Please read this passage before reading the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
This is the first day of the week again, the death of Jesus had been catastrophic for many of Jesus’ disciples.
The journey of the Cleopas and his companion may well have been a resignation from membership in the group of those who had followed Jesus. The leaving of Jerusalem may well have been the start of a journey back home. Jeremiah the prophet had tried to resign as a prophet. Jonah had found himself in the belly of a whale when he had run away from doing God’s work. God has ways of calling his people back to their real work.
When Jesus met them they, they stopped, looking down cast. After Jesus had explained the meaning of the Scriptures about him, the two stopped looking downcast, and began looking up. In fact, they ran to bring the good news to their companions in Jerusalem.
What caused this change of mind? This passage said that they recognized the Lord in the breaking of the bread and that their hearts were burning while Jesus was explaining the Scriptures.
The Lord had died, and this brought sorrow and grief to the disciples. The Lord rose from the dead, and the disciples came to recognize him in the breaking of the scriptures and in the breaking of the bread. These are still two of the ways that we recognize the real presence of the Lord today. The other two ways to recognize the real presence of the Lord with us are in our gathering together to celebrate the marvelous deeds of the Lord and in how the Lord uses the ordained priest as the vehicle he uses in celebrating the Eucharist.
Today, we have an opportunity to go out from this assembly to announce to family and friends that the Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to us.