This is my homily for this past weekend, the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The appointed Gospel passage is the well-known story of the Road to Emmaus. The readings are here.
We’ve reached the 3rd weekend of Easter season. It may feel like the Easter Bunny hopped away a couple of weeks ago, but the church continues to celebrate Jesus’s Resurrection from the dead today and for several more weeks after this weekend, too. You can see the Easter Candle next to me here; our alter is dressed in white; and the ministers up here are in white, too. We’re still in the midst of the celebration of Easter. Of all the church’s high holy seasons, Easter Season is the longest, which I take to be an indicator of just how important the Resurrection of Jesus looms in our faith.
If I may, I’d like to offer some brief thoughts about the Resurrected Jesus, and what he means for us. And to telegraph the punch line: here is what the Resurrection means for us: it changes everything: what we believe, how we view our life, what we consider to be important.
This episode of the Road to Emmaus may be the quintessential Easter story, because it shows how an encounter with the risen Jesus changes us. It certainly changed these two travelers on the road. At the beginning, the two travelers were filled with confusion over the recent events of Jesus’s death, and reports that the tomb was empty. But chances are, it was more than simple confusion: it was likely to be confusion mixed with anxiety bordering on paralyzing fear. Jesus didn’t die a natural death; he was arrested, tried, convicted and executed by the civil and religious authorities. His followers, who at this point in the story still hadn’t grasped the reality of the Resurrection and what it means - they must have feared that none of them were safe; the authorities may not have been satisfied with only making an example of the ringleader of their little band. All his followers surely were fearing for their own liberty, safety and perhaps their lives. Raw fear explains why Peter denied Jesus: pure and simple, he was afraid. And it explains why, in last week’s Gospel, the disciples hid behind a locked door: they feared for their lives. It strikes me as plausible that these two travelers were on their way to Emmaus because they guessed that Jerusalem was not safe for them. They were fleeing to safety.
But then, on the road, they encountered the risen Lord; and in that encounter, everything changed for them. Their hearts were wiser than their brains. Their brains couldn’t see who Jesus was, but their hearts were burning with recognition and joy, when he broke the bread for them. What’s more, they turned around and went right back to Jerusalem – back into the teeth of the danger. No longer were they concerned for their own safety; what was imperative now was to share this Good News with the other disciples. Their need to share Good News overrode all personal considerations. This encounter with the risen Lord truly had changed everything for them. The risen Jesus displaced their own wellbeing at the center of their lives.
This is the Good News of the Resurrection: it changes everything. All the things that fill us with fear and dread: our own inadequacies, our fear of failure or humiliation, our physical ailments, our mental illness, our broken relationships, our maddening habit of committing the same sins over and over again, all the stupidities and injustices and cruelties of human society: all of these things are to be understood differently, and weighed differently, in light of the Resurrection.
We’re invited to live our lives as the transformed travelers to Emmaus: to live in a way that acknowledges the risen Lord is at the center of our lives. This is the change which the Resurrection works in our lives: it induces us to recenter ourselves around what really counts. Our second reading today gets to the heart of this. The author of 1st Peter reminds us, “Our faith and hope are in God”. A simple statement, but so profound: “Our faith and hope are in God”. There are so many other places we are tempted, in our weakness and foolishness, to put our faith and hope: in money, or politics and the culture wars, or our own talents and abilities. These are the things we know in this life, because these are the things the world has taught us to value and trust. But after we’ve encountered the risen Christ, we see these earthly things in a new light. What formerly may have seemed strong and solid to us, now strikes us as transient and fleeting. That same second reading reminds us that even silver and gold are diminishable: money may come, but it goes, too. Money is not what lasts. Money is not what is important. Money is not what gives us meaning. And as the saying goes, “You can’t take it with you.” Our second reading contrasts the impermanence of gold and silver with the precious blood which Jesus the Lamb shed for us. It’s paradoxical: blood doesn’t seem permanent, but the precious blood of Jesus is more permanent, and of infinitely more value to us, than money.
If the blood of the Lamb brings to mind the Eucharist, that is no accident. The same is true of the bread which Jesus took, blessed, broke and shared with the two travelers to Emmaus. In just a few minutes, we’re invited to encounter the risen Jesus, at this table, just as those travelers to Emmaus did. Let it be a joyful encounter for us. Let us put our faith and hope, not in earthly things, but in the risen Lord who continues to offer himself to us here, week after week. And let our hearts burn with joy and gratitude that the same risen Lord who encountered those two travelers on the Road to Emmaus, encounters us here today.
Question for the liturgical buffs. Jean and I recently had a brief discussion about the selections of scripture used in the lectionary over the three year cycle. Jean mentioned that the EC and other mainline Protestant liturgical churches use the same lectionary. I did not believe that they do. The readings cited here and those at the EC parish we went to yesterday are not the same. So… does the RCC offer multiple possible readings each Sunday? Could that explain the differences? Or maybe the EC offers multiple choices? I will ask the next time I see an EC priest. Or ask Father Google
ReplyDeleteYou can see a comparison of the readings on this website, which unfortunately is out of date.
Deletehttp://www.textweek.com/yearc/easterc3.htm
About The Text This Week:
This site features a wide variety of resources for study and liturgy based on the 3-year Revised Common Lectionary* cycle. I intentionally include a diverse variety of resources for scripture study, reflection and liturgy, and purposefully do not restrict the resources to any particular theological/ideological position, including my own. The site is a work-in-progress. I spend between 40 and 60 hours each week updating links and finding more resources to link.
The purpose of this website is to provide links to resources for study, reflection and liturgy which correspond to the RCL readings you may be using for study, teaching & preaching. The lectionary tables on this site are the easiest way I could think of to provide easy, lectionary-relevant access to study and liturgy resources. I am not attempting to provide calendars for official readings for any particular denomination. Please check your denominational sources for the official readings for any particular occasion. If/when you find any errors at The Text This Week, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know about them.
Anne, it's a great question (or set of questions). Here is my understanding:
DeleteThe Catholic church updated its cycles of readings - in essence, created the lectionary - in the wake of Vatican II. You may know that, prior to the Council, the Catholic church used a one-year cycle of readings, with most (or all?) of the Gospel passages coming from Matthew's Gospel. The Vatican II-initiated reform introduced a three-year lectionary, with lots of material from all four Gospels. It also introduced the Old Testament reading which we know today as the first reading. It also expanded the formal Gradual into a Responsorial Psalm with more psalm verses and an antiphon sung by the people. So it was a significant reform - one of the most significant changes of the liturgical reform.
As another, ecumenical fruit of Vatican II, the contents of the new Lectionary were coordinated with some Protestant denominations. (I don't know this history - whether the Protestant churches already were coordinating with each other, and the Catholic church hooked itself to this already-running train; or whether this ecumenical coordination was a brand new thing.) As a result, a lot of commonality in bible "lessons" was introduced across the different churches/denominations. I don't believe the various denominations adopted a common lectionary 100% of the time, for various reasons. For example, does the Anglican Communion observe Lent and Easter Season in the same way as the reformed Catholic calendar? You and Jean could answer that question better than me. (Or should that be, "better than I"?) But there was a lot of commonality.
I think some of this ecumenical energy has dissipated since then, to the frustration of some of the other denominations. The Catholic church has tweaked its Lectionary contents once or twice, I believe without consulting the other denominations.
I'm sort of regurgitating what I've read and recall over the years (and my recollection isn't always 100%), so I hope people will correct anything I don't have exactly right in all this.
According to this site,
Deletehttps://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/faq2.php
the Canadian and American Catholic bishops use the same lectionary as a bunch of Protestant denominations, including the EC. But the readings you used yesterday are not the same as those used at the EC parish we attended. ( we are parish shopping again). That’s why I asked if parish pastors can select from several readings for a particular Sunday.
The EC parish we attended for years, and the Washington National Cathedral, follows the same traditions and observances during Lent and Easter as the Catholics. Although it does more for Shrove Tuesday than most Catholic parishes I’m familiar with. And no mandated fast and abstinence rules. The EC suggests devotional practices but doesn’t mandate them. Stone soup suppers are popular though. They do Ash Wednesday, cover everything up with purple cloth during Lent, Stations of the Cross, optional confession several times during Lent, foot washing, way too long dramatizations of the passion and crucifixion, palms on Palm Sunday, Tenebrae Services, etc. You wouldn’t know they weren’t Catholic except for the better translations of many prayers in the BCP.
I defer to Jim's expertise. I do know that changes in the BCP in the 1970s, which brought Episcopal liturgy closer to the RCC in form and language, have remained static, while the RCC has twiddled with its rite in the last 50 yrs. As a result, the two liturgies diverge more now.
DeleteOur former Episcopal priest said in the 1980s that Catholics and Episcopalians followed the common lectionary, but apparently that has changed for Catholics, though maybe it was more a case of dictionaries coinciding during a time of heightened ecumenism.
One of the reasons I "crossed over" the Tiber was that, as an Anglican, I felt I was already halfway there and I could be a more catholic (small c) Christian.
In retrospect, I should have paid more attention to the RCIA Ladies and their insistence that the scales had not fallen from my eyes! One doesn't like to think one has been parading around as a fake Catholic. But I'm walking talking proof that it happens! Hopefully, the fact that I voluntarily got out of the Communion line when I realized I didn't know anything will help atone for the mistake.
Oops, dictionaries an lectionaries.
DeleteWith further reading I found a clarification on the website of the Revised Common Lectionary
DeleteIs the Revised Common Lectionary different from the Roman Catholic lectionary?
In a number of instances the two differ, primarily on feast days that are specific to the Roman Catholic Church. An excellent website for the Lectionary for Mass (1998 USA) can be found here.
Jean, I don't think there is any such thing as a fake Catholic. What was it Tom Blackburn said one time, something like, "If you're baptized, you're a " made man" (or woman).
DeleteIf baptized persons were Catholics, they'd be invited to the Table. My invite was issued by error.
DeleteJean, based on what you have written here I would say that you actually know more about Catholicism than 90% of the many Catholics I know. Including the RCIA Church Ladies.
DeleteKatherine, I know that the RCC claims that baptism in the RCC makes one Catholic for life, even if they never go inside a Catholic Church after their baptism, even if baptized as an infant. Some baptize their kids out of a type of superstition and then never go back. My sister did this with both of her kids. But I don’t think Tom meant what he said the way I take it ‘ made man or woman”. That implies to me that Catholics “have it made” in the afterlife regardless of how they lived their lives. It’s one of the things that really bothers me about the evangelicals - just ‘ accept Jesus as your lord and savior” and you’re golden. Heaven is yours - but heaven is closed to all those suckers who haven’t been “born again” and “baptized in the Spirit”. No hope at all for them or any of the 6 billion non- Christian children of God in the world.
If baptized persons were Catholics, they'd be invited to the Table.
DeleteIt’s the RCC that makes the mistake. Once again, the institution plays God, again thinking its man- made rules supersede Jesus’ request that ALL who follow him “ do this is memory” of him. According to the RCC, Jesus himself wouldn’t be invited to the table. After all, he was a Jew, not a Roman Catholic.
"Knowing" info, of course, is not the same as being willing or able to live up with denominational requirements.
DeleteI expect that the Communion of Saints in Heaven is way more ecumenical than things here. Prayers for help do not require statements of denominational affiliation, proof of baptism and confirmation, or date of last valid confession.
But I wouldn't let my cats eat off somebody's table if they asked me not to, and the RCC has clear rules about who is fit to receive. So I stay away from their table. And leave my cats at home.
Well, I dissent from several Catholic teachings and practices, some related to the institution’s rather sinful habit of placing its authority above God’s. So I removed myself from Catholic pews because I prefer a church that doesn’t think that it is God.
DeleteThe reference to a "made man" wasn't about having it made. It's mafia slang, meaning that once you're in, you're in all the way.
DeleteFWIW, I don't think church ladies have any standing to decide who is admitted to Communion.
Well, given that tens of millions of Catholics have left the church in Europe, North America, and, even Latin America, it’s pretty clear that they don’t consider themselves “in all the way.” They were mostly baptized without their own consent for starters. Somebody decided to make them members of the club, and they had no say. Once they did, they decided that being “ in” the club wasn’t what they wanted. Fortunately the RCC doesn’t hire hit men to track them down and finish them off like the mafia often does.
Delete"FWIW, I don't think church ladies have any standing to decide who is admitted to Communion."
DeleteI expect that makes total sense to a cradle Catholic, and not much at all to a convert who's coming in from off the street.
The RCIA leaders assign readings, represent the Catholic position, and tell you what you have to do and believe if you want to be accepted as a card carrying member. They also assess the validity of your marriage, dictate requirements for and vet sponsors for you and godparents for your children, determine which sacraments your kids need, tell you what you may and may not do between your first Confession and Communion, and check that you know how and when to genuflect, make the sign of the cross ("don't look like you're swatting flies!"), sit, stand, and kneel.
It is made crystal clear from Day One that if you had had frugal, godfearing Catholic parents who said the rosary every night and slapped you into next week for acting up, none of this drain on their time would be necessary.
What you learn from them is the yardstick against which you are constantly measuring yourself.
I’m pondering the comment comparing baptized christians approaching the communion table, and cats eating from plates on a human family table. That implies that non- Catholics are not human - are sub-human animals, thus not “ fit” to share the bread and wine - even though Jesus himself invited them to the table. . It’s a disturbing comparison, but it may be apt. Catholics often consider themselves to be superior to those who aren’t part of the club - perhaps they consider them to be a bit lesser beings - subhuman?
DeleteWhatever. Someday I would like to talk to other candidates without Catholic spouses who went thru RCIA. It would be interesting to see how they processed it all 20+ years on.
DeleteI have no particular axe to grind with Catholic teaching, but I am put off by the way the American RCC has inserted itself into the culture wars and how that plays out in the local very conservative parish.
I continue to have reverence for the Church's history, art, and holy people. But I find it hard to ignore the stridency with which it approaches current social issues and political realities.
Good homily, Jim. I love the Emmaus readings. It always strikes me that the disciples recognize Jesus "in the breaking of the bread."
ReplyDeleteWhat did they do for music? The live-streamed Mass I watched had "Two Were Bound for Emmaus", which is really pretty. I also like " Abide With Me, Fast Falls the Eventide".
Thanks Katherine. I actually sang with the choir yesterday, too - I'm trying to be supportive of our new choir director. We sort of lean contemporary when it comes to music at our parish. I don't think we'd ever sing "Abide with Me". We sang, "Gathered As One" for the entrance hymn. The responsorial psalm was a setting of Psalm 16 for which our director composed the refrain herself, using a Marty Haugen setting of the psalm which is in our hymnal. For bringing up the gifts, we sang a hymn, also by Haugen, called "On the Journey to Emmaus", which was new to us. For communion, we sang, "In the Breaking of the Bread" by Bob Hurd, and then "We Walk By Faith", arranged by Haugen. We ended with "Strength For The Journey", by Michael John Poirier.
DeleteYeeps! "Abide With Me" or "Going Home" has been played at just about every funeral in my mother's family. Usually on bagpipes. I resort to the ladies loo if either of those are part of the service so I don't have to hear it and try to bear up.
DeleteInteresting. Since I prefer no singing at mass, I have never paid much attention to what hymns are sung, nor to their lyrics. So I have no opinion on most hymns discussed here because I haven’t a clue about what they sound like or what the words are. I guess I’m an outlier on not caring much about liturgical music. It seems to be the heart and soul of liturgy for some people though.
DeleteLOL, every family has one of those songs. For my parents it was Schubert's Ave Maria. You can't get buried without it. You can't get married without it either. Now that we're all either married or buried, maybe I don't have to listen to it anymore.
Delete