Their Eyes Were Opened

A blessed and happy Easter to all!! It seems like forever since I've sat down to blog about anything faith-related, but as I've been busy writing lately on the topic, I felt inspired to do some blogging here. I'm going to try to post more regularly than I have doing been the past year or so.

I wanted to share something that I heard related to yesterday's gospel. I was listening to our local Catholic radio station yesterday and was struck by one priest's explanation of the gospel, the story of Jesus meeting the men on the road to Emmaus, as including a kind of description of the mass. "The mass?" I thought, "How so?" I waited eagerly to hear the connection. The text of the gospel was Luke 24:13-35:

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

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. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?”

They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”

And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”

They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

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 where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “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.

In the mass, we begin with the Liturgy of the Word, in which we usually read something from the Old Testament, a Psalm, something from the New Testament, and then a reading from one of the four Gospels. These readings are all connected in some way, they have a common theme or message. Sometimes, it's not so clear how they are connected, and in the homily the common thread is, hopefully, explained to us. In the Liturgy of the Word, we receive Jesus, the Word, in scripture.

But our reception of the Word doesn't end there, in fact this is the preparation for receiving Christ Himself in the Eucharist, the Word made Flesh. Thus we proceed, after the Liturgy of the Word, to the Liturgy of the Eucharist - the source and summit of our Christian life. We believe as Catholics that Jesus is really, substantially present there: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

And so with that short description of the two parts of mass in mind, we turn again to yesterday's gospel.

They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”

And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”

They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel....

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

The Liturgy of the Word! And yet, though they were talking about Him and hearing scripture interpreted about Him, they did not yet recognize Him. What did He do that finally caused them to recognize Him?

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.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist! It was when He blessed and broke the bread and gave it to them that their eyes were opened and they saw that He was actually there, present in their midst.

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?”

In the mass, the scriptures touch our hearts and prepare us to see Him and receive Him fully.

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.

And then we receive Him and come to know him fully in the Eucharist. Wow!

Perhaps this made such a big impression on me because it seems to be a description of my own journey in some way. Though steeped in scripture from an early age, it was not until I experienced the Liturgy of the Eucharist at mass and saw the Bread being blessed and broken for me that I recognized Christ, the Word made Flesh, right before my very eyes. What a privilege to be able to see Him, recognize Him with the eyes of faith, and to say with St. Thomas the Doubter, "My Lord and my God!"