Homily for First Holy Communion Sunday

On the Road to Emmaus

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know  the things that have happened there in these days?”

19 “What things?” he asked.

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet,powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

25 He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. 29 But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. 32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

33 They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together 34 and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” 35 Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
(Luke 24: 13-35)

Welcome to our our First Holy Communion children! You are going to receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus for the first time today! Body. Blood. Soul. Divinity. You are going to receive all of Jesus today. You have been preparing for this since your Baptism. And you know that in the Eucharist, the bread and wine are completely transformed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ. The bread and wine are present as accidents in appearance, but you will receive the real Body and Blood of our Lord. There is a great big word that describes what happens here. Trans-substantiation. There is another big word that goes with the Eucharist. That word is Concomitance. This word means that Jesus is fully present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in in even a little bitty piece of the Blessed Sacrament. No matter if you get a bigger piece or smaller piece of the Blessed Sacrament, you are getting the whole Jesus. Jesus never gives us a part of Himself. He never holds anything back. He gives Himself to us completely. The children know who they are receiving. And not only the young people celebrate what we are receiving, even though they will receive Christ for the first time today. We also celebrate Our Lord who died for us. We celebrate Him in every Mass.

The Gospel account of the road to Emmaus shows us the Mass. We come to Mass, whether or not we had a good week at work or whether or not the kids behaved. We take the road to Mass and that is like the road to Emmaus. The disciples on the way to Emmaus did not know who was walking with them, but they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. As Jesus explained the Scriptures to them, so during the Mass we read the Scriptures and the priest explains them to us. The disciples said that their hearts were burning within them as Jesus spoke to them about the Lord. Our hearts should be burning within us as we hear the Scriptures read and explained. They recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist. And then Jesus disappeared. Did he really go? Jesus was truly present, Body, Blood, Soul, Divinity, in the Eucharist. He is truly present to us. He vanished from the sight  of the disciples on the way to Emmaus but He was not gone. He was present in the Bread.

Jesus loves us so much that He is never far from us. We recognize His Presence in the tabernacle when we genuflect. We are not genuflecting to a gold box. We are genuflecting to the Body, Soul, Blood, and Divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist housed in the tabernacle.

At your First Holy Communion, we give you a candle. This is a symbol that you are to be the light of Christ to the world because the light of Christ is to be in you. Just like Jesus is in the tabernacle, just like Jesus was in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so Jesus will enter you when you receive the Eucharist. And be grateful for your Christian parents who will bring you to receive the Eucharist every week. Every week you will walk on the road to Emmaus to this Mass. There may be 400 other things that you have to do at home, but you come to Mass once a week to receive the Lord. You take this road to Emmaus, no matter how busy you are or how disappointed, and you come to see Love here. You come however you are. You come however you feel. You can always come to this altar. You can take the road to Emmaus and know that here you will meet Jesus. No matter how tired you are, you will be refreshed. Here is where grace is dispensed. Here we meet the source of love, Jesus. Here we understand that Jesus first gave His life for us, that He left everything for us, that He gave everything for us. Here we receive Jesus himself. He is so full of love for us that he gives Himself to us, and He wants us to be so full of love that we give ourselves to Him.

Remember this. Jesus will always love you. He will always be here in the Eucharist.

--Father Jacob Meyer, CFP Visitor

Blocking Jesus

1 And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 2 And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" 4 And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back; -- it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they  laid him. 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." 

8 And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid. 9 Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. 12 After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. 13 And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. (Mark 16: 1-13)

Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Christ hears Jesus call her by name.

Saint Mark summarizes the events of Easter Sunday. He reports how the grieving apostles refused to believe the eyewitness accounts of those who encountered the risen Lord. Evidently, Thomas was not the only doubter in the crowd. According to Saint Mark’s account, they not only rejected the report of Mary Magdalene but also that of the disciples who returned from Emmaus. Their grief and disappointment at the death of Jesus blocked their ability to receive the message of hope. Theirs was not a simple and passive lack of faith. Rather, theirs was an outright denial of the good news announced by the witnesses the risen Lord had sent them. Their sentiments will be verbalized by Thomas, “Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (Jn. 20:25). They chose to remain in their grief rather than accept the possibility that Jesus actually did rise from His tomb.

We are not that different from that group of fearful and confused apostles. Like them, we are locked within the walls of our defense mechanisms. We don't trust ourselves. We don't trust other people. We are not sure if we can trust God. It is easier for us to remain in our anxiety and doubt than to allow the risen Christ to be part of our lives. By trying to stay within what we have grown accustomed to we actually impede our ability to be the men and women God created us to be. The more we try to justify our choices, the deeper we sink into the abyss, an abyss that Christ overcame by His resurrection from the dead. As in the case of Saint Peter, the Lord is ready and willing to grab hold of us as soon as we cry for help. Remember the account of Jesus walking on the water. As the waters rise over Peter's head, Jesus stretches out His arm and says, "Don’t panic. I'm here!"

This Gospel account tells the story of how the apostles were called out of their darkness into the light of resurrection joy. The sealed and guarded tomb could not confine the Risen Lord. Having risen from the dead, Jesus would not permit locked doors to confine His disciples. Because they saw fit to reject the messengers He had sent them, Jesus saw fit to rebuke them for refusing to trust in His word.

We may be more like the disciples than we would like to admit. We tend to be selective when it comes to listening to the messengers God sends us. We shut out any challenge to enter more deeply into the mysteries of faith. Like the disciples we want to keep our expressions of faith closeted away so as to be polite and nice in the midst of a society that has lost its moral compass. Christ exposed Himself to the torment inflicted upon him by the culture of death. Upon the altar of the cross He conquered sin and death. With His dying breath He gave the victory shout of the Kingdom of Life. The tomb burst open because death no longer had any hold on Him. Now, He calls us to throw off the chains that once bound us and to come forth from our captivity so as to walk in the Light. Christ is risen from the dead. By death He trampled death and to those in the grave He granted life.

--Fr. Jerome Machar, OSCO