The Road to Emmaus is a very well-known and gripping story because it is, in many ways, our own story when we lose hope and the desire to move on because our dreams have been crushed.
Some of the saddest words in our language begin with the letter D: disappointment, doubt, disillusionment, defeat, despair and death. All of these are summed up in the words of Cleopas and his companion to the
unrecognized stranger on the Emmaus road. They had left a demoralized and disillusioned group of disciples with the events of Good Friday fresh in their memories. We can understand their confusion, can’t we? The
Master they had loved and followed had been made a public spectacle, exposed to ridicule and put to death on a cross.
Now, the reports that Christ’s tomb was empty only confused the disciples more. Their entire world had come apart. The two downhearted disciples summed up the situation when they said, “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” Human hope is a fragile thing, and when it withers it is difficult to revive. Why was it difficult for the disciples to recognize the risen Lord? Perhaps, they saw the cross as defeat and couldn’t comprehend the empty tomb. And yet, as we heard last week some doubted even after Jesus appeared to them.
So, we find these two disciples in retreat, leaving Jerusalem, scared, dejected, and perplexed. Here was a walk of sadness and gloom, of frustration and doubt; a walk filled with deliberation and discussion, but without answers and understanding, and therefore, without comfort; going, but without sense of mission and purpose. Jesus draws near to them as they were in the darkness of despair. He draws near and he walks with them. They couldn’t recognize him still struggling with confusion and unbelief but also because Jesus keeps them from recognizing him because there was another “teaching” moment coming. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. Jesus acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly their eyes were open and they knew he was alive!
Jesus appears to us often in the strange places and events of our lives and through the many strange people we may encounter. We often fail to recognize him as well. Yet we experience his presence at every Mass in
every church in every corner of the world in the Breaking of the Bread. This is truly the gift Jesus has left us as a memorial to his passion, death and resurrection and as a promise of new and eternal life for each of us.
So the question might be: on our own “Road to Emmaus”, do we struggle with unbelief like those two disciples or are we ready to embrace the Risen Christ and become true disciples telling the world by our lives the hope there is in Christ’s resurrection?