Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter, A

As always, the Bible tells the story not so much of our quest for God as of God's passionate quest for us. 

I will be celebrating Mass this Sunday in Paris, France, along with 48 other periginus (pilgrims.)

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Transcript

a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

Now that very day, two of them were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, What are you discussing as you walk along? They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days? And he replied to them, What sort of things? They said to him, The things that happened to Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people. How our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel. And besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body. They came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but they did not see him. 

And he said to them, O how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. 

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther, but they urged him, Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over. So he went in to stay with them, 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. Then they said to each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us? 

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found gathered together the 11, and those with them who were saying, The Lord has truly been raised, and he has appeared to Simon. Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

St. Jerome translates the common Hebrew term ger, resident alien, with the Latin word peregrinus, meaning traveler or visitor. Jesus becomes a peregrinus in the exclamation of Cleopas, are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know? In Christian vocabulary, the term peregrinus came to mean a pilgrim who embarked on a voyage with a religious purpose. 

In Lumen Gentium, the document on the Church, the Second Vatican Council adopted this language. The Church is fundamentally defined as a people of God, moving toward God rather than a static entity. It's a living, breathing, active pilgrim journeying through the world toward the goal of eternal life in God. In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis wrote, the church is first and foremost a people advancing on its pilgrim way toward God, a people of pilgrims and evangelizers. Pope Francis went on to assert that when the church stops its journey, it's no longer a pilgrim church. 

In Genesis chapter 12, Abraham and Sarah are called to leave home. God says, lech-lecha. Lech means walk, and leech means to yourself. Lech-lecha, from your country, your kin, and your parents' house, to a land I will show you. The ancient rabbis noted that if this was merely a physical journey, the Bible would have said, go forth from your parents' house, your kin, and your country, rather than the other way around. After all, when you take a long trip, you first have to leave your parents' house, then your extended family, and then your country. By reversing the order, Torah is telling us that this is a spiritual journey of letting go of the limitations, biases, and conditioning that define you. Only then are you ready to see the land God wants you to see. God isn't showing you a new land, but showing you the same land in a new way. 

In the Seven-Siri Mountain, Thomas Merton said that in one sense, we are always traveling, and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense, we have already arrived. The sign Jesus promised to the generation that did not understand him was the sign of Jonah the prophet, that is, the sign of his own resurrection. Like Jonah himself, Merton wrote, I find myself traveling toward my destiny in the belly of a paradox. The paradox is that the flight from God becomes the journey to God, that the escape from the world leads to an embrace of the world, that things bear the seeds of their own opposites. 

The resurrected Christ seeks out his two errant disciples, joining them even as they walk in the wrong direction and talk about him in the wrong way, as he quietly, unobtrusively slipped into the waters of the Jordan to stand next to sinners, and as he willingly suffered alongside two other crucified criminals. Though they were going the wrong way, the Messiah has walked all the way with them, just as he had accompanied sinful humanity all the way to the limit of sin and death. 

As always, the Bible tells the story not so much of our quest for God, as of God's passionate quest for us. When he walks ahead of them, as if he were going on, They urge the stranger to stay with them. They invite Jesus to be their guest, but he turns the table on them and becomes the host. He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them. This day began early in the morning. 

The women who went to the tomb did not see Jesus. Now in the evening on that same day, the two disciples recognize the risen Christ as he sits with them at table. this is the first day of the week this is the first meal in the new creation remember the story of the first meal in Genesis when Adam and Eve took the fruit and ate it the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked two friends of God sit down with Jesus to eat what God offers to them in love The eyes of both of them were opened, and they recognized Jesus, the divine self-gift of God, made flesh. 

The two disciples who had been walking in the wrong direction returned to Jerusalem, where they find the eleven in their companions. The English word companion is derived from the Latin com, with, and panis, bread. A companion, therefore, is someone with whom you share your bread. Christianity is always a companion journey. We never walk alone. Then they recounted what had taken place on the way, and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread. Brokenness is the shape of the body of Christ. Wherever bread is broken, wherever love and forgiveness are freely given, wherever captives are set free Christ is present and our hearts will be burning within us