Reflection for Sunday – April 19, 2026

Sr. Joan Sobala, SSJSunday Readings Homilies

Readings: Acts 2: 14, 22-23; 1 Peter 1: 17-21; Luke 24: 13-35 
Preacher: Sr. Joan Sobala

 Later that night, Jesus would meet the Eleven in the Upper Room. But earlier, he found Cleophas and his companion on the road west out of Jerusalem toward Emmaus. There is every reason to think that his companion was Mary, his wife. She was, after all, one of the women cited as being at the cross of Jesus. (John 19.27) 

The seven miles to their home must have felt like 70 to them.  Their Jesus was dead. So much hope in him shattered.  They were inconsolable—immensely saddened and dejected by what they had seen.  We are told by the Gospel writer, John, that Jesus began walking alongside them, but “their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.” Pain has a way of doing that—preventing us from seeing that Jesus walks with us. 

They could have ignored Him, but courtesy was inherent in their culture, so they talked as they made their way, informing Him of the great loss their whole group had experienced. “We were hoping He was the one to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24: 21), they lamented after they told Him all the things that had happened during the previous days. They poured out their hearts to Jesus and in turn, Jesus listened to them—not just their words but the nuances of anguish laced into their words, the disbelief that the looked-for redemption was not to be.  

Jesus, in this first encounter with His followers, did what He always did and has done ever since. He listened with compassion, but He also called them to review and rethink the Scriptures.  With His well-trained voice that knew how to speak a word to the weary (Isaiah 50.4), He told them they were “foolish and slow of heart to believe” (Luke 24.25). Mary and Cleophas were not lacking in intelligence but did not trust that God was there, turning devastation around. Jesus reminded them of God’s power in sacred history and with care,  gentleness and clarity, He told them that the cross was a necessary part of His unfolding story.  

Like Cleophas and Mary, we can never know what these accounts mean until we see them through Jesus’ eyes. Jesus interrupted their sadness. In a while, they would understand how, but for the moment they knew something had changed in them. Jesus interrupts our sadness, if we let Him. 

As the threesome drew near to Emmaus, Jesus made as to go on. They offered hospitality. “Stay with us,” (Luke 24.29) they asked. Break bread with us, but  He would not intrude. Their tender pleading won Him over and He stayed with them, broke bread with them. In that moment, their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. Jesus was alive. He was real. They confessed to one another how they knew this as their hearts that burned within them when He spoke to them on the road. 

The tiredness and the sadness in them were gone. They had seen the Lord and knew they couldn’t keep it to themselves. Good News is never completely ours unless we share it with others. Their joy added wings to their feet as they hurried back to the disciples in Jerusalem, bursting in only to hear that Simon had already seen the Lord. Mary and Cleophas added an account of their experience—how they had recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. And now He was there in their midst.  

 Overwhelming sadness had turned into delirious joy.  

In our day, all of these same elements of the Emmaus encounter are what we experience with the Risen Jesus. He walks with us, listens to our laments, calls us to listen with renewed attention to all that the Scriptures tell us. We are the ones who must ask Him to stay with us.

 We are the ones who have to prepare the table and when we break bread with the Risen Lord, we are called to recall feeling our hearts burning within us as we remember how He walked with us on the road. 

The distilled truth, beauty and the presence of the Holy One is given to us— God comes to stay with us—if we wish. Only if we wish.  Only if we want it. Only if we welcome the Risen Lord and are willing to run back to Jerusalem to tell the others.

Sr. Joan Sobala, SSJ
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