Readings (Year A):
Acts 2:14, 22-33
Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35
Reflection: Encountering Jesus in the stranger on the way
Two disciples walking along the road, conversing, discussing, debating … clearly a spirited dialogue is underway! I imagine them walking along, hearts full of sadness, agitation, curiosity, and a tiny flame of hope, barely noticing the dust beneath their feet as they converse, trying to make sense of “all that has happened.”
I must confess: today, when I hear the words “discussion” or “debate,” my stomach sinks. We today are also sad and agitated by the events in our world, witnessing the body of Christ so very broken, and trying so hard to nurture our small flames of hope. Yet how far we’ve come in our society from the kind of discussion which recognizes one another’s dignity, and which searches for truth, to truly understand “all that has happened.”
I’ve always been delighted and fascinated by the deep, decades-long friendship between Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Notorious RBG,” and Antonin Scalia, two of our late Supreme Court justices. They shared a love of opera and good wine, and a sense of humor so rich that it sometimes threatened court etiquette. And while their political and legal positions could not be farther apart, they actually aided each other in writing their opposing opinions.
Often, they and their families broke bread together. Scalia’s son once said in an interview that Marty Ginsburg was a very good cook and his dad was a very good eater. And every year, on RBG’s birthday, Scalia would send her 2 dozen roses. Judge Jeffrey Sutton once asked: “What good have all these roses done for you? Name one five-four case of any significance where you got Justice Ginsburg’s vote!” Scalia replied, “Some things are more important than votes.”
When Jesus sidles up beside our two disciples on the road, he gives them everything they need to form an opinion of “all that has happened,” and that tiny flame of hope they are carrying flares so that their hearts are burning within them.
But, my friends, this is not what sends them immediately running back to Jerusalem to report to the eleven. They go running back in excitement after Jesus takes bread, breaks it, and gives it to them. They run back when they encounter the person of Jesus, not the ideaof Christ. Jesus’ teaching along the way gives them hope, but his presence gives them faith. When they report to the other disciples, they don’t relay what they learned about the scriptures pointing to Jesus, but instead how he “was known to them in the breaking of the bread.”
We have a lot of opinions these days about others, their beliefs, their positions. But do we recognize one another as our scriptures call us to? Do we encounter Jesus as he lives in our neighbor, in the stranger, the marginalized, the opponent? Do we have the vision to see all as members of Christ’s body, broken and beloved?
Jesus invited everyone to his table, as he still does today. So, I ask you, sisters and brothers, who is missing from our tables? Whom might we invite to break bread, so that we will know Jesus between and among us? Perhaps, to someone on the other side of the aisles we have created, might we send a rose or two?
Add comment