Friends, welcome to Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. Word on Fire is an

apostolate dedicated to the mission of evangelization using media both old and

new to share the faith on every continent and to facilitate an encounter with

Christ and His Church. The efforts of Word on Fire engage the culture and bring

the transformative power of God's Word where it is most needed. Today we invite

you to join Bishop Robert Barron as he preaches the gospel and shares the

warmth and light of Christ with each one of us. Peace be with you. Friends, we

come to this third Sunday of Easter and our gospel is what NT Wright calls the

masterpiece within the masterpiece. He means the whole 24th chapter of Luke is a

masterpiece but within that we find this account of the disciples on the road to

Emmaus and it's a masterpiece for all kinds of reasons but I think basically

because it's a summation of the spiritual life. I mean you can read all the

dynamics of the spiritual life off of this story. Look how it starts. I'm at

first day of the week two disciples of Jesus are walking to a village seven

miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus. Everything in Luke moves toward Jerusalem.

That's where the action is. That's where the cross and resurrection take place.

That's where the coming of the Spirit is. Everything moves toward Jerusalem.

Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem. So these two disciples are walking the

wrong way. That's the point we're meant to see and again everybody we're meant to

identify with them. They stand for all of us disciples of Jesus who nevertheless

keep getting it wrong. We keep walking away from where we should be going. Here's

the good news though. Even though they're walking the wrong way, Jesus comes and

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