In the 4th resurrection appearance on Easter Sunday, the story of the Road to Emmaus is told (Luke 24: 13-32). Here we find two disciples who have left Jerusalem, filled with doubt and disbelief because they had “hoped” that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. Jesus appears to them as the Good Shepherd going after two lost sheep. Yet they do not recognize Him at first. It was necessary for them to have faith for their eyes and ears to be open. Thus, Jesus begins to un-break their blindness by opening the Scriptures, helping them to see of the prophecy that the Messiah had to suffer and die.
“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther. But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.” They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.” (Luke 24:27-35)
Notice how their hearts were burning when He opened the Scripture but it was not until He broke the bread that they recognized Him. It was in the very breaking of the bread and in the bread that Jesus was present. For as soon as He broke the bread “He disappeared from their sight” (Luke 24:31). How can this be since in the same passage He tells the disciples He would stay with them (Luke 24:29)? Now He is present in the bread, just as He is truly present in every consecrated Host we receive today. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt. 28-20).
The story of Emmaus ends with the disciples turning back to Jerusalem, filled with faith and reporting that Jesus had been made known to them in “the breaking of the bread.” It also reminds us again of the familiar action that Jesus takes in the blessing and the breaking of the bread as He did at the Last Supper. This encounter along the road to Emmaus also includes all that takes place during each Mass: The reading of Holy Scripture, a homily, prayer and the blessing and breaking of bread. How extraordinary was this moment for these two disciples! Yet even thousands of years later, this very act of Jesus’ appearing in the breaking of bread takes place at every Mass! And just as the two disciples left this encounter by going back to share the good news, so too at the end of every Mass the words Ite, missa est (translated “Go!”) are pronounced, summoning all Christians to go and spread the Good News!