Give and receive witness to the truth of Jesus Christ: Those are two key messages in today's readings.

Everyone in church today is preoccupied with any number of things: family, job, money, happiness, to name a few. The Letter of Peter, though, focuses its hearers on what is of ultimate importance.

IF YOU SURVIVED school you probably studied the basic aspects of literature somewhere along the line. Beginning, middle, and end are the nonnegotiable parts of storytelling. Along with those come setting, plot, character, and narrative voice.

JESUS TRIED to explain to his downcast disciples on the road to Emmaus what had been fulfilled by his birth, death, and resurrection, but it wasn't until the breaking of the bread that the truth finally sunk in. The meal gave the disciples a chance to process all that Jesus was telling them.

I heard a story once of a little girl who was lost in the woods. She wandered around looking for the family she had been separated from, but she soon grew hungry and tired and lay down and fell asleep. All through the night her parents searched for her, anxious for her safety.

It was not going to be an easy day. Just two weeks earlier the family had gathered with profound sadness to bury my mother. We all knew she was the glue that held us together. We were still raw with the pain as we gathered for our Christmas celebration and meal.

Dorothy followed the Yellow Brick Road through the Land of Oz and came upon all sorts of signs pointing to different ways back home. In the end, she had the secret to getting back to Kansas right at her heels.

Our journey of salvation through the season of Easter continues with faith that God will never abandon us.

He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. The gospel very nearly presents the eucharistic celebration in story form. The two disciples are speaking together on the "first day of the week," just as Christians gather on Sunday.

Abraham said, "God himself will provide the   lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them [Abraham and Isaac] walked on together. --Genesis 22:8