From her most ancient days, the church has taken this time after Easter for a practice known as mystagogy, during which she would teach the newly baptized Christians what had taken place when they received the sacraments. This is actually part of why we still hear the stories of the risen Christ’s appearances to the disciples during the Easter season. We are not simply recalling the historical events surrounding the Resurrection, but we are learning from the Lord himself about the mysteries of the Christian life we have all received. Today, we do not simply hear about Christ’s appearance to the disciples, but the church calls us to consider in greater depth both the Eucharist and our relationship with the Scriptures.
First, this story leads us to consider Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist. The Gospel begins today with the end of the road to Emmaus story. Two disciples had encountered Jesus while traveling on the evening of Easter Sunday, and had not recognized him until he took bread, blessed it, and broke it for them. After the breaking of the bread, they recognized him, but he immediately disappeared. Since those verbs — taking, blessing, breaking the bread — have always had a Eucharistic meaning, the early church understood that scene to mean something very specific. The disciples recognized Christ in the moment his visible presence passed into the bread that he offered, almost as though he vanished into Holy Communion before their eyes. Thus, the Jesus who appeared to the disciples had already become the eucharistic Lord for the new church, which makes his continuing identity and reality so important.
As soon as the Emmaus disciples recount their story about the breaking of the bread, Christ in fact appears, precisely to demonstrate that he is really alive, and that he has remained himself. The one who had disappeared into the sacrament of the Eucharist now stands before the Apostles whole and entire, still alive, still real, with a body of “flesh and bones.” He was no ghost, but the same real man he was before, glorified but not changed into someone else. Now, just as then, Christ’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments without taking away from his real human presence, body and soul, in heaven. When we receive Holy Communion, it is the whole, living, historical Christ whom we receive.
Second, this story reminds us how we as Christians relate to the Scriptures. Just as he had taught the Emmaus disciples, Christ teaches the Apostles, saying, “Everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms (had to be) fulfilled.” According to Jesus himself, the whole Old Testament refers to him and announces him. We can sometimes be tempted to read the Old Testament in isolation from the life of Jesus, but it is none other than Christ who teaches us that the Old Testament finds its true meaning in the Gospels. Everything present in the Old Testament predicts him, prefigures him, or shows what he has come into the world to save. Figures such as Abel, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, and David are all shadows of Jesus to come; Jesus is the true version of each one, as well as the fulfillment of every other passage in the Scriptures.
During this Easter season, the church invites us to learn the truth about what it means to be Christian from the risen Lord himself. If at his instruction, we come to believe more deeply in his real presence in Holy Communion and see his face in every passage of the Scriptures, then we have become more Christian, and Jesus’ Resurrection has taken deeper root in us.
Fr. Rampino is studying at the Catholic University in Washington with residence at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria.
Learn from the risen Lord
ADOBESTOCK
Resurrection_web
From her most ancient days, the church has taken this time after Easter for a practice known as mystagogy, during which she would teach the newly baptized Christians what had taken place when they received the sacraments. This is actually part of why we still hear the stories of the risen Christ’s appearances to the disciples during the Easter season. We are not simply recalling the historical events surrounding the Resurrection, but we are learning from the Lord himself about the mysteries of the Christian life we have all received. Today, we do not simply hear about Christ’s appearance to the disciples, but the church calls us to consider in greater depth both the Eucharist and our relationship with the Scriptures.
First, this story leads us to consider Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist. The Gospel begins today with the end of the road to Emmaus story. Two disciples had encountered Jesus while traveling on the evening of Easter Sunday, and had not recognized him until he took bread, blessed it, and broke it for them. After the breaking of the bread, they recognized him, but he immediately disappeared. Since those verbs — taking, blessing, breaking the bread — have always had a Eucharistic meaning, the early church understood that scene to mean something very specific. The disciples recognized Christ in the moment his visible presence passed into the bread that he offered, almost as though he vanished into Holy Communion before their eyes. Thus, the Jesus who appeared to the disciples had already become the eucharistic Lord for the new church, which makes his continuing identity and reality so important.
As soon as the Emmaus disciples recount their story about the breaking of the bread, Christ in fact appears, precisely to demonstrate that he is really alive, and that he has remained himself. The one who had disappeared into the sacrament of the Eucharist now stands before the Apostles whole and entire, still alive, still real, with a body of “flesh and bones.” He was no ghost, but the same real man he was before, glorified but not changed into someone else. Now, just as then, Christ’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments without taking away from his real human presence, body and soul, in heaven. When we receive Holy Communion, it is the whole, living, historical Christ whom we receive.
Second, this story reminds us how we as Christians relate to the Scriptures. Just as he had taught the Emmaus disciples, Christ teaches the Apostles, saying, “Everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms (had to be) fulfilled.” According to Jesus himself, the whole Old Testament refers to him and announces him. We can sometimes be tempted to read the Old Testament in isolation from the life of Jesus, but it is none other than Christ who teaches us that the Old Testament finds its true meaning in the Gospels. Everything present in the Old Testament predicts him, prefigures him, or shows what he has come into the world to save. Figures such as Abel, Noah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, and David are all shadows of Jesus to come; Jesus is the true version of each one, as well as the fulfillment of every other passage in the Scriptures.
During this Easter season, the church invites us to learn the truth about what it means to be Christian from the risen Lord himself. If at his instruction, we come to believe more deeply in his real presence in Holy Communion and see his face in every passage of the Scriptures, then we have become more Christian, and Jesus’ Resurrection has taken deeper root in us.
Fr. Rampino is studying at the Catholic University in Washington with residence at Blessed Sacrament Church in Alexandria.
Related Articles
Corpus Christi
Made for communion
Found time