After listening to a long Gospel reading, we are all happy to sit down and we hope the homily will not be too long. I suppose our pilgrims had the same sort of feeling when they sat down at table with Jesus after their long journey. They had had a marvellous conversation – totally unexpected, and very consoling indeed. They were exhausted but also refreshed. They felt that a big weight had been taken from their chests. It was good to be here with this companion who had such an understanding of the Scriptures and could offer such a luminous interpretation of what had recently happened at Jerusalem. It was really good to sit down and to see some food put on the table at the beginning of what promised to be a most pleasant evening before a restful night.
With Jesus, though, you are always on the move. Remember his public life, how he went from a village to another, declined invitations to stay longer, walked ahead of his little group of followers and was always ready to visit new places and see new faces. Jesus is the great Pilgrim in the history of mankind. He leads the human family on the way to the Father. He does not promise rest, but He gives sure direction. He moves on. He passes over. He runs his race as a strong man (Ps 19:5) and we all follow after Him – as well as we can.
When they finally sat down, and the bread was put on the table, Jesus took it in His hands. He blessed and broke it. In a sense, of course, this was nothing extraordinary; just the gesture of blessing which any Jewish father would make at the beginning of the family meal. But on the other hand, when performed by Jesus, this gesture became absolutely unique. It was a sign and a sacrament. Jesus had a way of putting Himself totally in the bread as He blessed the Father and shared it with the Brethren. He put Himself in it and He passed over to God with the perfect simplicity of the one who is in God – who is one with God, who is the Son of the Father. The breaking of the bread was the revelation of His identity. It said something like: ‘I am the Bread of life given to you by the Father, so that you, too, may live from me and for the Father.’ He was the Son of man sent from the Father as the Bread of life, broken to be eaten, dying to give life, consumed by love in order to be consumed in love.
This was the shortest homily ever. Just a few very simple words, the words of a child thanking His Father. With the words, there was a very simple gesture. But in these words and in this gesture, Jesus was and remains totally present, totally given, totally for us, with us, in us; not to be looked at from without, but to be welcomed within; not to be seen, but to be believed; not to be possessed and kept as an object, but to make of you someone sent to the Church and to the world, someone on the move, a pilgrim on his or her way to the Father.
Immediately, the two men moved on, they ran back to Jerusalem, to the disciples and to the Church. There the risen Christ was expecting them. He was already present, ahead of them, to give them the reconciliation which comes from the Father and to send them to the world in the strength of Their common Spirit.
Each Sunday Mass is our way to Emmaus. Jesus comes near to us, speaks to us in the Scriptures and gives Himself to us in the Eucharist. He makes of us an Easter people. He sends us to our brethren in the strength and love of His Passion and His Resurrection. He makes of us pilgrims on the way to the Father, never stopping, always on the way, till we reach the House of God, the eternal city of Jerusalem in heaven.