3rd Sunday of Easter, 2023 - Fr. Leo
Last Sunday, I mentioned the communal aspect of the church that allowed Thomas to hang-in-there with his doubts until he had his own experience of the risen Christ. Today we witness the communal aspect of the church again. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus who have lost their faith walk together with Jesus in their midst making their hearts burn within, then till they break bread and commune with Jesus in the Eucharist. Causing them to run back and share there experience with their faith community,
There is a personal and public side to living a life of faith. In our personal prayer we move toward union with God as we share more and more in God’s divinity. From this unity the Holy Spirit leads us to share this divinity, this love, with others in acts of charity and self-sacrifice.
So here we are around he table of the Lord to encounter him in Scripture and unite ourselves with him and each other in the reception of communion in the Eucharist. Our “Amen” expresses our desire and affirmation of this Truth. And the effectiveness of our communion rest in the free gift of God’s giving himself to us, and our willingness to authentically receive God into our hearts and let him transform us into himself. The fullness of this effectiveness comes when we can say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me.”