Fr. Michael Williams

At the beginning of the gospel today, we hear of ‘two of the disciples of Jesus…their faces downcast’. By the end of the gospel the two disciples are transformed full of joy and renewed hope as they tell ‘their story of what happened on the road’. So what happened in between?

Well, the two disciples encountered Jesus, and they encountered Him in two specific ways. Firstly, they encountered Him through His Word as He ‘explained to them the passages throughout the Scriptures that were about Himself’, especially the prophecies about His suffering and rising to new life. Many of these passages are contained in the psalms like the one today, when Jesus can be seen praying to God the Father: ‘Preserve me God, I take refuge in you…you will not leave my soul among the dead, or let your beloved know decay’. The psalms are essentially Jesus’ prayer to the Father, but they are also now our prayers because we are baptised into the Body of Christ, the Church. The Psalms can be wonderful ways to help us pray in union with Jesus to the Father. The Psalms and the Sacred Scriptures lead to an encounter with God. Encountering Jesus in the Scriptures led to the disciples hearts burning within them.

After the two disciples encounter the Lord in His Sacred Scriptures, they then encounter Him again, ‘at the breaking of bread’. The early Church use this phrase to describe the celebration of the Eucharist or what we refer to today as the Holy Mass. Acts tells us, ‘Now while He was with them at the table, He took the bread and said the blessing; then He broke it and handed it to them’. Jesus had vanished from their sight now, but He was now present to them as ‘the Bread of Life’. He was truly with them, even though He had vanished from their sight. It’s the same for us now at the celebration of the Eucharist, Jesus- the Bread of Life, comes into our midst even though He’s vanished from our sight. We too recognise Jesus at the Breaking of Bread like those first disciples.

The new translation of the Roma Missal, which we will start using in October, is an opportunity to deepen our appreciation of encountering Jesus at the Breaking of the Bread, at the Holy Mass.

Thinking of Jesus coming to us in these two ways- the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Eucharist- resonated when I recently received an email from a Chinese student I gave instruction to, and who was received into the Catholic Church when I was at the Cathedral in 2007. He took as his baptismal name, George. In the email he writes:

‘I still remember 2007 Easter mass, I become a new member of the catholic family. How time flies, and tomorrow, I am going back to China and maybe in the future I do not go back to Britain again. Yesterday I join the Sunday Mass, and maybe this is my last traditional mass in my life, this really make me feel a little bit upset. However no matter where I am going to stay, I will keep reading and learning from Bible during my life. I hope and pray God could send wisdom, hope, and strength to me and let me to pass difficulties in my life…’.

In that email George reveals an encounter with Jesus through the Bible and the Mass, and it brought much joy and hope, something he will take back to China. He knows the Lord is journeying with him, when the road is rough or smooth. We too travel a road in life- sometimes rough, sometimes smooth- the Lord Jesus travels with us, especially through His Word and through the Holy Bread of Life. So let us give thanks to Our Lord who journeys with us on the road of life towards the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City.