Knowing Him in the Breaking of Bread (Sunday homily)

I want to share three observations:

First: our hope is to share in the resurrection—
or else we have no hope.

King David, as St. Peter said, is dead and buried,
“and his tomb is in our midst to this day.”

Many assume there is life after death,
but how do we know that?

We see those documentaries: someone’s heart stopped,
and they were revived, and they tell of “seeing a light”…
It gives you goosebumps, but—
really, what does that actually tell us?
It could just be what happens in the brain when the heart stops…

There really is only one who has gone across
and come back and that is Jesus Christ.

And he came back with a true body—he ate and drank—and yet he lives to die no more.
That’s Resurrection and we, too, will, at the end of time, on Judgment Day,
have our bodies raised from the dead and we’ll have them back—new and improved.

Second: when you and I have that resurrection life
to look forward to, that makes utterly meaningless
all the distinctions we think are so important in this life.
Black or white, native-born or immigrant,
how much money is in your bank account,
Speak English or “habla Espanol,”
St. Mary or St. Boniface, Sidney vs. Troy vs. Piqua…

St. Peter reminds us “the Lord judges impartially”:
God is not impressed with all those distinctions
we can’t seem to let go of.

Last, I want to look at what happened in the Gospel:
they knew him in “the Breaking of Bread”—the Eucharist.

The Eucharist, like Resurrection,
changes everything because the Eucharist is the doorway
to Resurrected life—
we have the Resurrection to look forward to,
but through the Eucharist,
Resurrection breaks into this life.

But there’s something else to note about the Eucharist—
it’s not a “me” moment but a “we” moment.
It’s not merely a solitary or personal act of faith,
it’s an act of the whole Body, the Church.

So when we come to the Eucharist—
when we “know him” in the Breaking of Bread,”
that means we know him in something people do together;
and part of it is knowing him in those people—
whoever they are, wherever they come from,
wherever they buy their clothes or lay their head.

The Eucharist demands we are welcoming
and it demands we are ready to be with “them” and “those”
and even “that person over there”
because it’s a new life—forgiven life—resurrection life—
life for Christ and no longer for ourselves—
that we’ve been freely given…
and that’s the new life we are sent to freely share.