Third Sunday of Easter
What a beautiful thing 'presence' is. It is free. It is tangible. It is real. I have just returned from India. I went to see my mother who was simply not bouncing back ever since she got a pacemaker. I was with her for just a week. When I first saw her, I found her in better shape than I anticipated but not as strong as I had seen her in January. My brother’s tender loving care had brought her a long way since her surgery. But she needed to see me. She needed to see me as much as I wanted to see her. I cannot tell you the good being with each other did to both of us. When I left, she was better than she was just seven days back.
What a beautiful things human presence is. Nothing heals, noting comforts, and nothing reassures more than human presence, human closeness, and human touch.
I want to approach today’s gospel story of Jesus’ encounter with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus from the perspective of ‘presence’.
He is Where We Are
The two disciples were on the road to Emmaus. They were leaving Jerusalem. They were moving away from the center of the world — the very place where human redemption was accomplished. They were confused, confounded, scattered, and downcast. But suddenly, Jesus becomes present to them.
I want us to focus on the value of presence from every angle possible. In that moment – as they were leaving town, as they were trying to make sense of it all, as they were confounded, confused, and downcast – Jesus became present. They did not realize it for a bit but, he became present. That presence became the difference between hope and despair, between moving forward or backward, between living or giving up.
If there is something that we should take to heart today it is this – that no matter where we find ourselves at this moment, Christ is present. Wherever we are and in whatever state we are, Christ is present. Sometimes in ways with which we are already familiar and sometimes in way we do not expect; sometimes through someone with whom we are close and sometimes as a stranger – Christ is present.
Today, I have one prayer - that no matter where we find ourselves in life, we may find Christ right there; that none of us may ever feel abandoned and alone; that both in the midst of our deepest despair and our greatest joys, we may always know that Christ is present.
He Meets Us Where We Are
I am not only touched by the realty that Christ is present to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, but I am equally touched in the way that Jesus is present. These days there is a lot of emphasis on the upcoming Synod which calls the Church to be a “listening church”. The story of Jesus joining the “downcast” disciples on their way to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35) can be read as a great model for a ‘listening Church’. First, Christ meets them where they were. He does not become present to them when they meet a certain standard or fulfil a certain expectation. He simply meets them where they were – downcast. Second, Jesus listens without condemning, offers hope without compelling, and gives direction without being imposing.
I understand that we often feel that the Church is not a listening church. It is always as if there are standards to reach and conditions to fulfil before we are included. I believe that the Jesus with the disciples on the road to Emmaus is a model for a listening church and a synodal Church. If Jesus met the disciples where they were, so must the Church. If Jesus became present to the confused, confounded, and downcast disciples; if Jesus sat down to eat with them and broke bread with them, so must the Church. A listening Church is a church that meets people were they are!
But let us also talk about ourselves for a moment. When was the last time we made time to listen? Are there people in our homes, our work, our parish who wish that we would listen more and better? Would your spouse say you are a listening partner? Would your children say you are listening parent? Would your parents say that they feel heard? Would you say I am a listening pastor? Are we truly ‘present’ to others? Do we meet people where they are? Do we listen without condemning, offer hope without compelling, and give direction without being imposing?
Enduring Presence
The story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is filled with intrigue and mystery. Christ is with them, but they only saw a stranger. He opened the scriptures to them, but they still did not fully understand. Their hearts were burning but, they don’t know why. But the most intriguing and mysterious moment is the breaking of the bread. Let’s picture this for a moment. The two disciples and Jesus get to the supper table. They are about are at the breaking of the bread. And just as He did… swoosh! “He vanished from their sight!” (Lk 24:31). Here is the climax of intrigue and the mystery – He vanished from their sight but in that vanishing He becomes ever present.
We are at the Breaking of the Bread at this hour. This is our moment of intrigue and mystery. We call it a Sacrament. We call it the Eucharist. He is not in our sight because he is not here in his incarnated presence. But he is present in the Breaking of the Bread in his resurrected presence. In the Breaking of the Bread, in the Eucharist, in this Sacrament, in this moment filled with intrigue and mystery, we encounter Christ’s enduring presence.
I began my homily saying, "What a beautiful thing 'presence' is." Today that presence is with us. Let us be present to Him.
- Fr. Satish Joseph