Road to Emmaus

5th Sunday of Eastertide

May 3rd, 2026

Readings: Psalm 23 & Luke 24:13-35

When I was planning for this morning’s sermon, I came across a reflection piece written by Lisa Kelly, an author and a woman of the Ignatian tradition within the Catholic church. Her reflection really spoke to me and I could have put her thoughts into my own words, but I’d rather give her the credit and read to you what she wrote. She said,

“Like many of us today, the disciples on the road to Emmaus were at a loss and in despair over a world seemingly gone mad, seeing the foundational principles of the world around them being shaken and living in fear for their lives. The horror and shock of the Crucifixion had overwhelmed all hope and threatened the teachings of love and compassion Jesus had sought to instill. Do the horrors of today’s world events overwhelm your sense of hope? Do the teachings of love and compassion seem pointless in the face of terrorist atrocities, global warming, racial hatred, refugee crises, and so many other evils? Wherever you are at this moment, you are on that road to Emmaus.

"Something happens on this road. Christ joins the disciples, walks beside them, breaks bread with them, and opens their hearts with his Word in a way that is so overwhelming, the world is no longer mad to them. Note, the world situation has not changed at all, but the hearts of the disciples have. For any Christian, for anyone who professes belief in the Resurrection and the teachings of Jesus, our hearts must be overwhelmed by this same interaction with God on our own roads to Emmaus. Christ walks beside us today. Christ breaks bread with us today. Christ opens our hearts with his Word today in exactly the same way he did on that road to Emmaus 2,000 years ago. His teachings are the same: Love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. Love your neighbor, and pray for your enemies. Forgive all. Welcome the stranger. Care for the sick. Visit the imprisoned. Provide for the least among us. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

"Nothing has changed, except now we are the ones walking the road. This encounter on the road so turned the hearts of the disciples that they literally turned around and ran back into the fray, back into Jerusalem, back into the world. So must we allow our encounter with Christ in others, in prayer, in the Eucharist, and in the Word to turn around our hearts today. We must allow ourselves to be so overwhelmed by the revelation of a God of love that no fear, no evil, no suffering, and no hatred can leave us in despair.

"The choice is ours. You can continue on your road to Emmaus and stay there. Continue to live in despair, confusion, instability, and fear. Continue to live in a world where evil has the last word and death is the end of life. Or hear the Word, hear the Voice, and be overwhelmed by Love. Go back to Jerusalem, back to your passion, back to healing, back to a life of hope, and back to a world where love has the last word and life never ends.”

While this story happened over 2,000 years ago, I feel like Lisa Kelly is asking us the question, “What’s changed?” The times we find ourselves within are not much different than the time of Jesus and the disciples. And at first thought, this might appear to you as a statement of hopelessness. ‘In 2,000 years, NOTHING has changed!? What hope do we have for changing the future!’ Yet this is not an observation of hopelessness, but of perseverance.. better yet, an observation of what remains constant (the love of God). The world has never been perfect, evil has always been present, power has always corrupted, AND YET – love is still the foundational source that holds us together, that keeps us alive, that cannot and will not EVER be overcome. Perhaps evil deeds aren’t going anywhere.. but neither is love. And love will ALWAYS have the final word. Hope springs eternal.

The disciples Jesus spoke to that day were on the road back home from a traumatic execution of their Rabbi, their prophet, their Messiah. There was so much to despair, but perhaps the majority of their grief was the realization that Jesus was not the Messiah they had hoped for. They thought the promised Messiah would overcome the literal empire and return them to the times of King David, when Israel enjoyed life under monarchy. They longed for this restoration of Israel, not in a nationalist way, so much as a longing for a time when they were not ruled over by foreign nations who enslaved them at worst and who despised them at best.

Everyone longs for freedom, for equality, for life abundant. The promised Messiah was supposed to free them from the Roman Empire, not free them spiritually. We cannot relate to this kind of ultimate let down.. but we can relate to feeling like God does not act in the way we want God to act. We too want God to become incarnate in our midst and overturn the corruption, oppression, abuse, and violence that plagues our world. And if God cannot or will not become incarnate again, we long for God to be a puppet master, reaching God’s divine hand into our world and setting things right! In this way, we wrestle with similar disappointments and despair as the disciples on the road to Emmaus 2,000 years ago.

However, God in Jesus and in the Spirit, reveals to us that this is not the way of God. God acts in ways that center love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. God’s actions are always tender, slow, intentional, and compassionate. God acts in ways that are not always noticed or preserved. God comes to us whether we ask for it or not.. God listens and shares wisdom with those who incline their ears to listen.. and God always acts in ordinary, every day things, like breaking bread.

God sees a bigger picture than we are able to see. God moves in ways that are mostly overlooked and unnoticeable. This is because God is in and of all things – God walks with you and talks with you, yes, but God is also within you! God makes up the fabric of the entire universe! So as I think about how things aren’t much different today than they were 2,000 years ago.. I also have to think about how 2,000 years is actually not very long in the span of evolution. Billions of mirco-changes that are hard to see and difficult to recognize have happened and ARE happening, perhaps at a rate too slow for our desire, but.. if time doesn’t exist for God and God knows the whole span of history.. then God knows change doesn’t happen overnight.. rather change, real dynamic change, takes time.

God’s been loving creation for billions of years. I think God may know a bit more about it than we do! So how does God want us to live to create ripples and ripples of micro-changes that add up to a new world? Love your neighbor. Pray for your enemies. Forgive all. Welcome the stranger. Care for the sick. Visit the imprisoned. Provide for the least among us. All of these small acts of love and compassion can and will change the world. It might take thousands of years to change empires, but it only takes a moment to change someone’s life forever. We are all on a road to Emmaus. Let us break bread together, love one another, and witness the Lord in our midst. Amen.