Fifth station

The Christ reveals himself in the breaking of bread

P  We adore, O Risen Christ, and we bless you.
A  Because by your resurrection you have given life to the world.

R From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 24,28-35)
<So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further, but they constrained him, saying, "Say with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; and vanished out of their sight. They said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?" And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven gathered together and those who were with them, who said, "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!" Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.>

G1 The Lord enters the inn. On a pressing invitation of the two He sits at the table for the first time after the resurrection. It's the first supper of the terrestrial Jesus and the forthtaste of the eternal supper of the Kingdom. The destiny of the man is the supper, that is the communion with God and with His children. The two disciples, prepared by the Master along the road through the reading of the Scriptures, open their eyes in the breaking of bread. Faith completes the opening of the heart. It is he, the Lord. Emmaus is a slow process of recognition. There is the guidance of the Master toward the nucleus of the Word. And then there is His gesture, in the actualisation of the great Word: the Supper.

G2  Modern man has multiplied the grid for the communications, but he has not opened the doors of his heart. It's necessary to go to school of Emmaus. Every time we open the doors of the heart to another person, to a stranger, to an estranged person, we find the doors of the heart of God open. The two of Emmaus, performing an act of love, are getting ready for the supreme experience of love: the Supper: they are ready to  learn how to love: the recognition. If the people of today restart loving the small ones, the poor , the distant ones, the oppressed, all those who being of the same clan, are also God's children even if unknown, then only will they discover their blindfolded eyes. And they will see love, that is, they will experience the Risen one, the God "in ambush" on all roads.

A  Rejoice, O Virgin Mother Mary:
    Christ is risen, Alleluia.

P  Risen Jesus: at the  Last Supper as an earthly man, through the washing of the feet you have shown us the only way to participate in the Eucharist. At your First Supper as heavenly man you have wanted to show us that hospitality towards a stranger is a condition for the communion with you. Lord of glory help us to prepare our celebrations, washing the tired feet of the abandoned ones, welcoming in our hearts and in our houses "the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind" (Lk 14,13), the needy of today, who don't have any other sign of recognition if not that of being your living image.
A  Amen.

A  O Mary, temple  of the Holy Spirit
    guide us, the witnesses to the Risen Christ
    on the path of light.