Sharing a meal in Jesus’s culture was very strictly regulated. As a normal course of events, you only ate with family. Table fellowship was a clear sign of relational obligations and belonging. Even in banquet situations, like a wedding or a state dinner, everyone’s role and honor were determined by strict seating rules. There were no uninvited guests and those invited knew their place. Jesus turned table fellowship on its head. He radically reoriented, even recapitulated, the meaning of eating together. He ate with sinners and tax collectors. In Jesus’s parable about the Great Feast, after the invited make excuses for not coming, the master says, “Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor and the crippled, the blind and the lame…Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled.” All are welcome at the feast! We are welcome at the feast!
At the meal, Jesus took break, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples. This is the exact same action as at the last supper. It is clearly the Eucharist. Opening the scriptures and breaking bread are the two main parts of every mass: the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist. Jesus is made known to us as we feast from the table of the Word and the table of the Eucharist. Jesus never leaves us alone. He invites us to the feast. On the way, in a meal, Jesus is made known to us in the breaking of the bread.