The Eucharist: A Personal Encounter with the Risen Lord

Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from April 10, 2005

"They recognized him in the breaking of the bread."

WE USUALLY SEE the Eucharist as the re-enactment of the Last Supper, the anticipation of Calvary. However the scriptures in the Easter season place the Eucharist in the context of the Easter appearances.

Last week we remembered the breakfast experience on the lakeside for the weary fishermen. Jesus was found beside the charcoal fire with fish and bread.

This weekend we find him walking along with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Their hearts burned as the stranger interpreted the word. Their eyes were opened when he broke the bread. He was with them at the table in the early evening.

Our own experiences of the Eucharist have the same potential: a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. We find him in his characteristic gesture, sharing food.

Sometimes the Eucharist is less an intimate sharing than a public event.

The funeral of Pope John Paul was such a moment. Beside the altar his plain coffin carrying the book of the gospels brought the world's leaders together in a profound experience of dying and rising. When Israeli and Syrian leaders shared the kiss of peace, and when Orthodox bishops blessed his body we discovered anew the meaning of the preface: "In the midst of conflict and division we know it is you who turn our minds to thoughts of peace. Your Spirit changes our hearts and enemies begin to speak to one another, those who were estranged join hands in friendship, and nations seek the way of peace together."

Whether as public rite or private ritual the death and resurrection of Jesus bring hope and new life.

The passover of Jesus and the passing of our pontiff brought up in my unconscious mind the death of my parents. In dreams on the nights following the Pope's funeral I was visited by my mother and father. She was dressed in a yellow silk scarf as if for a party, while he was standing at the shop door in the front of our house, doing an Irish hornpipe. In my dream I was wondering why he was dancing. I thought it was to warm his feet. His circulation deteriorated with the years. But his feet in hard black leather shoes went faster and faster as if he were in Riverdance. My father was of short, stocky build, but when he danced the neighbors said, "Johnny is light on his feet." The yellow scarf, the papal color, and the dancing feet suggested that in different ways they were celebrating the Pope's arrival.

May the Risen Lord give hope to the Church in our time of grief and to all who have gone before us in faith.