3 rd Sunday of Easter (A) - Luke 24:13-35

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1 3 rd Sunday of Easter (A) - Luke 24:13-35 A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, who were excessively mischievous. They were always getting into trouble, and their parents knew that, if any mischief occurred in their neighborhood, their sons were probably involved. The boys mother heard that a priest in the downtown parish had been successful in disciplining children, so she asked if he would speak with her boys. The pastor agreed, but asked to see them individually. So the mother sent her 8-year-old first, in the morning, and fixed the appointment of the older boy with the priest in the afternoon. The priest, a huge man with a booming voice, sat the younger boy down and asked him sternly, Where is God? The boy s mouth dropped open and he made no response. So the priest repeated the question in an even sterner tone, Where is God!!? Again the boy made no attempt to answer. So the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy s face and bellowed, WHERE IS GOD!? The boy screamed and ran directly home and dove into his closet, slamming the door behind him. When his older brother found him in the closet, he asked, What happened? The younger brother, gasping for breath, replied, We are in BIG trouble this time, Dave. God is missing - and they think WE did it!

2 "Their eyes were opened and they recognized him." My homily today is on the verb...recognize. Luke tells us two disciples recognized the risen Christ. You have to recapture the rich reality of the story, otherwise it's just another cute story. So get your imagination going. It's a Sunday in Old Jerusalem. Not a normal Sunday...Jerusalem is still buzzing about the three criminals crucified the Friday before. Two were undistinguished, hardly worth talking about, but one had been unique. Three years ago He appeared out of nowhere...a nowhere named Nazareth. He gathered a group of devoted disciples around Him, worked marvels over the blind and deaf...over the dead and lame, taught with authority, loved to hang out with sinners, dared to attack the rich and powerful, and preached a Kingdom out of this world. He was loved by many, hated by some, was accused of crimes civil and religious, refused to defend Himself, was condemned to die and ended his earthbound existence on a hill outside the city. On that Sunday, still abuzz about Friday, two of His followers were returning home...home being Emmaus, a small town about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were disciples whose deepest hopes had been dashed. "We had hoped that He was the one to deliver Israel," they said, and as they were talking a stranger drew near and began to walk with them.

3 Even though this stranger gave them a cram course in the whole Old Testament, even after they discovered that the Messiah had to suffer all this before entering into His glory, even though their hearts burned within them, they still did not RECOGNIZE him. Surely the best thing these two disciples ever did was to invite this stranger to stay with them as it was evening now. For it was then that he ate with them. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him. Why didn't they recognize Him earlier on? Why did Mary Magdalene think He was the gardener? Why did the disciples out fishing not recognize the voice that called to them from shore? I do not have the answers to those questions, but I do know that to recognize the risen Jesus even His dearest friends needed a God-given gift, a special grace, a beginning of faith. They needed an invitation from the Lord. The initiative had to come from Him. Only after Jesus said, "Mary" was she able to say "Teacher." Only in the breaking of the bread could the two disciples recognize Jesus. To recognize Jesus is not an act that is open to a neutral observer. You don't recognize Jesus because you are smart, have a 4.0 grade point average, an M.B.A. or a keen eye for the truth. So, how then do you recognize Him?

4 Clearly, you recognize him, as the Emmaus disciples did, in the breaking of the bread. To recognize Jesus as the risen One, you need an invitation from Jesus that comes in all sorts of unexpected packages and a response that is at once God's gift and your own free yes. It is a wonderful thing, at times a fearful thing, to encounter the living God. I never cease to be amazed at the many forms and the different ways this encounter has taken throughout history. The anti-christian Saul recognized the Lord when he fell to the ground and heard the words, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." St. Augustine recognized Jesus in a garden when he heard a voice that said "take and read" and he opened the New Testament to the words, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ..." The novelist Flannery O'Connor related why a relative was attracted to the Church, he said, "the sermons were so horrible, he knew there must be something else there to make the people come." Each of you has come to recognize the risen Lord...each of you has your own story. But however different your stories, one fact is common to all of you...you would not be here if the risen Christ had not taken the initiative, had not somehow, somewhere, sometime shown you his face.

5 In the Eucharist you do not actually see the risen Christ, glorified wounds and all. But like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus you recognize him, for he has opened the eyes not of your flesh, but of your faith. In the power of that faith you too can exclaim with the Apostle Thomas..."My Lord and my God." In our journey through this life, our roads to Emmaus will be filled with strangers. The Christian question is not, what will you see with the eyes of your flesh? The Christian question is, what will you see with the eyes of your faith? Their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. AMEN!