Bright Tuesday; Our Venerable Father Theodore of Syceum.
Acts 2:14-21; Luke 24:12-35.
Read Luke 24:12-35
The two disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection recognized Him in the breaking of the bread. Would we recognize Jesus if we saw Him? A quote which is widely-attributed to St. John Chrysostom is: “If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice.” Of course, this quote does not mean to suggest that Jesus is not present in the Eucharist. However, it reminds me more of the message from this quote of St. John’s the Evangelist: “If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn. 4:20). In the Parable of the Last Judgment, when the sheep and the goats are separated, they are judged because “as you did it [or did it not] to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it [or did it not] to me’” (Mt. 25:40, 45). As the disciples recognized Christ in the breaking of the bread, today, let us pray to Christ that we may recognize Him in our neighbor.