In today’s Gospel (Luke 24, 13- 35), the disciples of Emaus had an immature and wrong view of the Christ’ passion, death and resurrection by looking at the Christ event in the sense of failures. In this reflection we will see how Jesus journeys with us in the middle of our confusion and fear until “He draws us to Him”.
The disciples of Emaus teach us how many times in our journey we do not recognize the presence of Jesus in our daily lives. In many times, the pain and sadness, direct us to make wrong decisions in our life which not only divert us from God but also make us experience hopelessness in ways in which we are incapable to see beyond our own narrow horizons. So, our heart, and mind are disturbed by our wrong decisions which make us experience a kind of death. This reality pushes us to be blind by doubting, losing faith, horizons, and sense of life.
On their way to Emaus, the two disciples abandoned the community because of their sadness and disconsolation. They decided to look for a new uncertain journey. During their journey from Jerusalem to Emaus, the evangelist Luke tells us that they “were talking and discussing”. The verbs are in infinitive present active form “talking” from the Greek homilein which means to be in an extended (in the process) discussion with someone, and the verb “were discussing” from the Greek suzetein which means the same as homilein but adding nuance of “inquiring” or “examining together.” The use of these verbs have the relevance that each one of them had their own interpretation and understanding of the facts and the person of Jesus. And so, even they were not able to have the same version about the facts that happened.
While they were in their discussion, Jesus “came near and went with them.” It is interesting how Jesus is the one who came to encounter and to start the dialogue with the disciples. However, they were unable to recognize the presence of God in their lives because of their blindness and sadness, and so forth.You may ask, how is this possibility of God to intervene in our daily conversations-discussions as He did with His disciples? And what does it mean that Jesus does not reveal His presence neither in the temple nor in Jerusalem but on the journey or at the breaking of the bread?
The fact that Jesus revealed His presence during their journey to Emaus makes it clear that the mystery of Jesus in the Eucharist must be considered as the real presence of God in our lives. Jesus is accompanying us in our journey but many times we do not recognize Him by denying His Grace and focusing on our failures in life.
Jesus asked them “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along? The disciples' “stood still, looking sad”, so one of them, Cleopas, answered Jesus, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days? Jesus, trying to be out of context pretended to ignore the event by asking them, “what things?”
To the question of Jesus about “What things?”, the answer of the two disciples is a mere rational recount of the events, lacking a profound understanding of hearth (way of living), of the mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the disciples experience of Jesus, we can say many times that we are so close to God because we go to the Church every Sunday or during the celebration: we can understand, we can listen, we can be present many times experiencing or looking at the same facts but if we do not recognize it as a way of living experience it is difficult to get out of our blinded ways.
The two disciples separated and isolated themselves by their blindness from their community which was the source of hope, better understanding and better interpretation of the events of their master. I wonder how many times we are too slow to recognize Jesus because of our fears and repression of our sinful ways of living. As the disciples whose “eyes were kept close” without the possibility to recognize and to listen to the person who is beyond and transcends our failures, we may fail to see the Grace of God acting in our communities and families.
How many times do we abandon our family because of disagreements? How many times mostly in our families, we are not able to accept our wrongdoing, to interpret and to believe that we have the correct answers to everything. And so, to assure that we are correct in everything and not to be able to listen, to see beyond our own limits horizons. Let us be humble with one another in our families, communities, workplaces, and deepen our trust with one another.
It is interesting to see how the hope and faith of the disciples seem to be a failure because of the negative experiences that make them feel that their hope vanished. The sad expression of the two disciples using the verb in the imperfect form “We had hoped” expresses a state of hopelessness, uncertainty, lack of clarity, and so forth. This makes clear that they were facing a moment of desolation by following the wrong direction in their lives.
After the disciples had the opportunity to share their desolated experience and their hopelessness, Jesus rebuked them saying“oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared.” Jesus rebukes, telling them, you are “too slow to believe” and to open your eyes, too slow to recognize your sin, and too slow to recognize the presence of God in your life. How many times, even though we have many moments experiencing God in the Eucharist, listening to the Word, visiting the sick, loving and caring our family, we are not able to recognize the presence of God in our life?
As catholics, two important elements to encounter the risen Lord in our journey are the Word of God and the Eucharist. So, Jesus said first to the two disciples, ¨Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer and then enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the scriptures.” The Word of God as a source to encounter God who is the origin and fulfilment of the history of salvation.
As they came near the village in which they were going, the two disciples urged Jesus ´stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over. So, Jesus stayed with them. When they were at the table Jesus “broke the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.” When Jesus broke the bread He made present the mystery of the Eucharist that opened the eyes of the disciples to recognize Him. In the same way up to now Jesus offers Himself to us in the Eucharist as the bread of life. Therefore as the disciples of Emaus experience the encounter with the resurrected Christ, each one of us has the opportunity to encounter and to be in intimate relation with the risen Christ through the paschal mystery that we celebrate in each Eucharist through His Word and receiving the Holy communion.
By God’s grace, when the disciples were able to open their eyes and to recognize Jesus, at that moment “Jesus vanished from their sight”. So they recovered their hope and said to each other “were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, when he was opening the scriptures to us?” They were afraid, there is a mystery: they know Him but they do not know Him. It happens to each one of us that we think that we know Him but we do not Him. Imagine the disciples were doubted, How about us? What is our position?.
The disciples saw Jesus before His mission, crucifixion and death. As Mary Magdalene “she thought that He was a gardener” We must ask the grace to recognize Jesus. My God may I see you in the difficult moments in life where I am not able or I don’t want to see You, in the dark ways of affliction in which I do not want to make a commitment. In this way we do not know when Jesus can appear to us not as the disciples but in other ways, just in our work, in our family or even in this moment of pandemic disease which makes us incapable to understand totally the mystery of God through the Eucharist and His Word.
When their eyes were opened, they got up and returned to Jerusalem. When they arrived, they encountered the community gathered together. “Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.” So, they shared different experiences, how they recognized Jesus’ presence. In the same way, we are invited to share with one another our experiences of the risen Lord in our communities and families with our friends, or even with strangers.
