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Today we celebrate the 3^rd Sunday of Easter. Isn’t Easter over? Some may say, well, Lent is over and we have celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord on Easter Sunday so things should go back to normal now. Some people may confuse Lent leading up to Easter as the Easter Season. Lent has passed and yes we have celebrated Easter Sunday, but the next 50 days after Easter is what is called the Easter Season.

So what do these 50 days represent? It is a Journey to Pentecost. Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church, it marks the start of the Church’s mission to the world and fulfills Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit to guide and empower us. These 50 days are a journey of preparedness to go forth spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. Where are you on your Easter Season journey of preparedness? Are you prepared, are you ready to answer the call of Pentecost to go forth? The Apostles were not ready, they needed time to digest what happened Easter Sunday. Maybe we do too.

The Lord was resurrected on Easter Sunday, but there is still much to do regarding our role as disciples of Christ. We should be like all of Christ’s disciples of his time trying to grasp what happened Easter Sunday.

I challenge not only myself but all of us to place ourselves in the shoes of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. These 50 days of Easter from Christ’s resurrection to Pentecost when the Holy Spirit comes upon the Apostles, is not only a time of preparedness but first of all it is a time of awakening, both then and now. We must come to believe what just happened before we can move on to the next step of preparing to go forth. What do we mean by an awakening?

Do we truly recognize Jesus in the world around us? Is your heart burning when you walk with him. A question comes to mind. How do we walk with him? You might say the Lord is always with us so he is always walking with us. Yes, you are correct he is always walking with us but that is not the question. The question is are we walking with him?

You might say, tomato/tomahto to that. But is it? Do you actually recognize Jesus walking with you? Is your heart burning on your personal journey to Emmaus, your journey in life? He wants us to recognize him in the world around us in every moment of every day of our lives.

In John 20:29 Jesus stated: “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” In 2 Corinthians 5:7 it states: “… for we walk by faith, not by sight.” Are we still looking to see and encounter Christ in the same physical way as the disciples did on the Road to Emmaus? Jesus wants us to recognize him in the ordinary. But he does not leave us to our own devices. He tells us how to meet him and how to get to know him in a very extraordinary way.

It is expressed in the scripture readings today. We will get to know him through the breaking open of the Word of God and through the breaking of the Bread of Life, the Eucharist. Jesus is present in the Word of God and the Eucharist. This is where the rubber meets the road, the Road to Emmaus. This encounter will open our eyes so that we can recognize him walking with us throughout the day.

We must be willing to seek the Lord by listening intently to his Words of everlasting life. We must come and break bread with him in receiving the Eucharist. This is necessary for our hearts to burn within us. When we actively participate in this, when we are open to truly get to know him, the Holy Spirit will guide us to a personal transformation. This transformation is an awakening of the heart to experience Christ present in our lives. Our hearts will then burn with an unquenchable fire to grow closer to Christ.

Do you truly want to experience Christ in your life? He has always been there. We must want to walk with him in all the ups and downs we experience on our road through life. Believe in his love for us demonstrated through his sacrificial offering of his own body and blood. He literally took on all the pain and suffering of this world so that when we experience our share of it during our lives that we know we do not walk through it alone.

Would you be willing to walk through the fires of hell for the sake of your loved ones? I am sure your love for them would have you answer:  “Yes, of course.” Why would you think otherwise of Jesus’ love for us when he has already proven that for us. If you want to experience this depth of love he truly has for you, choose to walk with him. Let his love become evident to you by placing all your trust in him no matter what life throws your way.

If you truly listen to all the scriptures, this love will be revealed to you, and if you receive the Eucharist, his physical presence will empower you. Walk this path with him and come to experience your heart on fire burning within you, leading you to a closer and more intimate personal relationship with him where you will experience his everlasting love that will carry you throughout your life on earth into your everlasting life in heaven. This spiritual awakening leads us to prepare for Pentecost. You will then be armed with the full armor of God to go forth and spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Are you ready?