Better than Blondie

Knowing Jesus in the breaking of the bread

Luke 24:35-48

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way, and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

             Let me ask you a silly question: why are you here this morning at 7 a.m. Mass?  I mean, it was raining this morning and it would have been a perfect day to sleep in.  You could have lingered thirty minutes longer over your morning coffee.  You could have read more of the newspaper, finished the Sudoku and Crossword, and read all of the comic strips, not just Blondie and Zits.  You workaholics could have answered twenty more emails and prepped for your sales meetings.  Some of you sacrificed time with your wife and children to be here; others of you are trying to avoid your wife and kids so you are here!  The retirees are making up for all those Sunday Masses they missed when they were younger.  There are as many reasons people come to daily mass as there are people who are here.  This is one of the marvelous mysteries of Immaculate Conception parish: the large number of morning Mass goers.  Why are you here?

             In the gospel today we learn the root reason why people go to Mass.  Two disciples recount meeting Jesus on the road to Emmaus and they use this wonderful phrase, “We recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread.”  The Breaking of the Bread.  That phrase, the breaking of the bread, was first century Christian code language for the Mass.  Something spiritual and supernatural happens every time we “break bread” together at Mass, we recognize Jesus and he feeds us.

             Many years ago, Dc. Paul Cronan taught me that when I get to the “Fraction Rite” at the Mass – when the priest breaks the consecrated host in half – I should hold the Host high so that people can see it.  Why?  Because Jesus is the “bread that is broken” so that our brokenness can be healed; he is the torn apart so that we can be put back together.

             And that’s why we Catholics skip the comics and the coffee; we sacrifice sleep and sales meetings, so we can recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, so that through the Fraction Rite, we can be made whole.  That’s why Catholics go to Mass, or at least, that’s why we should go to Mass.

Praised be Jesus Christ!