Please read the passage before the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
“The disciples recognized the Lord in the breaking of the bread.” Recognizing the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread is how the disciples recognized that the Lord had risen from the dead.
We can say that the Lord also recognizes us in the breaking of the bread. Jesus recognizes us as his disciples when he shares with us his supper. We recognize the Lord, and the Lord recognizes us in the breaking of the bread.
Jesus invites us to share the bread of his body with us because he recognizes us as his own. Jesus recognizes us and invites us to dine with him and also to dine on him. The risen Lord nourishes us with his body and gives us his life.
Jesus command us to touch him and be certain that he is not a ghost but the Lord himself. The sign of receiving communion in the hand is a better symbol of touching the Lord’s body than receiving on the tongue.
We recognize the Lord is the breaking of the bread. When we receive the Eucharist, we ought to be seeing the Lord in each one of those receiving communion with us. Each one of us is Christ through our baptism, and we have to recognize the Lord in all the others and with all the others. The bread of the Eucharist includes the risen Lord with all the members of his body, those in heaven and those, like us, on earth, with our friends and with our enemies. We celebrate in Communion the fullness of Jesu which includes everybody and excludes no one.
The mystery of the Eucharist is the misery of the resurrection of Jesus. The risen Lord nourishes us, and we recognize him with everyone else when we share the Lord’s supper together.