“[Jesus] took
bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened.” Luke 24
The disciples we meet on
the Road to Emmaus in today’s Gospel were what we would call today “depressed”.
They were also confused as they made their way down the road, unable to
understand all the things that had occurred. Put yourself in their place. They could see but they could not
see Jesus who was walking with them.
Imagine how they felt
because they knew what they had just recently seen – a prophet mighty in word
and deed. You are there. You know what you were hoping for – that Jesus would be the redeemer of Israel but
you don’t see what to make of his violent death at the hands of your own
people, the leaders of your own nation.
You don’t recognize Jesus
as he draws near to walk with you. He seems like just another foreigner
visiting for the Feast of Passover.
Note that Jesus doesn’t
reveal the meaning of the Scriptures and his identity until after the disciples
describe how the tomb was empty. They
are puzzled as many are today about this claim. Unless Jesus reveals himself we
see only an empty tomb and a meaningless death not the risen Lord.
How does Jesus make himself
known at Emmaus? First, He interprets “all the Scriptures” as referring to him
and his mission as Messiah.
In today’s First Reading
and Epistle, Peter also opens the Scriptures to proclaim the meaning of
Christ’s death according to the Father’s “set plan” – foreknown before the
foundation of the world. This plan includes the revelation of the meaning of
his death so that people may see and experience him sacramentally and
really. This experience of his presence
and spiritual vision affect all areas of life – familial, communal and
political.
Since God is not an
empirical datum (something physical that we can touch and see), we see God by
inference from the narrative of Jesus life, death and resurrection. As St. Paul
poetically puts it: “Ever
since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power
and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” Romans 10:20
In other words, the things
of God are revealed in and through events in the physical world – both past and
present – but God is not in any way limited by time and space.
Patriarch Bartholomew
(Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople) has said that history has
proven that real progress cannot exist without God.
'Not one society can be
truly progressive and happy if there is no freedom to walk the road with God. True
freedom has been achieved through our walking with Jesus and understanding who
God has sent him to be with us and for us.'
"The history of the 20th C.
tragically confirms this truth. Humanity experienced a horror that originated
from Central Europe and produced millions of victims during WWII and racial
persecutions. At the same time, the world also experienced the horror that was
sown by the so-called progressive forces of socialism, which committed crimes
of equal magnitude and cruelty in Eastern Europe in the name of freedom."
Bartholomew continues: “Therefore,
totalitarianism as an offspring of a humanity without Christ and its natural
conclusion becomes destruction and death. All of the above confirm that every
attempt to reach freedom without God shall be doomed to tragedy.”
We are not, then, as some
of the current crop of reductive materialists would claim: just creatures with
brains that run software. We are souls who are created to see the
meaning behind physical reality, who can grasp the revelation that Christ is
risen and really present to us.
Jesus is revealed in the
Gospel as a new Moses leading his people to true and lasting freedom. He opens
the Scriptures to reveal that he is the new and final Passover lamb.
Jesus is the One of whom David
sang about in the Psalm – whose soul was not abandoned to corruption but was
shown the path of life and so he shows us the path of life, if we will see
it.
After opening the
Scriptures, Jesus at table took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the
disciples. This is exactly what He did at the Last Supper (see Luke 22:14-20). This is the place and the way in which we are
to encounter the risen Lord sacramentally, regularly and really in the
Eucharist.
Every Mass is, once again, Easter
at Emmaus. Jesus reveals himself to us on our journey as we seek to see the
meaning of the empty tomb. He shows in our hearts the meaning of Scripture.
Then at the table of the altar, in personal Christi – in the person of the priest, Jesus breaks the bread and is
revealed to be with us in his real presence. We see him behind the form of
bread and wine.
The disciples begged him,
“Stay with us.” So Jesus does remain with us.
Though he vanished from sight at Emmaus, we see him and know him in the
breaking of the bread.
‘He took bread,
blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened.” Luke 24
Acts 2:14,22-28
Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
1 Peter
1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35
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