And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
Jesus was working in their hearts before they were aware of his presence. Their eyes were prevented from recognizing him, and no doubt this was partly explained by distraction and partly by sadness. Yet if Jesus had desired to be known at once he certainly could have done so. But instead he waited patiently, allowed them to tell their version of the recent events, before making himself known specifically and intentionally in the breaking of the bread.
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
This was a question to which Jesus knew the answer. Yet he desired that they open up about it with him. He himself was the only one who truly knew what had "taken place there is these days" but still asked them "What sort of things?" so that he could take their sadness and confusion and transform it into joy. He did not simply come and blast them with resurrection revelation. He worked with them as individuals with unique stories and wounds. He used seeds already planted within them, knowledge of the Scriptures, to begin to show how what they had imagined to be a tragedy was part of the set plan of God from the beginning. To eyes of faith the Scriptures revealed that it was precisely in death and crucifixion that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel. When Jesus himself gave the exegesis it no longer seemed implausible that the resurrection spoken of by the angels was what God had intended all along.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
Even after receiving all of that teaching and wisdom from Jesus himself they were still unable to recognize him. But later they would remember how their hearts burned within them when he opened the Scriptures to them. And then forever after when their hearts burned reading Scripture they could recognize the presence of Jesus within the word of God. Jesus had not yet revealed himself so that they could learn this mode of his presence. But not only, or even primarily, this mode, but especially in the breaking of the bread.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread because that was the revelation of his presence that he wanted to impart. His time with them in visible glorified form would last only until the ascension. But his veiled presence under the forms of bread and wine would last until the end of time. Think if the order of revelation had been reversed and he had shown them his glorified body first and Scripture and Sacrament second. They would have all but ignored the later in favor of the former. But now both modes of Jesus ongoing presence in the Church would have a special place in their hearts.
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.
The Emmaus encounter is a beautiful story. But it need not be only a story relegated to the past. It is an encounter we are offered each day at Mass when the word is preached and the Eucharistic bread is broken. Every Mass is an opportunity to have our hearts burn within us and to discover Jesus himself made known to us in his Eucharistic presence. When we begin to live and internalize this reality we will become more like Peter and John, in that, while we might not have silver or gold, we will be sufficiently filled with Jesus Christ the Nazorean to offer him to others just as he has first given himself to us.
Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold,
but what I do have I give you:
in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk.”
Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up,
and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong.
Assuredly we live in a world where many feet and ankles are weak, and many people feel unable to move, contribute or thrive. And so we must learn to cherish the gift we have been given enough to offer it to those who, whether they know it or not, hunger for that gift. It can be strength for us like the bread of angels was for Elijah, who, having eaten, "went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God" (see First Kings 19:8).
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