Stay with us. Mane nobiscum Domine

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 24:13-35. 

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus' disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,   . . .    As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther.    But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.     

Commentary of the day : 

Blessed John-Paul II, Pope from 1978 to 2005 

Apostolic Letter « Mane nobiscum Domine » §19-20 (7/11/04, © copyright Libreria Editrice Vaticana) 

"Stay with us"

When the disciples on the way to Emmaus asked Jesus to stay «with» them, he responded by giving them a much greater gift: through the Sacrament of the Eucharist he found a way to stay «in» them. 

Receiving the Eucharist means entering into a profound communion with Jesus. «Abide in me, and I in you» (Jn 15:4). 

This relationship of profound and mutual «abiding» enables us to have a certain foretaste of heaven on earth. 

Is this not the greatest of human yearnings? 

Is this not what God had in mind when he brought about in history his plan of salvation? 

God has placed in human hearts a «hunger» for his word (cf. Am 8:11), a hunger which will be satisfied only by full union with him. 

Eucharistic communion was given so that we might be «sated» with God here on earth, in expectation of our complete fulfilment in heaven.

This special closeness which comes about in Eucharistic «communion» cannot be adequately understood or fully experienced apart from ecclesial communion... 

The Church is the Body of Christ: we walk «with Christ» to the extent that we are in relationship «with his body». Christ provided for the creation and growth of this unity by the outpouring of his Holy Spirit. 

And he himself constantly builds it up by his Eucharistic presence. 

It is the one Eucharistic bread which makes us one body. 

As the Apostle Paul states: «Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread» (1Cor 10:17).