Road to Emmaus 3-Revealed through the breaking of bread

The disciples invite Jesus to stay with them. As they eat with Jesus, he breaks the bread and they recognize the stranger in their midst. It is Jesus who has been with them all along the road. This scripture is used by the church to underscore one of the purposes of the sacrament of communion. Through the mystery of the Holy Spirit coming over the elements of bread and juice, God opens our eyes to his presence in our midst.

Communion is also a metaphor for discipleship. Every time Jesus breaks bread—whether it is the Lord’s Supper or feeding the multitudes—the gospel writers use four verbs: taken, blessed or gave thanks, broke and gave.
Taken—we are chosen by God. From the foundation of the world. We are unique, formed by God’s Spirit in our mother’s womb. We are not an accident. The world tells us different. What to do?
Open your eyes to the world that is violent, manipulative, desiring you to feel unwanted, rejected—this makes it easier to use you. To take advantage of you.
Find a community that will remind you of your chosen-ness. You are the beloved of God.

Blessed—we are blessed by God. We love this part, we are healed, instructed, inspired. We have many ceremonies of blessing in the church. This is important because we so often feel cursed, rejected. The curse is a lie. We introduce the curse into the world through believing it. What do we do?
Take time for Prayer, for prayer, especially silent prayer, opens our heart to hearing God’s blessing.
Be Attentive—look for the ways God has blessed you.

Broken—we are broken by God. Everyone who follows Jesus will be broken. We hate this part. What to we do when everything falls apart, all our plans seem ludicrous, our lives go into crisis mode, where instead of changing the world, we are trying not to completely fall apart. At this point, we can turn from God and go back to our truth, the truth of our selves. To go into damage control, fix the problem, ignore the truth. Or we can turn to God, allow ourselves to fall apart, realize that there is nothing good in us.
Embrace your brokenness. We are all broken.
Put it under the blessing—don’t let your brokenness confirm the lie, the curse. Accept the pain as God’s deep transformative work.

Given—we are given by God in service to the world. Our greatest joy as human beings is to give ourselves to others. Only now, assured that we are chosen of God, that we have been blessed by God. Only when we have been broken of our independence, our confidence in our selves, our strengths. Only now, can we experience the blessing of being given to the world

He is risen,
James