This coming Sunday in our Gospel reading we will hear about an appearance of the risen Christ to two of his disciples on Easter Sunday. The appearance took place as the disciples were traveling from the city of Jerusalem to the nearby town of Emmaus. As we hear the Gospel proclaimed by the deacon or priest this weekend, it’s important for us to try to be attuned to the many important spiritual lessons it teaches, four of which will be mentioned here. First of all, we learn from this encounter that we are never alone, although at times we may feel like we are. Certainly Cleopas and his unnamed friend felt alone at the beginning of their Easter journey to Emmaus, after the horrific events of Good Friday. But Jesus was with them in their suffering and pain (as he is with us in ours), although at first they didn’t realize it. As St. Augustine wrote, “They had lost faith, lost hope. They were walking along, dead, with Christ alive; they were walking along, dead, with life itself.” Not a pretty picture for sure, but it does accurately describe the mental and spiritual condition of these two men when they first encountered our Lord. Thankfully, Jesus did not allow them to remain in that condition.
Another lesson we learn from this Gospel account is that we should always pay close attention to the readings and to the homily at Mass—because when the word of God is proclaimed with power it can radically change our lives. Jesus proclaimed the word to these two disciples for several hours as they made their way to Emmaus, and their hearts were touched as they listened. That’s clear from the text. As they believed what they were hearing they were consoled, they were challenged and they were inspired. Later on they said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
That’s the transformative power of God’s word.
We also learn here that Jesus is with us in a unique and special way in the Holy Eucharist, and that, by faith, we can learn to recognize his presence there. What finally opened the eyes of these two disciples as to the identity of the mysterious man who walked with them to Emmaus, was when they sat down with him for dinner, and he did for them what he had done for his Apostles the previous Thursday night at the Last Supper. St. Luke says, “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.” As they themselves say at the end of the Gospel, they came to recognize the presence of Jesus in the “breaking of the bread”—in other words, in the Holy Eucharist.
And then they go and proclaim this good news to others—which is a final lesson that we learn from this narration. The two disciples met the Lord in word and sacrament on the road to Emmaus and in their home (in effect they celebrated a Mass with him!), and then they went out and shared the message—this good news—with the Apostles and others who were there in the upper room at the time.
This, of course, is precisely what we’re supposed to do as Catholics after we attend holy Mass. That’s what the priest or deacon is telling us at the end of the liturgy when he says, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.” We glorify the Lord by living for him and spreading his Gospel, after hearing his word proclaimed in the Scriptures and receiving his Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament. In that sense, every Mass that we attend is supposed to be an “Emmaus experience” for us.
