"If it’s just a symbol to hell with it" Reflection on Luke 24:13-35

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"If it’s just a symbol to hell with it"-Flannery O'Connor

 The Road to Emmaus account in Luke 24:13–35 reveals something profound about how Christ chooses to make Himself known. The disciples walk with Him, hear Him explain the Scriptures, and yet “their eyes were kept from recognizing Him.” It is only later “in the breaking of the bread," that their eyes are opened.

This is no small detail. Christ is fully present to them on the road, yet He is not recognized. It is in the breaking of the bread that recognition comes. Word and Sacrament are both present, but it is the Eucharistic act that becomes the moment of revelation.

From the beginning, this pattern shaped Christian worship. As seen throughout Acts of the Apostles, believers gathered not only to hear teaching, but to devote themselves to “the breaking of the bread.” The Eucharist was not an optional symbol, but the very heart of their encounter with the risen Christ.

For over a thousand years, Christians understood this consistently: Christ is truly present in the Eucharist. The liturgy centered on this mystery, echoing Emmaus, Scripture proclaimed, then bread broken, and Christ made known.

It was not until the Protestant Revolt, particularly through figures like Ulrich Zwingli, that a radically different interpretation emerged, one that reduced the Eucharist to a symbolic memorial. As a result, the center of worship shifted away from the altar to the pulpit, from sacrament to sermon.

But Emmaus still speaks.

If the disciples recognized Him in the breaking of the bread, then we too should ask: where does Christ most clearly reveal Himself to us today?

The answer given by Scripture, affirmed by the early Church, and preserved through the centuries is this: He is made known in the Eucharist.

“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire His blood, which is love incorruptible.” Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Romans, ch. 7 AD 107)

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