Road to Emmaus

The early Christians called Mass "the breaking of the bread (Acts 2:42.)"  At the end of Luke's story about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:13-35,)  they tell the other disciples how they recognized the Risen Christ "in the breaking of the bread."  Luke has given this brilliant story the structure of the Mass.  When Jesus joins the disciples on the road he breaks the Scriptures open for them, as we do in the first part of the Mass.  When he joins them for their evening meal he gives them communion; he takes the bread and breaks it and gives it to them.  At that point they realize that this stranger is the Risen Christ and he vanishes from their sight.
Many of us are eager for the day when we can gather once again for Mass.  We will not see the Risen Christ but we will recognize him really present in one another and in the Scriptures and in the Bread and Wine.