"Were not our hearts burning within us"

This Sunday's Gospel reading, the Emmaus story, is one of great consequence for the Church to this very day. Why? Well, because the way in which the disciples in the story encountered Jesus is how we still encounter him today!

We are told in the story of two disciples walking along from Jerusalem to Emmaus on Easter Sunday and being downtrodden by all that had taken place over the last few days. Suddenly, Jesus walks among them but they fail to recognize him. After talking with him, even telling him about everything that happened to him and their disappointment that "we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel," and relaying the earliest uncertain messages of possible resurrection, Jesus responds, "Oh, how foolish you are!"

We are then told of Jesus explaining "what referred to him in all the Scriptures" (the Old Testament). When they have reached their destination, Jesus indicates he will be going on further and the disciples urge him to stay. Luke then tells us: "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." They then look to one another and say, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?" Then they immediately set out back to Jerusalem to tell the others "how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread."

As these disciples encountered Jesus in the Word of God and in the breaking of the bread, we experience the same each time we join together for the Mass! When we listen to the Scriptures and hear the homily during the Liturgy of the Word, God speaks to us of the story of our salvation. And, when we move into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, even the very words from Luke describing Jesus' actions (he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them) are used in our liturgies to this very day.

So, let us pray this week that our hearts may learn to be "burning within us" during the liturgy, as it was for these disciples in the story. For, just as he was present there that day with them in his glorified body, Jesus continues to come to us in Word and Sacrament each and every time we participate in Mass!

Want to prepare your heart and mind for Mass this weekend? Click here to find the readings this Sunday's Mass.