The Road To Emmaus!

In these days of the Octave of Easter, we continue to meet the risen Christ. The risen Lord is appearing to his disciples to give them hope and assurance that he is alive. Luke 24:13-35 is our gospel for today and it is very powerful. Two of Jesus' disciples were traveling on the road to Emmaus when they encountered the risen Lord, even though they did not know it was him. They said that their hearts were burning as Jesus opened the scriptures for them, but they truly recognized the Lord in the breaking of the bread. We receive those opportunities each time we participate in the Mass. We encounter the risen Christ in the Eucharist because it is truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. Belief in the Real Presence is a key component of our Catholic Faith. That faith extends to believing that the tomb is empty, Jesus Christ is truly risen from the dead. This is the great news that we can live and share every day of our lives. I remember hearing a homily, I believe on television, from Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York talking about one of his pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The tour guide asked the cardinal if there was anything else he would like to see and the cardinal responded that he wanted to see the Road to Emmaus. The tour guide said that he could not do that because they really don't know where that road is. However, according to Cardinal Dolan, we do know where that road is. The road to Emmaus is any road that we travel down because we encounter Christ in a special way and we are able to make Christ known to others. As the journey on the road to Emmaus changed those early disciples, so may we be changed as we walk down our road to Emmaus, because the risen Christ is with us each step of the way! Have a blessed day!!!