two of Jesus' disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus
In Jerusalem their hopes appeared to be crushed before their eyes. They "were hoping" that Jesus "would be the one to redeem Israel" but now they no longer held that hope. To be in Jerusalem with the others, especially others claiming implausibly that Jesus lived, was probably too painful, potentially reopens the wounds of trauma caused by witnessing the horror of the cross. Yet at the same time they could not help but revisit "the things that have taken place in these days" as they walked along. They wanted to move away from the pain but their hearts in some sense remained outside the tomb in mourning.
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.
He asked them,
"What are you discussing as you walk along?"
Jesus did not reveal himself immediately, and it is useful to consider why he did not. He might have. He might simply have said, 'Guys, it's me. Everything is OK now'. But instead? Instead he asked them to retread the same painful memories that they both desired to escape and yet about which they couldn't help conversing and debating. Jesus himself desired to reveal his resurrection by first accompanying these two disciples in their own sorrow. His resurrection revelation was not simply going to blast them into Christian joy and new life out of left field, ignoring who they were as individuals, as though the same message could be shouted to anyone regardless of what they were going through. Instead, by being with them precisely in their misunderstanding, their sadness, and their unbelief, he would show how his story was not opposed the things that they thought were dealbreakers: suffering, death, and the apparent failure of the mission as they understood it. Instead the story of Jesus was predicated on these things, which were a part of the plan from the beginning. His suffering shed light on all suffering and gave it meaning. His death destroyed the power of death. And his mission was leading to his enthronement not on earth but in heaven.
And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"
They had been wrong to disbelieve the witnesses of the resurrection, wrong to head away from the place where they could further investigate and cling to hope. But they had been wrong in a way that was predictable and humanly understandable, because they did not yet possess the context that would finally put everything into perspective. They possessed isolated facts, such as Jesus predicting his death and resurrection. But they didn't yet see how these fit into the big picture. Even reports from the women and the others seemed like more points of data that didn't seem to fit their previous expectations. It was by his being with them, by listening to their own stories, and only then by presenting the truth that Jesus was able to, not just make a compelling argument, but speak to their hearts in a way that was transformative.
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
When he opened the Scriptures for them their hearts burned within them. They knew they were hearing truth spoken, and found that everything they believed about what had happened was revealed to be a part of a larger story. But Jesus did not leave it at this level. His ongoing presence was now suggested by what they understood, but they did not yet experience him as truly with them and in their midst. That was because Jesus himself desired this experience of his risen presence to come in a specific way.
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."
They didn't yet recognize him, but they knew they didn't want to lose his company just yet, knew there was some culmination they would otherwise miss if he did. And Jesus appeared to indicate he was going to keep going in order that they themselves might be the ones to ask, "Stay with us". Even though they didn't fully understand what was happening Jesus nevertheless desired that they act with what freedom they could muster in choosing to receive him.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
He was known to them in the breaking of the bread because he wanted to demonstrate that it was precisely there, in the Eucharist, that the risen Lord would continue to be present to his Church throughout the ages. His resurrected body would ascend to heaven, disappearing from sight. But to the eyes of faith the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist would make him available, risen flesh and blood, soul and divinity, to the end of the age.
We live in an age of people heading away from the Church, many who once hoped but who now, in light of tragedies all too real and numerous, no longer do. Even we ourselves often find that our own hope is not so fully invested in Jesus as it once was, find that our own difficult past experiences have caused us to temper our expectations for the future. Jesus himself desires to enter into our stories, to hear us tell what has gone wrong, so that he himself can help us to see the big picture. And then he can send us out in turn to accompany others making the same journey.
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (see Second Corinthians 1:3-4).
We are invited to remember that what we have in the Eucharist is no mere memorial, not simply a comforting ritual, not merely a pleasant religious experience, but rather the answer to the question of every human heart, because in the Eucharist Jesus himself is present, just as he was on the road to Emmaus.
Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life, and the love of Christ compels us to share that great good news with everyone.- Saint John Paul the Great, Homily, 10/8/1995.
Even though the preaching of the disciples in the book of Acts might seem opposed to this model of accompaniment when we hear Peter saying, "This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him" it is really not as different as it appears. The apostles are like Jesus in that they too don't eschew the hard truths of the past in order to give them new light in a larger context of resurrection. The Easter proclamation necessarily contains our own failures but seen now in a larger perspective. It always speaks with sympathy about the painful parts, but it does also contain at least implicitly, the part where we hear "Oh, how foolish", but only for sake of moving us beyond our previously held limiting beliefs into the new world inaugurated by the resurrection.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father
and poured him forth, as you see and hear.
Forgetting just what we were given, just what price was paid for our deliverance sometimes leads us to treat the grace we have received as cheap. And when we do so it tends to lose its power in our own lives and its ability to persuade others. As an antidote to this let us hear Saint Peter:
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
How fitting, then, that the place Jesus himself desired to be encountered was in the breaking of the bread, where he himself was perfectly revealed to be the sacrificial lamb, offered to God, and now exulted at his right hand. May the eyes of our hearts be opened. May he once again be known to us in the breaking of the bread.
No comments:
Post a Comment