“Stay with us Lord”

Homily for 3^rd Sunday of Easter Year A 2014

Acts 2:14, 22-28  • 1 Pet 1:17-21 • Luke 24:13-35

Introduction

An ancient proverb says, “guests are like fish; they begin to smell after three days.”  While this proverb teaches guests not to overstay their welcome, an African proverb puts a different spin on guests.  It says: “A guest is a guest for two days: on the third day he gets a hoe and goes to the fields with the family.”

Scripture and Theology

In today’s gospel, Jesus is a guest.  His two travelling companions invite him: “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”  But Jesus is the kind of guest who neither overstays his welcome, nor one who fails to earn his keep.  In just a few hours, he gives his hosts more than they expected.

We remember that when he comes upon them on the seven-mile journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus, he finds them discussing the recent events in Jerusalem: the arrest, suffering, death of Jesus, and now the astounding news that he is risen.  They are downcast! They are confused!  They do not know what to believe!  This strange travelling companion then helps them to understand these events in the light of Scripture.  He goes back to the very beginning of the Old Testament, that is, to the writings of Moses and to the writings of the Prophets, and shows them using those passages that all these events, the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus were foreseen.  But more importantly when seen through the light of Scripture, these events make sense.  He shows them that the Messiah was not to come in power, but in suffering and sacrifice, just as the Scriptures had promised.  And so, even before they get home, Jesus helps them see God’s plan of salvation in its true light and meaning.

But there is more that he has to offer when the disciples invite him into their home.  What these two disciples do is nothing out of the ordinary; with the lack of quick transportation, highways and highway Motels, it was no uncommon to put up for the night total stranger and stranded travellers.  I suppose they did not have many of the dangers we have today.  Moreover, as a guest, here was someone who had just explained the Scriptures to them so well.  They probably figured that he would not turn around at night and slit their throats.  In fact it turns out that their invitation for him to stay with them brings them a great surprise.

We read in the gospel that “while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.”  These are the very four actions he did on two previous occasions:

·        When he fed the five thousand people, he also took the bread and fishes, said the blessing, broke them and then gave them to the crowds.

·        At the Last Supper, he also takes the bread and gives thanks, breaks and gives it to his disciples, saying: “Take and eat.  This is my body.”

And so when this guest does the same things for them, the two disciples immediately recognize Jesus, their Saviour and Messiah.  It is at the breaking of bread that they recognize the Lord.  And after he had disappeared, they said: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

Christian Life

My friends, as Catholics we continue to invite the Lord to stay with us, for the same two reasons that he was a travelling companion of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and a guest at their dinner table. We too recognize Jesus Christ both in the Word and in the Sacrament.  These are the two pillars, the two planks that sustain our Catholic Faith.  We hear the Word of God read to us in Church or even at home, and we are moved to faith, to believe in the saving work of the Lord Jesus.  And then when we are aroused by that faith we come to his Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of the Eucharist, to receive the Lord in his very Body and Blood and to receive what is called grace, or simply, spiritual help.

Perhaps like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, our hearts should burn within us, when we hear the wonderful works of God in the Scriptures.  Perhaps like those two disciples, we should recognize him in the Breaking of Bread, in the communion that we receive when we come to Mass.  Perhaps every time we come to Mass we are in effect saying, “Stay with us Lord.”  As a Church, as an institution, as the community of Christ, we have kept up the invitation to Jesus to stay with us in his Word and in his Sacrament.  But actually Jesus had promised that he would stay with us until the end of the world.  And so it might be more accurate to say that by our regular reading of his Word and in celebrating the Eucharist, we are simply taking him up on his promise, a promise which he delivers on without fail.

Whenever I visit people’s homes, one of the plaques they have on the wall says:

Christ is the Head of this house

The Unseen Guest at every meal

The Silent Listener to every conversation.

How true it is; that Christ should be a guest in our home.  We come to his house every Sunday; should we not return the favour and ask him to come and stay with us?  That is what good friends do; they invite each other to their homes.

Let me suggest some ways by which Christ might be our honoured guest.

·        If we don’t already do so, we might revive that traditional practice of saying grace at meals.  In this prayer, we thank God for his benevolence to us, and make him the unseen guest at every meal.

·        If we don’t already do so, perhaps we should revive the practice of family prayers, when we turn off the television and whatever other gadget feeds our technological needs.  In the few “Our Fathers,” “Hail Marys” or even the full Rosary that we pray, aren’t we in our small, daily ways, inviting the Lord to stay with us?  These prayers are especially poignant when we are about to go to bed and say to the Lord: ““Stay with us Lord. . . the day is almost over.”

·        A third and perhaps the most important way to invite the Lord to stay with us is to do literally what they two disciples did to Jesus.  Can we be travelling companions for people that might need a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen to them, a hand to hold them along, as we all travel along this journey called life?  Can we invite into our lives, people who might need some of their physical needs like shelter, food, medicine, without worrying about whether or not they are going to use or abuse our donation?  Of course we live in different times and cannot always be hauling strangers into the guest-room without grave risk.  But can our way of saying to the Lord “stay with us” be to buy a bus-ticket for a stranded person, a meal for a hungry person, a motel room for a traveller without a bed, or just supporting organizations that provide these things day in day out?

Conclusion

Catholics don’t have to worry about Jesus beginning to smell after three days; rather he rises after three days and continues to stay among us, carrying his own weight and supporting us through life.

Let us recognize the Lord’s presence among us, not just in his Word and Sacraments, but also in our brothers and sisters whom we serve.  For he promised that where two or three of his brothers and sisters would be gathered in prayer, he would be amongst us.  But he also promised, that whenever we see a stranger and welcome him, or a naked person and clothe him, an ill person or prisoner and visited him, we would be doing these things for Jesus himself.