Think about these two disciples walking along a dusty roadway on the evening of Easter, for that is when this Gospel account takes place, Easter Sunday afternoon and evening. This was a day when so many confusing things had occurred. They meet this stranger who after a long walk and talk, they invite him to "Stay with us". Maybe these two did not know who Jesus was, but they obviously liked him. They were attracted to something in him and did not want to let him go on his way at the end of the day. Later on, it would seem to them that their hearts had quickened when they talked with him about the scriptures, while they were trying to put the terrible sorrow they carried with them into the larger context of Jesus' divine love and Jesus' divine power.

A priest friend, Barbara Crafton, says these disciples reached for comfort and companionship with this stranger at first by inviting him to "stay". They thought he was just another human being after-all, a wise and encouraging one with some good things to say, to help them in their grief, to aid them in living with the loss of Jesus. They probably thought: there are still good people out there. This man made them happy and they did not want that happiness to end just yet. This man let them know that there were good souls still in the world: that life would and could go on. It was probably good to be reminded of that after the weekend they had just lived through.  

During dinner when Jesus performed the four-fold Eucharistic action: taking the bread, blessing the bread, breaking the bread and giving the bread, that at the breaking is when they recognized him. We have seen that four-fold Eucharistic action previously in the Gospel: at the feeding of the 5000 and again at the Last Supper....and it is what we are about to do around our common table here. It was at that dinner that those traveling disciples realized there was more to hear then the promise that life would simply go on. There was more than just learning to live with a loss. There was more than just making a new friend with this traveling stranger. At that dinner, those two disciples had their loss healed. At dinner, the end of death, the death of death itself became visible and tangible to them, and is visible to us.

And then Jesus was gone, and afterwards it seemed to them that they had known him all along. Known it from their hearts burning when he spoke. But of course, they hadn't. It had taken them a while to get it: some listening, some thinking, some quiet talking. And it took the breaking of the bread for their eyes to be opened. That breaking of the bread would have been their last living memory of the earthly Jesus. It was that breaking that made them remember just where they had seen those hands break bread before.  

And their faith blossomed at that point and they had to tell someone: they had to do the right thing. Faith is not just another word for doing the right thing. We all, deep down, desire to do the right thing if we have faith....Sometimes we even succeed. Other times it will not be crystal clear to us, or to anyone else, just what the right thing is, but we will always try.