The following is a version of the homily for Sunday Apr. 23.

Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

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An intriguing aspect of the gospel stories of Easter is that people who were close to Jesus did not recognize him, at least immediately, when they saw him after the resurrection. In the garden outside the tomb on Easter morning, Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was a gardener. It wasn’t ‘til he spoke her name that she recognized him. Later, when the disciples were fishing, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.(John 21:4)

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His disciples knew that he had been truly, thoroughly dead. That knowledge may have blinded them. It may be that Jesus’ presence was so unexpected that they literally could not see him.

The artist Caravaggio, who painted the scene of the Supper at Emmaus, wondered about the blindness, too. In his imagination, the reason that they did not recognize Jesus was that he had shaved his beard. That may be the case but it may be something different.

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In chapter 25 of Matthew’s gospel Jesus had talked about his followers not recognizing him. Let me remind you of his words.

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. …Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” 

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 

And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

I wonder if Jesus was gesturing towards these thoughts of how to treat the stranger and the neighbour during his post-resurrection appearances. Was he reminding his disciples of these words? Was he telling them to look with the heart rather than the eyes? Was he saying that they should look for him in everyone?

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Let me go back to the gospel for this morning for another possible interpretation of why Jesus did not let his disciples recognize him. The gospel says,

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?’

Their first sense of Jesus even before they recognized him was his effect on their hearts.

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Think back to other stories in the gospel when Jesus appealed to the internal life.

One of the strongest statements about the life of the heart is in Matthew 5, one of the beatitudes. Blessed are the pure of heart for they will see God. ‘Purity of heart’ is primarily about integrity in everything one does. (Sexual purity is only part of it.) It is about living in a way that the external life clearly reflects the true inner life.

And it is only when one has the purity of heart that one can see God.

Throughout Matthew 6 Jesus stressed the work of the heart…While he was talking about the Pharisees who made a show of prayer and almsgiving he stated a larger principle your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

It may be that Jesus kept them from recognizing him because he wanted his disciples to reflect on their experience of recognition, to wonder about his words and to pay attention to the stirrings of their hearts.

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Back at the meal in Emmaus, the gospel says, 

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

The bread would be internalized. It would be his presence, real, life sustaining…but invisible once they had incorporated him.

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I want to step back from this supper at Emmaus to another meal… at St. Stephen’s breakfast program

One snowy Sunday in March, 2013 I was in the kitchen scraping plates and loading the dishwasher, when I heard a commotion at the serving table and went out to see what was going on. 

Two big guys …about 6’5” and 6’7”… were loud, profane, grubby and thuggish looking. They wanted more food than the servers were giving them. The servers tried to explain that we expected about 80-90 people and we had barely enough for everyone to get a serving of the size they had been given. 

They swore at the servers, took their food and sat down at a long table on the south side of the room where there were already about 8-10 guests. When they sat down the other guests moved away. 

I had never seen them before in the eight years that I’d been there.  

As well as bussing tables I had to mop away the slush that people were tracking in that morning, so he made his way towards them with a mop, introduced himself and asked their names. 

Al was the bigger and louder of the two.  He said they’d been up all night in a local playground. He wanted to know how late the program was open and how much food they could have.  

I told him “We serve until 8 AM and if there was any food left at that time you can have seconds.”

Suddenly the room, with about 50 people in it, went silent. This had never occurred before. The linoleum floors, wood walls and high ceiling guaranteed a constant din. 

I turned to see what had happened and saw a tiny, very beautiful young woman with a baby in a ‘snuggler’ get toast and tea and go to the far corner to sit. I’d never seen her…. or anyone with a baby… before at the breakfast. 

The whole roomful of people, including Al and his buddy, stared at her mutely. The beauty of the woman and child had stunned everyone into silence. 

Gradually the conversational level returned to normal. I moved on to mop the floor and when he got to the door in the corner where she was sitting, I stopped and introduced myself and asked if I could get her anything else.  

She said “no thanks”..  She said that Fr. Christian, the priest, had told her about the meal. 

As the meal was ending and I was stacking chairs, Al, the bigger and louder person, came to and said “See that woman in the corner. What’s her story?”  

I wondered, ‘what’s your interest?’ but I said, “I don’t know her. It’s the first time I’ve ever met her.”  

Then Al said, “I got my welfare cheque last week and I still have some money left. Would you offer it to her if she needs something for the baby? I don’t want to creep her out by going and talking to her.”  

I told him that was generous. Just then Fr. Christian came in and he directed Al to him. I moved on to finish cleaning up. I didn’t see the woman leave or whether she had any further interaction with either Fr. Christian or Al.

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I’ve thought a lot about Al in the years since then. I’ve concluded that there is an inextinguishable goodness at the heart of every person. 

No matter what the person has done: no matter how disgusting they may have been or how many times they have tried to reform and failed, God sees the goodness and loves the person for it. 

It was the gift of that meal, and it took me a long time to recognize Christ at the heart of Al.

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At the supper at Emmaus, Jesus may have intended to be invisible…at least at the start… because he wanted them to experience him internally. He wanted them to know him in their hearts.

We pray for this internalization just before communion in the Easter season when the priest breaks the bread and says. “Live in us, that we may live in you.” 

If we are in Christ, our life becomes united with his and our orientation to the world becomes his.

It is a wonderous perspective filled with love for our neighbour and all of creation …it enables a vision of the inextinguishable good at the heart of every person regardless of what they have done.

This seemingly simple gospel of travelling with Jesus but not recognizing him until the meal tells us a profound, if paradoxical, story about how we are to relate to God in everyday life, experiencing him inside us and looking for him in the lives of others and seeing in those people God’s inextinguishable light.

Peace 

Michael