Stay With Us, Lord - Wednesday in the Easter Octave

I know you want to "get more" out of Easter. And there is a two-sided key that will help with that. One the one side, you will see that we are constantly referring back to the Resurrection and seeing how this is the source of our faith; on the other side of that key, you will see that Jesus is moving us to the Ascension and to Pentecost; there is still more (!!!) to come. Jesus isn't done yet. And from these great moments will come the new community which we call the Catholic Church. So the key is past-facing (Resurrection) and future-facing (the early Church). These Easter days, then, are pivotal.

So, for this morning, we see this key in action as we are brought back to the night of the Resurrection (Gospel) and we are also brought forward to the early days of the Church (1st reading, Peter healing a man).

The pivotal moment in this Easter day happens as Jesus meets the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. It is pivotal not simply because He meets them. It is pivotal because of how He meets them.

He meets them in the precise way that He is meeting us now: at the Holy Mass.

First, He gives the two men a chance to open their hearts to Him. They do so. This is the preparation of Holy Mass, as we kneel and talk with Jesus before the formal beginning of Mass.

Second, Jesus opens up the Scriptures to them and interprets to them everything that belongs to Him. These are the readings and the homily at Mass.

Third, they ask Him to "Stay with us." It is an interesting prayer. Jesus is Emmanuel (God with us), after all. And, later on, at His Ascension, Jesus will promise: "I will be with you always." At their request, Jesus stays with them -- but in doing so He "took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them." These are the exact words that were said just a few days prior at the Last Supper and they are the same words we say at the Eucharist at Holy Mass.

And it says that Jesus vanishes from their sight.

So.... did He not answer their prayer? Did He leave them? .... No. He is there on that table/altar. He is there in the Eucharist.

Fourth detail, the disciples then run back to Jerusalem and announce that they met Jesus. This is the end of Mass: "Go and announce the Gospel with your lives!" Evangelization.

Now, it is very important to note where the two disciples ran to in Jerusalem. They ran to the Upper Room. That's where the Apostles were huddled on that Sunday night "for fear of the Jews." They tell what had happened along the way. And then, right after that (in a moment you don't hear about in today's reading, but which is noted elsewhere in the Gospels) Jesus appears to them, and says to them "Peace be with you." He then breathes on them, and tells them they are to forgive sins.

Please note: this is the same Upper Room where He inaugurated the First Mass. It is the same Upper Room where He transformed His apostles into Priests. And now, in this same Upper Room, He is giving them the power to forgive sins.

For the next 40-50 days, we are going to see the Apostles grapple with the events of this pivotal moment. But we are also going to see (in our First Reading) how they are living out their priesthood.

This is where the Ascension and Pentecost are going to be crucial. The Ascension and Pentecost are not just "nice add-ons" to close out the Easter Season. As we will see later on, those feasts are the very moment in which the Apostles are given the power, by the Holy Spirit, to do what Jesus has been instituting them to do this whole time.

I hope this view from 30,000 feet gives you a sense of the Easter Season and its joy and purpose.

I also hope it transforms your understanding of the Eucharist: that we are not receiving a dead Jesus here, but when you receive the Eucharist, you are receiving the same Jesus who is Resurrected. And it is the great feast of Pentecost that will give ordinary men like Peter the very power to bring the Resurrected Christ here, to this very altar, in answer to our prayer: Stay with us, Lord!

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