WeThe interesting account in today’s Gospel, my friends, leaves us with a bit of curiosity.
Doesn’t it seem strange that two of Jesus’ disciples didn’t recognize Him right away when He appeared to them on the road back to Emmaus? After all they walked with Him and listened to Him preach presumably often enough to be called disciples. They were not just casual acquaintances with Jesus.
Apparently Jesus wanted to make another point with them. Apparently Jesus wanted to convey the message that His face comes in many forms.
One thing for sure is that after all His suffering and agony, the scourging at the pillar, the crowning with thorns, and His crucifixion itself, He sure healed up nicely, and in a hurry, too! – just 3 days.
One question we priests and deacons sometimes are asked is “What age will my own body be at the general resurrection at the end of the world? Will it be the poor, old sick body I die with, or will I be 16 or 26 all over again?” There is no definitive answer to that question.
But we can fairly conclude from what the Scriptures tell us about heaven that God will restore our bodies to when we were at our best, - at our prime, so-to-speak!
There’s another aspect to this point Jesus is making to the Emmaus disciples about His face coming in many forms.
Elsewhere in the New Testament, Jesus says: “Whatever you do the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto Me.” These are usually the poor and needy.
Surely the nice people who staff the Emmaus Soup Kitchen downtown see the face of Christ in each person who walks through the serving line. The same can be said for those at St. Martin’s Center at 17th and Parade, the Salvation Army at 12th and Sassafras, our own St. Luke’s Food pantry, the Voucher Program co-ordinated by Inter-Church Ministries of Erie County, and the many shelters for the homeless that are in our community.
These are wonderful, tangible expressions of seeing the face of Christ in the least among us.
By contrast, we sure know what the face of Satan looks like when we see crimes and violence being committed.
So we have no problem recognizing the faces of goodness whenever they come our way.
In fact, we can even say that whenever we have the chance to lend a helping hand, to assist someone in need, to be an instrument of God’s mercy and Divine Providence to someone who needs some mercy and Providence,
that’s when we see the face of Christ.
The Emmaus Gospel story is also curious in that the whole episode really parallels quite closely what we do at Mass. Jesus spoke to those 2 disciples and explained how the Old Testament Scriptures were fulfilled in the events they had just witnesses.
At Mass, we listen to God speak to us through the same Scriptures and we try to apply what we hear to life in the 21st century.
At Emmaus, they finally recognized Jesus when He broke bread with them. At Mass, we come to Holy Communion and respond “Amen” to the words “The Body of Christ.”
So just as it all came together for those Emmaus disciples when they had Eucharist with Jesus, so too should our discipleship be reconfirmed each time we come to Communion.
We should be just as re-charged and re-motivated as were the Emmaus disciples to go back out into the world, sensitive to the many faces of Christ, and take every chance we get to be an instrument of God’s mercy.
 

       Thank you.