I'm Matthew Kelly and welcome to feed your soul. The theme of this Sunday's reading is drawing near to God. We have a desire to draw near to God sometimes. God has a desire to draw near to us all the time. He's always present in our lives. Sometimes he may seem hidden, sometimes he may seem hard to find, but he's always there. And in this Sunday's reading, we have an epic example of that. In the road to Emmaus. I'm going to read the reading, but we're going to pause as we go through the reading because it is a rather long reading and have a look at some of the lessons for us here this Sunday. That very day, two of them were going to a village named Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. And talking with each other, about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.

So there's two things here already. You notice it says while they were talking and discussing together. You might read that and think, well, hold on, isn't that the same thing? Actually, it isn't. If you know someone who talks too much, you know very well that talking and discussing are not the same thing. And in our attempts to share the good news in our attempts to evangelize in our attempts to share the goodness of God with other people, we can talk at people or we can discuss with people. And so it's really powerful here. They were talking and discussing together. When Jesus himself drew near. God yearns to draw near to us, even when we don't yearn to draw near to him, he is constantly drawing near to us. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, what is this conversation which you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad. Then one of them named Cleopas answered him, "Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened these days?" And he said to them, "What things?" And they said to him, and this is powerful. This is so important because this right here might be the first sharing of the good news in the history of Christianity.

It is the first thing that comes after the resurrection. It might be the first sharing of the good news in the history of Christianity and they are sharing the good news with Jesus himself, even though obviously they're not aware of it. And what do they say? "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people. And how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since this happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early this morning and did not find his body, and they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the woman had said, but him, they did not see." And he said to them, "Oh, foolish men in slow of heart to believe all the prophets have spoken was it necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"

And then beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures and the things concerning himself. so they drew near to the village to which they were going. He appeared to be going further. But they constrained him saying, "Stay with us. For it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent." So he went in to stay with them. So they're inviting Jesus to stay with them, even though they're unaware. They had a sense there's someone special here, but they're unaware their eyes are closed to who Jesus really is. When is the last time you said to Jesus stay with us? When is the last time you invited Jesus powerfully into your life, powerfully into a situation in your life, powerfully into a circumstance in your life? And what does he do? They invite him to stay with them. Does he say, "No, I'm going to keep going?" No, he says, "I'll stay."

And when they're at table, he took bread and blessed the bread and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And he vanished out of their sight. Their eyes were opened. In what way do you need your eyes to be opened today? In what ways do you need God to open your eyes to his presence in your life, God to open your eyes to his blessings in your life, God to open your eyes to the providence that might be in a circumstance or a situation that you're experiencing right now? That maybe you resent, maybe you're unhappy about, maybe you doubt whether it's from God, maybe you doubt or question whether God can use it. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him. And then he vanished. And they said to each other, "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?"

This is what I want you to focus on this week. This is it. Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road? We are consuming content every day. You're consuming this video right now, okay? You're reading books, you're listening to radio, listen to music, listen to a podcast, all sorts of content we're consuming every single day. This week I want you to think about when you're consuming content, which content causes you to feel like this? Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road? What content in your life causes your heart to burn within you? Because that is the content. That's the stuff. That's the content you want to fill your life with more. And we also want to pay attention to if that is not the effect that content is having on us, what effect is content having on us? Because the reality is, a lot of content is poisoning our hearts. A lot of content is toxic for our hearts. Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road?

This Sunday, let's pray about this. This week, as we're consuming content, let's think about what content makes us feel this way. And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. They didn't stay there. They didn't say oh, that's a great experience lets get a good night's sleep. One of the things we notice, over and over throughout the gospel, is they are people of action. When people get touched by the gospel, they act. They don't wait to act, they act. Jesus called the disciples they didn't say, "Give us three days to think about it and we get back to you." You read over and over. He invited them to follow him and they left everything and they followed him.

The gospel is a gospel of thought, it's a gospel of reflection, it's a gospel of prayer, but it is also a gospel of bold action. And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem and found the 11 gathered together and those who were with them, who said the Lord has risen indeed and has appeared Simon. Then they told what had happened to them on the road to Emmaus. And how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. God is with us. That's the message of the birth of Jesus, God is with us. Emmanuel meaning God is with us. And all through history, God is with us. He's there in the moments of our day. He's there in the circumstances of our day. Let's ask him to open our eyes so we can recognize him a little bit more this week.