HOW JESUS 

WAS MADE KNOWN 

IN THE BREAKING 

OF BREAD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “How Jesus Was Made Known In The Breaking of Bread.”

On this Third Sunday of Easter I think the gospel reading wants to get at the theme of recognizing Jesus in the Breaking of the Bread - okay fish is sometimes part of the story.

Listen again to the opening sentence in today’s gospel: “The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread.”

I think one goal for today’s readings is get us to say, “I know him” as today’s second reading puts it - and as today’s first reading puts it - that Jesus is seen as the holy and the right one - that he is seen as the author of life.

GOSPEL READINGS

On Easter Sunday, the Sunday readings for Years A, B and C are all the same. The theme is that Jesus is not in the tomb. He is Risen.  


On the Second Sunday of Easter - last Sunday - we have the Doubting Thomas story for Years A, B, and C. 


This Sunday - the Third Sunday of Easter, in Years A and B,  the gospel readings are different. Yet they are Part One [Year A] and Part Two [Year B] of the Emmaus Story where the disciples recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. 


The gospel for Year C, next year - on this Third Sunday of Easter,  we’ll hear about the disciples fishing all night and catching nothing.  Jesus is on the beach making breakfast for them. Like the disciples on the way to Emmaus they don’t recognize Jesus right away. When he yells to them - where to cast their nets, when they get a net full of fish, they know he’s the Risen Lord. They rush to the beach, eat some of the fish they caught, but in the midst of the words we hear about bread which Jesus gives them at that breakfast. That’s significant. 


In this homily, I’d like to reflect on discovering Jesus, in the breaking of the bread.

DO  WE  REMEMBER?

Do we remember our first communion? Some Catholic adults do - especially if they are converts and they come into the Church as adults.

I remember going through our family photo albums and seeing the pictures of the 4 of us kids in our First Communion outfits. 


I vaguely remember getting a dollar from my godmother - and aunt Nan. For a 7 year old kid in 1947 in Brooklyn, one dollar was a lot of money. 


I loved those 2 cent chocolate candies - unwrapped - behind the glass counter - eye high for a 7 year old kid - in the shape of an ice cube or a tiny casket  - raspberry inside - chocolate outside.

They were to be bought  in a candy story on 5^th Avenue - between 60 and 61^st Street. 


One dollar would get you 50 of those - but I had to save money for other stuff like an egg cream. 


The soda parlor was just a walk across the avenue from the candy store - climb with effort to get up on one of those dark red vinyl silver spinning stools - and then put my elbows a bit on the marble counter - and announce and pronounce, “An egg cream please.”

 I realize that people who have not been blessed in life to have come from Brooklyn - might never have tasted the delight of an egg cream - which had neither egg nor cream. It was simply milk, chocolate syrup and seltzer.

I remember those moments - vaguely - but being a 2 cent raspberry chocolate  and an egg cream addict  - the many injects into my mouth with that good stuff - that all runs together - and I might be mixing up older and more conscious moments with earlier memories - like the guy or gal making the egg cream and beating that egg cream together in its glass - with a noisy spoon hitting against the inner sides of the glass. 


Life is a big mix - a big stirring of lots of moments - hopefully lots of sweet tasting moments and memories.

Communion - receiving my first communion - I’m sure I looked forward to it. One of the benefits of going on for many First Communions as a priest  - like going to weddings - or confirmations or funerals - one has triggered inside one’s memory a whole album full of various memories - all mushed and mixed and stirred together.

When I see a little kid 3, 4, 5, 6 years old come with a parent at communion time and reach and want whatever his or her parents are getting, I wonder: “Was that me? Did I too do that - that reaching for the bread?”  


Then the wondering: “What did I think when I received communion for the first time? Were my hands still folded in prayer? Did I have my eyes closed? Did I peek to see what others were doing? Did I have a clue about the Sacred - about Jesus? Did I know what I was doing? 


When did I realize this is Jesus coming into our hearts and minds and soul and being and substance?

Looking back I don’t know when it was the first time I knew Jesus was in the bread. To make and to have that belief is quite a belief - and all of us here this morning have that belief. Amazing. Who would believe what we believe: Jesus, the Risen Lord - our God -  is present in the Tiny Piece of Bread?

Last Sunday I preached that it’s normal to have doubts about that and various other things. That’s normal. 


The Sunday before that - Easter Sunday - I preached on Faith. Faith and doubt - like two hands at the bottom of our arms - hopefully they work together so we can pick things up.

However, any time you have any doubts about Jesus’ presence in the bread,  just grab 10 minutes and read Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John. Break that chapter apart like you would break bread and then chew on the words - and digest faith in Jesus' presence that he is "the bread of God" "which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world" [John 6;33].

One of the great, great learnings about scripture that changed my thinking big time was this: the gospels are finalized well after the year 60 - the earliest Gospel being Mark - perhaps the last one being John - but maybe not. The gospels  tell  us more about  what was happening in the Early Church than in the life of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John took the words and scenes of Jesus and then textured, placed, wrote up what Jesus did - for a community of folks a good 30 years at least after the life of Jesus. I don’t know if that hits you. The gospels are an archaeological site to dig and discover - and then to know and understand what was happening in the early church and to see how they saw the Life of Christ in their lives.

And since they talk about bread and not immediately recognizing Jesus in the bread - that tells us that this was an Early Church growing and developing moment. People in that Early Church community were struggling with what they were hearing: Jesus is present somehow in the mystery of the bread.

It would take centuries - with fights and struggles - splits and splintering in the Church - before folks came up with words like transubstantiation for how Jesus is present in the bread - and consubstantial that all 3 persons in the Trinity are God.

CONCLUSION

Faith takes time.


It takes us long after our First Communion to recognize Jesus in the breaking of the Bread - if we started receiving as a cradle Catholic.  


Faith is a process. 


We might have seen our parents bringing us to church. We saw them take the holy water and put some on us - with the sign of the cross. We saw them genuflecting to Christ in the tabernacle. At Communion time in the Mass we might have been carried up with them as they walked up  to receive Holy Communion. We saw them put their tongue or hand out to reach out to receive this Bread. We sensed that something was different here.

Then we made our First Communion and our 1000^th Communion and somewhere along the line we began to recognize Jesus in the breaking of the Bread - some days more than others.

Because we’re taking the parish census this week, I want to end here - but first I want to tag that some other time, I want to go off on further wonderings. For example,  I wonder: when did Jesus came up with this idea of being bread? Did he want to be with us at every supper and every breakfast - and every time we go out the door to catch fish and we catch nothing or we get it all?  Did he watch people break bread and share it with others?  Did he go further back and imagine the whole process of bread becoming bread and on and on and on? 


Enough already. 


It’s good to watch the stir and the swirl of images in our memory - like the person behind the counter putting together an egg cream for us - to do all this before they put us in our tiny casket. Then hopefully we'll wake up the next moment or 3 days later or however this works to the real thing - to the eternal banquet - where we’ll be fed the finest bread - hopefully leavened - because there will be not more rush as in life. Amen.