The Holy Week Retreat - The Road to Emmaus - Station 13

Experience the ultimate Holy Week Retreat!

Join Fr. Jonathan Meyer (and Catholics across America!) on an epic journey through the Stations of the Eucharist. This incredible retreat will guide you through fourteen stations from Genesis to Revelation that will reshape the way you see the rest of your life. Get ready to break open the Scriptures, immerse yourself in the story of salvation history, and consider the sacrifice of Jesus Christ like never before. 

This year’s Holy Week Retreat is simple to follow. Each day, you’ll receive two reflections that will help you meditate on two of the fourteen stations. You can watch them both together, or space them out as morning and evening reflections. We’ll cover all fourteen stations by Holy Saturday so you can have the best Easter of your life!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

The thirteenth station of the Eucharist, the road to Emmaus. O sacrament is holy, O sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine. I want to thank you for pressing play because this station of the Eucharist is powerful. And in fact, it's my favorite. The road to Emmaus, Luke chapter 24, reveals to us the power of the resurrection. Maybe you've never seen or heard or had this station explained to you. But once you understand this, it changes everything. You see, there were two disciples and they believed Jesus. They followed Jesus. And yet they had turned and walked away. They're walking away from Jerusalem. And Jesus, disguised, starts walking with them. And he asks some questions. And they say, Are you the only person who hasn't heard what's happened in Jerusalem? About Jesus, a teacher, notice how he doesn't call him Lord, a teacher mighty indeed, how he died, and now the tomb has been found empty. And we thought that he was the one that was going to redeem us. Jesus hears this and he says, Well, let me explain some things from scripture. And it says that he began to unpack all the ways that the scriptures referred to the Christ. And what do you think Jesus was talking about as he walked along the way with them? When Jesus led this first Bible study, what references to the Old Testament, which was the only scriptures they had at the time, do you think he chose to make reference to himself? Well, I think many of them would have been some of the 14 stations of the Eucharist that we've already covered. Abel, who offered the unblemished, spotless lamb, and how he is the unblemished spotless lamb, how Abraham offered a replacement sacrifice, an adult male lamb with a crown of thorns on his head. How the Passover lamb had to be eaten and the blood had to be separated to save them from death and from slavery. As they heard these biblical truths being poured out before them, their hearts were burning within them. And they begged him, stay with us, stay with us, Lord, stay with us tonight. He acted like he was going on, but decided to stay. And then it says, at that night, while at table, he took bread and he broke it. And then they recognized him. They recognized him when? In the breaking of the bread. Well, now let's go back to the Mass, because in the 12th station, which was the Last Supper, Jesus took bread and said, This is my body. And at when the supper was ended, he took a child's and said, This is my blood, which is shed, which is poured out for you. That's death. When you separate body from blood, you have death. And now what happens on this Easter night, in this resurrection appearance, on the very night that Jesus rose from the dead, he breaks bread and they recognize him in the breaking of the bread. So what happens at Mass? The priest, in the name of Jesus, in the voice of Jesus, says, This is my body, this is my blood, and we have death. We pray the hour Father. The priest says a prayer of peace. And then the priest breaks the bread, which is his body, and he takes a fragment of it and he puts it into the chalice. And what happens when you take body and blood and you put them back together? You have resurrection. And on that Easter night, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Mary, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, breaks bread and they recognize him. Who do they recognize? The resurrected Lord. And what happens at every Mass? We start chanting. Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world. Have mercy on us. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God, Lamb of Abel, Lamb of Abraham, Lamb of the Passover, the Lamb that John the Baptist points out at the river Jordan. And then what does the priest do? The priest takes into his hands and says, Behold the Lamb of God. Who is this Lamb of God? It's the resurrected Lord. We recognized him in the breaking of the bread. And those two disciples who encounter the resurrected Lord and the breaking of the bread run back into Jerusalem and share that news with all those that they have met. And yet in a world of brokenness, in a world of noise, in a world of confusion, it's hard to have faith. And that's why it's so important. I just want to encourage you to live this resurrection moment. No matter where you're at. And I know that there is darkness in your life. I know that there is hurt in your heart. I know that there's struggles in your family. To know that Christ, who has died in the separation of his body and his blood, that Christ has risen. And Christ wants to come again into your heart. I want to encourage you just to place your hand on your heart. Allow yourself to feel your heart beating. I just want you to breathe. I want you to hear God claim you as his son, as his daughter, as his child. I just want you to slowly pray. Lord, increase my faith in your true presence. Lord, increase my faith in your true presence. You who died on the cross for me, you who rose from the grave for me. You who gave us the Eucharist the night before you died. You who celebrated the first Mass on Easter night. Dear Lord, increase my faith. Amen.