KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 16 April
Did not our heart burn within us?
Our readings in Chapel this week take us from the company of the broken hearted to those whose hearts are on fire with love and joy. And all, in part, because of the breaking of the bread. That action consolidates the teaching and brings it home in the minds of the disciples. It is not just that seeing is believing. It is rather the breakthrough of the understanding, seeing as understanding, seeing things in a radically new way. That is what happens on the road to Emmaus, the story which we read in two installments; one last week, the other this week.
“He was known of them in the breaking of the bread.” Christ’s actions at the Last Supper on the night of his betrayal are now seen and remembered in the light of his passion and resurrection. He opens our understanding by opening the Scriptures, showing us that our wholeness, our wellness and health, if you will, are found in the face of our brokenness and not in spite of our broken hearts. But the opening of the Scriptures to our understanding is not all; what brings the teaching home to the heart is an action related to our being together at a meal.
Food plays an important role in the accounts of the Resurrection because of the body. Immediately after the conclusion of the story of the Road to Emmaus, Luke tells of another appearance of Jesus to the disciples gathered in Jerusalem, it seems, where he proclaims peace and shows them his hands, and feet, saying, “it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones and you see that I have.” And yet, “they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered,” Luke tells us. It is in that context that Jesus then asks what might seem to be an utterly bizarre question. “Have you anything here to eat?” “They gave him a piece of broiled fish” which he took and ate. Nothing confirms the reality of the body more, it seems, than eating. Something powerful is made known through our being together at a meal. Through something as ordinary as a piece of broiled fish comes something extraordinary and powerful.