Deacon Jerry
Franzen Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption
Luke
24:13-35
Praised Be Jesus
Christ. Good Morning everyone.
On behalf of Fr.
Ryan Maher, Fr, Michael Norton,
Bishop Roger Foys, Sr. Barbara Woeste, the
rest of the Cathedral Staff,
the parishioners of the Cathedral and myself,
I extend to you, family and friends of
Rebecca, our deepest sympathies.
Over the years,
I became a friend of Rebecca
and so I, too, feel an emptiness, a
void, in my life,
a void in that I can no longer
visit with her, share scripture
with her
or bring
Jesus to her in Holy Communion.
She has now gone
to meet him.
The Gospel selection
which I just read is one that
I find rich in its teachings.
It is a reading
that I find reflective of Rebecca’s encounter
with the Lord, as I knew her.
The encounter on
the road to Emmaus happened on Easter day.
Apparently the
two disciples were the second and third persons
to encounter the risen Lord.
Mary Magdalen
had encountered him in the garden
near the tomb early on Easter morning.
Peter
encountered the risen Lord at some point during that day,
and most of the rest of the apostles
encountered Him
in the upper room later that
evening.
The two
disciples had quite an experience.
There are three
points on which I would like to focus:
How the disciples met Jesus, how He shared Sacred
Scripture
with them
and how they shared a meal with Him.
I
1. “… while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented
from recognizing him.”
No matter what
we are doing, God is with us, by our side;
and we don’t recognize Him.
Most of the time
God is with us just in Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
but at many times in our lives Jesus,
because he was human,
is made manifest to us in
another person.
It might be a
priest or a minister;
it might be a parent, a daughter, a
son, a friend;
it
might be a complete stranger – someone who treats us,
maybe helps us - as
Jesus would treat us.
Jesus often works
through persons to help us in times of need,
to help us to a stronger personal
relationship with him.
We are all
called to a personal relationship with Jesus.
And as
Christians, we are all called, at times, to take on the role
of being Jesus for others.
Rebecca was one
of those persons who stood in for Jesus for me.
By her
willingness to let me come into her home, to visit with her,
to share the word of God with her
and to bring her the Lord in
Holy Communion,
she helped me to
fulfill my calling as a deacon.
All Christians
are called to be open to those opportunities
to be Jesus for someone else.
II
2. “Then beginning with Moses and all the
prophets
he interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the scriptures.”
Jesus explained
to the disciples that He was the Messiah
that God had promised for the Israelite people and for everyone.
There are many
indications of this in the Old Testament.
The books of the
Old testament are the Good News
of the promise of salvation for the
Israelite people.
The New
Testament tells us of the fulfillment of that promise
in Jesus Christ.
It is this
fulfillment of the promise that made the disciples hearts
to be “burning within them.”
We must read the
Sacred Scriptures, study them, understand them
and
do our best to live by them.
They tell us
what we must KNOW about God:
Father, Son and Spirit.
But more
importantly the scriptures tell us what we must DO
to attain everlasting life, to be with
God forever when we die.
That is what
made their hearts burn within them.
When a preacher
preaches,
that person is not only trying to help others
to understand what the Word
of God says,
that person is also
trying to help others to
apply that
understanding to situations of their everyday lives.
When I would
bring communion to Rebecca,
I would always read the Gospel of the
day
and offer my thoughts on how
it applies to us.
She would always
be very attentive,
despite her difficulties with
breathing.
So attentive in
fact, that she would often ask questions
about the reading.
She wanted to
know more, and that gave me a feeling of joy.
I am not sure
whether her heart was “burning within her,”
but she definitely recognized the
value of God’s Word.
All of us must
be attentive to God’s Word in Scripture
and must follow God’s direction in
order to attain eternal life.
III
3. “…while he was with them at table, he took
bread, blessed it,
broke it and gave it to them. With that their eyes were
opened…”
They recognized Jesus
in the breaking of the bread,
in the meal that they shared.
That is our
challenge also – to recognize Jesus in Holy Communion.
Because of
several things that Jesus said in Scripture,
we Catholics believe that what we
receive as Holy Communion
at
Mass is truly the Body of Christ.
This is another
way that Jesus is present to us –
not just as a symbol, but really
present.
In the Mass what
continues to look like a wafer of unleavened bread
becomes the actual Body of Christ.
Our receiving
the Body of Jesus as food, a physical nourishment,
helps us to realize that what we are
receiving
is more importantly for our spiritual
nourishment.
Rebecca truly
believed that Holy Communion was Jesus.
We talked about
that.
She was always
so glad to be able to receive it each week.
Although during
the time I knew her, she never had the opportunity
to attend Mass and receive Holy Communion,
she watched our televised
Mass at every chance she had.
In this Gospel Jesus
was teaching his disciples and us
that, for each of us to develop the
personal relationship
with our Savior for our
salvation,
we must recognize Jesus in those
around us,
we must know Jesus from what is recorded
in the Bible
and we must receive Jesus within our
bodies
and take him to our hearts.
What I saw in
Rebecca was a sincere love for the Lord,
a need to know Him better
and a desire to take Him into
her heart.
We should all be
so devoted to the Lord.
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