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LiveLent reflections - Week 5, Weekend
St. John's Church Ashe Street Tralee |
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---------- Forwarded message ---------
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Communion as a glimpse of the kingdom
Week 5 - Weekend
"When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’" |
Reading
Luke 24.13-35
The Walk to Emmaus
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. |
Reflection
Holy Communion calls us to deep encounter with the Risen Christ, whose earthly life and death are not the final word, and whose resurrection makes his presence possible with us. Just like the disciples on the Emmaus road, we are invited to let Scripture and the breaking of the bread interrupt our present and reshape our direction of travel. As we encounter Christ, our hearts are inevitably directed towards the world he came to save.
And as we seek to love as Jesus did, the very words and actions of Communion, with their radical call to equality and justice, challenge us to interrogate our lives within and without the community of faith. As Michael Ramsey once wrote, ‘The supreme question is not what we make of the Eucharist, but what the Eucharist is making of us, as together with the Word of God it fashions us into the way of Christ.’
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Prayer
Risen Christ, may we know your presence on the way, and let ourselves be fashioned into a people of truth, compassion and justice in our words, deeds and relationships. Amen.
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Today's family challenge
Read – or watch –the story of the Road to Emmaus
Read Luke 24.13-35 or search online for ‘The Seriously Surprising Story’ from the Bible Society to find out about what happened on the evening of the first Easter Day. |
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