On the Easter Faith.
Easter 3: 4th May, 2003
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Then they told what had happened on the road to Emmaus, and how Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Lk 24:35)
On this third Sunday of the Easter season we are still giving our attention to the appearances of the Lord to his disciples after the resurrection. As Luke presents the narrative, all this is happening into the evening of the day of the resurrection. The women had reported the empty tomb. Peter too had gone to see it and evidently while the rest of the events on the road to Emmaus were unfolding, the Lord had actually appeared to Peter. Each gospel describes things differently. But the point is, something major was happening. The women including Mary Magdalene, Peter, Cleopas and his companion on the road out of Jerusalem and soon all of them gathered together were to actually see the Lord. This is the one they had all seen die on the cross. They had seen him buried in the tomb.
If we try like good detectives to put together all the information we have from each of the gospels and from Acts, it is clear that the experience of the followers of the Lord was utterly transforming. It is not hard to understand how shattered they all would have been after the events of Good Friday. But something was to turn that around – or indeed a whole series of events and experiences were to turn that around.
The two heading out from Jerusalem that day, as we are told in the part of the gospel immediately before this section, were discussing all the events and one imagines their disappointment at how things had turned out. We are told that they looked sad. They did not recognise Jesus as he walked along with them, or as he explained the Scriptures to them, though their hearts were indeed burning, they realised later. It was when he took bread, blessed, broke it and gave it to them, that their eyes were opened. He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
The eucharistic imagery here is unmistakable. An immediate bridge is therefore made between the experience of those first disciples and the ongoing continuing experience of those who would follow the way of Jesus in this generation, and any other. The Easter faith is the faith honoured and expressed in worship and in living, now. As the latest Papal encyclical observes:
'Whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the faithful can in some way relive the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. "Their eyes were opened and they recognised him"....
In the humble signs of bread and wine, changed into his body and his blood, Christ walks beside us as our strength and our food for the journey, and he enables us to become for everyone, witnesses of hope.'
Hope is at the centre of it all. That is what is at the centre of the gospel for today where, in the middle of all this turmoil and discussion, Jesus appears amongst them. Astonishment, fear, doubt, joy, uncertainty. More teaching and a commission to go out and preach this good news. Repentance and forgiveness. Hope. Now then, have you anything to eat? Ghosts don't eat! Relax, believe, and hope. Tell others so that they can share in this grace.
Now which part of this story is going to be the more convincing for each one of us? It is going to differ. Perhaps that is why the various gospel writers have taken different directions, emphasised different aspects. Perhaps that is why some will concentrate on the tomb and the absence of the body. Others will concentrate on the very human touches such as the sharing together by risen Lord and his fishermen disciples of that fish barbecue up by the Sea of Galilee. Others will be right in there with Thomas, and perhaps be convinced by his heart wrenching "My Lord and My God" from last Sunday's gospel. This would be to focus on the resurrection of the body, which is an article of the credal faith of the Church. Thomas, as we remember, was invited to place his hand on the wounds so that he could be sure that it was the same Jesus who had been crucified. He then believed.
Immediately though, that gospel moved to the place that every succeeding generation is in. We are not in the position to actually see that risen Lord, let alone to take his hand or to eat with him or talk with him. How blessed are those who have not seen, who cannot see, and yet do believe. This is the gift of faith.
Now that becomes something that in the first instance was at the centre of the preaching of Peter and then Paul. Others could see and hear that these were utterly convinced that the Lord had risen from the dead. That this was the promised Messiah. That this was therefore the way to reconciliation with God, that this is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that here there is forgiveness and a totally fresh start. The movement is in every sense from death to life. People could see and hear that this is what these apostles believed and if necessary were prepared themselves to die for. And yet to die in hope. The blood of those martyrs, like Peter our own patron, was as the saying goes, the seed of the Church. Others immediately arose to take their place and the community of those who wished to follow in this way grew.
But what about us? How might this connect with the way we might live and believe and hope? We are offered the opportunity to see and experience something different to that literally hands on approach that was open to Thomas or to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But what we can experience is nonetheless still real. This is to do with hearts and lives. We hear the accounts of what happened then and in particular all these post resurrection stories that are in the gospels and Acts and in the letters of Paul. This testimony does have an impact and offers inspiration. So too do the stories of the saints great and small of every generation. We will each have some favourites. But as well we can see it and know it in our own lives, now. We can also see around us, every now and then, the experience of this resurrection in the lives of those who themselves have experienced it, are experiencing it. The Risen Lord in them. The Easter hope in them and lived out.
This is particularly the case when we are being sorely tested. When things are really difficult. When things go badly wrong. The Easter faith is the faith that will carry us in those times. So it is that the lessons for these three Sundays of this season so far, starting with Easter Day itself, have been building up our memories of the composite record of what happened that day, as those who were there reported it. And they make it clear that it was something that for some took a while to be able to be absorbed and understood. But when it was, fear and doubt and disillusion were replaced with a great and exuberant joy, that nothing was able to contain. Yes indeed God was with them. A life can be lived on that basis!
Then they told what had happened on the road to Emmaus, and how Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. (Lk 24:35)
The Lord be with you.
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