PLEASE REMEMBER AND DO NOT FORGET our second-ever Parish Town Hall Zoom Meeting THIS (Wednesday, April 15) afternoon starting at 5:00. As before, instructions will magically appear on the website and will be sent out via Flocknote. BTOBS.
This morning’s readings include the story of the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). You’ll find the passage below, just in case you haven’t memorized it. As stories go, there’s a lot to it. Question: WHY were the two disciples walking AWAY from Jerusalem? They admit to having been “astounded” at what they’d heard: empty tomb; angels, the announcement that Jesus was alive. You’d think that that that that (I’ve given you some extra thats; you’re welcome; please apply as seems reasonable.) would have been enough to have kept them in Jerusalem. But, no. What in the world was the matter with them? Not sure. But have you ever been unmoved by something that moved everyone else? No? OK, then. I must be the only one.*
And another thing: The two disciples were going in the wrong direction and Jesus came to them anyway. Hmmm.
The story reminds us as well that the Resurrection was something other than the resuscitation of a corpse. The two on the road to Emmaus were disciples. They knew what Jesus looked like. They knew his voice. And yet they only recognized him in the breaking of the bread – in other words, in the Eucharist.
Which brings us to Spiritual Communion, which has been commended to us during the pandemic. Spiritual Communion is a time-honored practice grounded in desire – desiring to receive Jesus in the Eucharist so much so that you are filled with God’s love. Is Spiritual Communion the same as actually receiving Communion? Of course not. How could it be? In a time of pandemic when the Eucharist is not accessible to us, Spiritual Communion is a blessing and a mercy. It’s genuine prayer and a genuine experience of God’s healing and redeeming love. But it neither replaces nor substitutes for the real thing, which is the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the consecrated bread and wine: Real food for real people. (Sounds like a slogan for a chain of grocery stores, doesn’t it? “Real Food for Real People.”) There is no substitute for our gathering together to celebrate and give thanks as a community of believers, in Christ and with Christ, surrounded by the angels and the saints. Beloved sisters and brothers, this time of deprivation will end. Until then, we do the best we can (“Place your hand on your TV screen!”). Which changes nothing about the fact that you – yes, you, with the house or apartment that’s never been cleaner because you’ve started vacuuming every day JUST FOR SOMETHING TO DO because on top of EVERYTHING ELSE it’s apparently WINTER AGAIN about which WHY, LORD, WHY? – are beloved disciples. Beloved. Disciples.
* OK, how about this? Have you ever HATED a movie that everyone else LOVED? Like, for example, Forrest Gump? Or The English Patient? Please – don’t even get me started on The English Patient….
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.
