Windows into Advent - Day Two

A common meal. 

This is one of my favourite windows in the Church, it can be found in the 'Walking Together' Chapel on the South Side of the building. There are problems with it - a very white looking Jesus for a start - but that's a discussion for another time. I like this because it's the depiction of the resurrection appearance of Jesus to the Disciples on the Emmaus Road and ends up with the shared meal where, as the caption in the middle says, "He was known of them in breaking of bread."

It may seem odd to have a resurrection appearance at the beginning of our Advent reflections - but that phrase, "He was known of them in breaking of bread." is, for me, a profound statement of where we meet Christ (the theme of Advent). 

We meet Christ at the Eucharistic table as we find ourselves in Community, in Communion.

We meet Christ in those who share our table, in places of love and sustenance, celebration, mourning, gathering. 

We meet Christ when we share our bread with any in need.

We meet Christ in the ordinary, the everyday, the necessities of life.

Scripture

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Luke Chapter 24 verses 28-35