[00:00] Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever. We actually heard this Gospel passage during the week, during the octave of Easter. We hear it again today. And in conjunction with the rest of our liturgy today, what do we see here?

[00:34] This takes place still on the same day of the resurrection of Our Lord. There were several apparitions. Our Lord appeared several times to different people, as we see recorded here, but also as we see in some of the various episodes. In this case, this is to those two disciples who were walking en route to Emmaus. At this point, they had no idea that Our Lord had risen from the dead, but they were discussing

[01:07] what had happened with the passion and death of Our Lord. And suddenly now, once again, we see Our Lord comes to them, but they don't recognize Him. Now it appears to me one thing, Our Lord is now in His glorified state, a state which all our bodies, our bodies will also take on when we rise from the dead, when we are risen from the dead, we are raised at the end of time. And so, in that state, it will not be easy to recognize, perhaps, because it will be

[01:41] different than what we are now, all right? It will still be our same bodies, as it was for Our Lord, and He proved that, all right? But, yet in a different state, because they will be full of light, they will be able to pass through doors, will move around instantly, that's how we see it, Our Lord does here, all right? No more suffering, incapable of suffering and incapable of death, they will be immortal.

[02:16] Now, so that's how Our Lord appears, but it was going to require some gesture or some words that will make them recognize Him. At this point, they don't recognize Him at all, all right? And what they're discussing is all these events that have taken place from the passion and death until the burial of Our Lord, and with the great expectations they had of Our Lord, and it seemed like a complete, total defeat, all right?

[02:50] So when Our Lord approaches them, He says, "Well, what are you discussing?" And they look down. "Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem that doesn't know what happened?" Everyone around would have known, at least of the passion and death of Our Lord, all right? But there, it's as if He doesn't know, and remember, they still haven't recognized Him yet. So then, He asks them, very simply, "What sort of things?"

[03:25] And then they recount the passion and death of Our Lord, and "we had such high expectations of Him that He would be the one to redeem us," and in fact, He did. And then it is now He Himself who explains all the scriptures, now scriptures, He refers to the Old Testament, which all of which, all right, spoke of Him, and there were many prophecies of what would take place, right? This whole passion and death, you can see that in Isaiah, roundabout chapter 53, the

[03:59] suffering servant, it's all there. His birth is predicted, His passion and death is predicted, all of it, one way or another. And the fact that He's to redeem us and save us from our sins, all of this, and the final day that's to come, that's going to be the great, glorious day, at the end of time, in which those of us who have made it, hopefully pray as we all do, will be able to ascend into glory, into heaven, and be united eternally with God Himself, as He is, all right?

[04:36] All of this is predicted in the Old Testament, and all refers to Our Lord, one way or another. And Our Lord explains it all to them, and they still haven't recognized. There's a final gesture before they do, and that is when He breaks bread, in imitation, as it were, of the Last Supper, though it was not the Mass, this one. No, all He does is break the bread, bless it, break it, and give it to them, and then He vanishes, He disappears. So it was not the Mass, too incomplete.

[05:11] But with that gesture, which they knew, they already knew, now they recognize Him. You see? Much as it was for Mary Magdalene, it was when He pronounced her name, that's when she recognized Him. It is Our Lord, who is truly risen from the dead, and that's basically what we are celebrating now. He is risen, He has redeemed us. What a great, awesome gift for all of us.

[05:46] Now the question remains for all of us, do we live as if we have received that gift, or do we just don't even think about it? Another way of looking at it, do we live truly thankful to God, with, as these two disciples said to each other, "were not our hearts burning within us, as He explained the scriptures on the way?" Were not our hearts burning within us?

[06:17] That love of Him, who has given Himself completely to us, who is truly risen from the dead, who has truly already redeemed us, do we live that faith in Him? Who is truly living with us, among us, right now in the Eucharist, He is with us. Do we live that faith? Or do we simply not pay any attention to it and go about our lives as if He doesn't exist?

[06:52] Even if we do believe He exists, how do we live that faith that we have? And if we truly live that faith, then our hearts, too, should be burning within us, that love for Him, who has given Himself so completely to us, and continues to do so day and night. And we can come to Him at any time, we don't need a special audience, as you would if you

[07:24] were to come to a king, a prince, a pope, you would need a special audience, not an easy thing to acquire, right, only the highest dignitaries could ever do that. Here with Our Lord in the Eucharist, we don't need a special audience, we can come and He is here, waiting for us, all right, and we can pour out ourselves to Him, we can listen to Him, which we should, adore Him, thank Him, impart our needs to Him, He's waiting

[07:54] for us. Do we live that faith that we have? Do we seek to grow in that love for Him, such that our hearts are burning within us? Do we seek to prepare ourselves for that eternal union with Him in Paradise? Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.