Sunday Liturgy
Saturday: 5:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am
Mission Statement
We are a welcoming Christian community called to embrace and respect the uniqueness of each individual as we join together in our faith and worship. Our ongoing mission is to engage our youth, promote renewal, out reach, evangelization and ecumenical cooperation.MASS INTENTIONS FOR THE WEEK
Monday, April 20th – 9:00 am Ronald M. Shannon (Anniv)
Tuesday, April 21st – 9:00 am Theresa Duguay
Wednesday, April 22nd – 9:00 am Linda Guthrie
Thursday, April 23rd – 9:00 am Audrey Leahey (Anniv)
Friday, April 24th – 9:00 am No Mass
Saturday, April 25th – 5:00 pm Celine Calhoun
Sunday, April 26th – 11:00 am Clement & Marguerite Babineau and DMF
Weekly Reflections (Homily) from Msgr. Sheehan (April 17, 2026)
THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER (Emmaus)
Dear friends;
Is anything more difficult than getting to know another person…?
We all know other persons… some we simply recognize them… they are public people… we’ve seen them on television, we see them in public… their famous – or “infamous”. They are “recognizable”.
Others we know them better, we deal with them in our everyday life – we know them from our work, we meet them in different activities that we might be associated with… they are what we call “acquaintances”… we see them often… we are “acquainted” with them… they are recognizable to us because of our many and multiple dealings with them…
Then, there are those with whom we are more closely associated with… circumstances have brought us close to them… we’ve worked with them closely, intimately – sharing common aims and hopes… we have gone through struggles together… we have seen them “up close”… we know their way of thinking, their way of handling things, their reactions… we know them well – there is an element of predictability to them… we can tell others… “Don’t try this with them”… “It will not work”…
That knowledge of others – is sometimes found in families… in family members… we’ve lived with them… we’ve observed them for many years… we know them…
Finally, there is a greater knowledge of another… and that is the knowledge that comes through friendship and love… it does not mean that it is a complete knowledge of the other… friendship never means that… rather, it seems to me, that it is knowledge gained, yes, by observation, closeness, association, but also – that grows out of esteem, respect, trust, patient waiting, disclosure, openness… intimacy… honesty… etc… time spent together, time listening to one another, time doing things together… allowing one another to see each other as we really are… whom we really think we are… and what we like… what we hope for… what we are afraid of… what we long for… who we really are…
Now, sometimes we think… that we really know another… but we don’t want to hear their full story… we don’t have patience with it… we deny it… we can’t handle its consequences… or for some reason – which might be quite wise, they don’t want to share it with us… and our knowledge of them remains… acquaintance… limited recognition…
Jesus wants friendship with us… more than anything else… he wants us to have knowledge of him… he wants to be with us… he wants us with him… he wants closeness to us… he wants us working with him… he even claims that we will do greater works than he… but only if we truly have knowledge of him… only if we let him truly open himself to us…
with all that he is – with all that he says of himself… otherwise we will not even recognize him!
That is what the Emmaus story is all about… “To say that the eyes of the disciples were prevented from recognizing Jesus is to say that something prevented the disciples from really knowing Jesus in the first place.”
And this is the reason that they could not recognize him now as the risen Lord… and the dialogue in the first part of the story goes on to show what it was that prevented them from recognizing him.
The inability of the two disciples to recognize Jesus is related to the disciples’ lack of understanding after Jesus’ first and second announcement of the passion…
When Jesus told them the son of Man was to be handed over “they did not understand this saying… preoccupied with whom was the greatest… they were unprepared to deal with the implications of the passion for them…
It was too much for them to grasp and accept… even when he announced his passion for the third time… (18, 31-33) the text says… “The word remained hidden from them and they failed to comprehend what he said.” (18, 38)
There would be no comprehending what Jesus said until they could personally face the passion with him and enter into its mystery…
So Jesus tells them – “O how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!... Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
How foolish… Greek term meaning “unknowing” – how great your lack in understanding…
The disciples had not believed the women who returned from the tomb – nor had they believed all that the prophets spoke – especially regarding the Messiah’s suffering and entering into glory.
The passion demanded that they related to Jesus as the Christ, as one who suffered, died, and rose from the dead. Because the disciples were unable to relate to Jesus as the Christ, dying, and rising – they were unable to recognize him as Lord… It was their inability to accept the passion that prevented them from recognizing the Lord.”
So what did he do…?
So he taught them, he talked to them… he went back to the prophets and their suffering… and Moses’ rejection… whom Moses truly was… to see the sense of the crucifixion and grasp the significance of the third day… as the day of divine deliverance…
After greater disclosure, after really opening up to them – the disciples were now prepared to know and recognize him in the breaking of the bread.
Because while “breaking of the bread” meant reunion, friendship, intimacy, hospitality, openness to one another… it meant above all that the one who hosts it – and invites us to it… is the risen Lord… but a crucified and risen Lord… who invites us to a full participation in his life… and asks us in friendship to join him – to follow – to break bread together – to drink the cup of giving up of oneself in love… to be spent out with him… if we understand that – and accept it… in our passion… and sufferings we will be delivered… for we will discover, recognize… know him – when we sit down with him… as our friend and Lord… it will be our experience too…
Amen.