From the desk of the pastor — Baccalaureate Mass Homily

By Fr. David Ruchinski

As I said at the beginning of today’s Mass, we are celebrating a baccalaureate Mass for all of our parish graduates for the spring or summer semester. Providentially the gospel reading for today is one of the finest “journey” stories in all of scripture: the famous Road to Emmaus story. The Church includes this story multiple times in the Easter season, including as an option for the evening Mass on Easter Sunday. As a resurrection account, this gospel passage has all the familiar elements — the downcast disciples, the initial failure to recognize the Risen Jesus, and the eventual “opening” of the disciples’ eyes to the reality that Jesus truly is risen as He said.

But recently I came across what I found to be a novel approach to understanding this familiar reading, namely by looking at it side by side with the story of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden. (Bear with me if at first you’re thinking, “What, has Fr. David lost his mind?”)

Remember that in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve enjoyed an untroubled fellowship with God. God used to walk with them and converse with them in a very familiar way.

All of that changed, of course, with the entry of sin into the picture.

Recall that one of the first things that Adam and Eve did after eating the forbidden fruit of the tree was to hide themselves from God precisely at the time when they used to enjoy walking with God in the cool part of the day. God, of course, is not deceived by them. They not only cannot conceal themselves, but they cannot conceal what they have done. The fellowship they once enjoyed, walking and talking with God in the earthly paradise, is no more. And thus the whole sad story of man’s sinful wandering and God’s seeking him out begins.

Fast forward to that road to Emmaus on that first Easter evening. Once again God approaches humanity to walk and talk with them. But notice that they are walking away from Jerusalem. This is significant because Jerusalem is not only the place of redemption; it is also the place where Jesus has promised to return and send down the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. These forlorn disciples are heading in precisely the wrong direction.

Note how in this story God pulls a kind of reversal of the Adam and Eve story. Here it is not humanity, but God who conceals Himself. He approaches them unrecognized and asks them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” See the delicious irony in this. I almost wonder did Jesus tuck His pierced hands into His garments as He asked the question.

Now, of course, the dialogue begins, and Jesus, we are told, explains to them all that referred to Him in the scriptures. Just as in the Mass of the Easter Vigil, He recounts for them the whole sweeping narrative of salvation history, culminating as it does, in His own death and resurrection. Still, the disciples do not fully recognize what is happening to them at that very moment, how God is restoring that fellowship that once existed between Himself and mankind, walking and talking with them in the cool of the evening.

I’m reminded of the opening lines of the Letter to the Hebrews in which it says that God spoke in many and varied ways to our ancestors through the prophets, but that God could only fully communicate Himself to us through His Son and the Holy Communion which Jesus Himself brought about by His passion, death and resurrection. Now, in the breaking of the bread, the disciples can see Him — we can see Him — and experience a metanoia, a conversion, a literal change of direction, and can return rejoicing to Jerusalem to share the good news and proclaim the Resurrected Lord.

In this story is our story, our journey of discipleship. Graduates, this must be the pattern of your own life of missionary discipleship. To encounter Jesus in the breaking open of scripture and in the breaking of the Eucharistic bread, and then to run forth rejoicing to share the joy of this encounter with the Risen Christ. This is our life. This is what the Church lives for. This is what our parish exists for. If you take nothing else with you, please don’t leave here without taking this gospel to heart.

Please know that we love you and we will miss you. Know that you will always have a home here for as long as you want to stay or whenever you want to return. And remember that, wherever you may go, we will always be united in the Word of God and in the breaking of the bread.