Wednesday in the Octave of Easter, April 3, 2024

Luke 24, 13–35

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. 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?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” 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?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures. 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.” So he went in to stay with them. 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. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” 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 Lord appeared on several occasions to his followers after his Resurrection.  He did not appear to any who had not followed him.  He did not appear to the chief priests or to the Pharisees.  He did not go where he would not be welcome.  Each time he did appear, he did so for a particular purpose.  He appeared to Mary Magdalene to comfort her in her enormous grief over his Death, and to make her the messenger to the Apostles who were hiding from the Jews rather than gathered at his tomb as they should have been.  He later appeared to the Apostles on Easter Sunday in order to confirm the word of Mary Magdalene and also to begin preparing them to preach the Gospel.  In the Gospel reading for today’s Mass, we see the Lord appearing to two disciples who were traveling from Jerusalem after the Passover to the nearby town of Emmaus.  He spends several hours with these two men, explaining the Scriptures to them.  We might wonder why the Lord does this when, if his purpose was to reveal to them that he had risen, he had not simply appeared to them and announced himself to them if they failed to recognize him.  But these two men had already heard that he had risen.  The Lord’s purpose here was to teach them “what referred to him in all the Scriptures” so that they could teach others.  

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”  Their hearts burned with their desire to understand and with their growing faith.  They heard the Lord, the Author of the Scriptures, go point by point, presenting the whole drama of salvation to them from the fall in the Garden through Noah, Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, and the Prophets.  Suddenly they saw how it all foretold the Son of God coming amongst them, and his Death and Resurrection.  Now they understood and they burned to preach and teach others.  Still without their recognizing him, he “broke bread” with them.  This ancient idiom means very broadly “to eat”, particularly at a meal with others, but for Christians these words evoke the Last Supper and the Mass, and the words of the Lord: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world” (John 6, 51-52).  Making this final connection for themselves, they finally recognized him with them.  And then, having accomplished his purpose, the Lord left them.

Let us pray so that through his grace, our hearts may burn for him as we ponder the words of the Holy Scripture and worship him at Holy Mass.