3rd Sunday of Easter
St. Carlos Acutis Camping Retreat
O’Dwyer Retreat House
March 18, 2026
I.
First, let me say how happy I am to be with all of you this afternoon.
This retreat has gotten a lot bigger –
there are 168 young people on this retreat
and 145 leaders and family members.
We are blessed with religious sisters and seminarians.
And we are blessed to have on the altar a first class relic of St. Carlos Acutis,
thanks to the thoughtfulness of Jeffrey from the Malvern Retreat House.
It goes along with the theme of this retreat, “Holiness with St. Carlos Acutis,”
Carlos Acutis who said, “The Eucharist is my highway to heaven!”
II.
I know you listened carefully to the Gospel that was just read.
But let’s go back and think about what’s going on in the Gospel.
It is like a description of the Mass.
Two followers of Jesus are on their way to a village called Emmaus.
They are sad and discouraged because they placed their hopes in Jesus,
but now he was crucified – and their future was uncertain.
As they walk along, they are joined by a stranger –
it’s really the Risen Lord but they don’t recognize him.
As this stranger joins in their conversation, they tell him why they are sad.
What does he do?
He opens up the Scriptures for them –
showing how the Scriptures point to the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus.
As Jesus – still disguised as a stranger – spoke to them,
their hearts were on fire with the love of the Holy Spirit
as they began to understand how much God loved them –
that God would send his Son to suffer, to die, and to rise
for the forgiveness of sin and to restore our wounded human nature.
III.
What does this remind you of?
Isn’t this like the first part of Mass.
Sometimes when we go to Mass, we can be like those disciples.
We might be sad, or distracted, or maybe we don’t even want to be there.
Sometimes, we don’t think about the fact that Jesus is already with us.
That he cares about us. About what worries us. About our anxieties.
What does Jesus do?
He doesn’t entertain us or try to distract us from what’s going on in our lives.
No, he opens up the Scriptures for us.
And when the Scriptures are read in Church, it is Christ who speaks to us.
And the Risen Lord delivers the same message to us
that he delivered to the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus.
When you hear the Scriptures read, listen for the voice of Jesus.
As you begin to understand how much God loves you,
everything he gave you and everything he did to save you,
I hope the Holy Spirit will set your hearts on fire with love of God.
IV.
What else happens in today’s Gospel?
After the two disciples arrived at the village of Emmaus,
the Risen Lord, whom the disciples still didn’t recognize,
acted as if he was going on farther.
But something about this stranger touched the disciples hearts,
so they say, “Stay with us, it is nearly evening.”
When they sat down to eat,
this man whom they were yet to recognize took bread,
said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.”
When he did this, their eyes were opened.
They realized that the stranger in their midst was really Jesus, the Risen Lord.
They recognized him “in the breaking of bread”.
With that Jesus vanished from their sight –
but even though they could no longer see Jesus,
they knew he was right there, with them.
V.
What does this remind you of?
Isn’t this like the second part of the Mass
where the priest takes bread, blesses it, and says,
“Take this all of you and eat of it, for this is my Body given for you”?
And likewise the cup:
“This is the chalice of my blood, pour out for the forgiveness of sins.”
With that, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ.
We, like those first disciples in Emmaus, recognize
the true presence of the Risen Lord in the Eucharist, the Breaking of Bread.
We, like St. Carlos Acutis, believe with all our hearts
that Jesus is present on our altars and in our hearts,
and that the more we worthily receive the Eucharist,
they more we too will become like Jesus.
VI.
One more important thing is happening in this afternoon’s Gospel.
The two disciples hurried back to Jerusalem and announced,
“We have seen the Lord!” “He has been raised from the dead!”
Then they told the Apostles
how they recognized the Risen Lord in “the breaking of bread”.
They went from being sad to joyful,
from being fear to becoming witnesses.
Isn’t this what should happen at the end of every Mass.
“Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord!” we are told.
“Go in peace, glorifying God by your life!”
Having heard God’s Word and received His Body and Blood,
we, like Carlos Acutis, are to bear witness to Jesus in our daily life.
Like him, we are to put the Risen Lord in the center of our lives.
Like him, we are to base our life on Jesus whose love never fails us.
Like him, you are to embrace the vocation God has in mind for you –
whether it is priesthood, consecrated life, or marriage.
VII.
I hope that this retreat is really inspiring you –
maybe even changing your life – opening your mind and heart to Christ.
And I pray you, like St. Carlos Acutis, will find the path
to holiness, to virtue, to true happiness in the Eucharist
given to us by Jesus Christ, our Savior,
who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God forever and ever. Amen.