Mass on the Road

In today's Gospel passage from Luke (24:13-35), two of Jesus' disciples are going to Emmaus. We read that even though Jesus walked with them, they didn't recognize Him. He asked what they had been talking about. Probably in depressed and sad voices, these disciples describe how Jesus was "mighty in deed and word" but was killed. As they walked along, Jesus interprets Scripture for them and later that evening at dinner Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it, and then gives it to them. "With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him." Luke writes that Jesus then vanishes from their sight. Using their 20-20 eyes of faith these disciples do a 180 and go back to Jerusalem to be with the community of disciples.

In this time of pandemic we have all been impacted in one way or another: physically, spiritually, mentally, and financially. In our minds we know the joy and excitement of the Gospel and the vision of future glory that awaits us, but with the things we hear and see on the news and on the Internet, like those disciples we can so easily become downcast and we may not see that Jesus is walking with us. We fail to recognize Him because we are so distracted by the current events, we can doubt and we can struggle. We can easily forget about our Lord's resurrection and His complete and utter victory over death and the devil. 

We can learn from the disciples in what they experienced in the breaking of the bread. At THAT POINT, they are reminded through their spiritual eyes Jesus is with them no matter what is going on in their world.  Even though we Catholics may only see the breaking of the bread on our screens, we are reminded that we can have great confidence in knowing that Jesus is truly walking with us and He knows what we are going through. We need to remain in the community of other believers and keep on trusting Him. Jesus is always with us and He is with us in OUR Mass on the Road.

May God bless you and keep you,
Deacon Bob