I
The Resurrection stories in the Gospels invite us to enter into the mystery of the risen Christ. It is a journey from the head to the heart. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus are wonderful examples of this journey to this deepest truth within us. The two disciples tell the story to Jesus. For them it is a profound tragedy. Their frustration blinds and consumes them. Even though their view of Jesus was as “a mighty prophet in deed and word before God and all the people” (Lk 24:19) he was still put to death by the leaders. Their expectations for a savior and liberator of Israel had no space for a Messiah who suffered the infamy of death on the cross. Therefore, they are on the road to Emmaus without faith and hope.
Nevertheless, Jesus let them tell their story. He met them right where they were in the midst of their broken dreams and lost hope. Their story was a sad tale of defeat and grief. In particular, they pass over the message of the women with the account of the empty grave and the angels.
Jesus tells the same story back to them. He presents it in the context of the Scriptures, a story of a God constantly shattering the despair of the people. For Jesus, it is a story of faith and hope, the final triumph of love. “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?’” (Lk 24:32) They are able to hear the story of the great mystery of the suffering Messiah only when they were stripped of their false dreams and ambitions. It was the same story that Jesus had proclaimed all along. Now, in their brokenness and emptiness, they were able to hear it with an open heart and mind. Now, it truly to set their hearts afire.
The experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, calls us back to the fundamental question of the gospel message. Who is Jesus for us? First, we must overcome the superficial response where we create a god who is only there to serve our needs. Only in accepting life’s unavoidable conflict with evil and all the dreaded consequences of sin are we free to walk with Jesus to Jerusalem. The tragic dimension in life liberates us to welcome the mystery of love hidden in the suffering Messiah. This is God’s loving design. It is the only way to the glory of the Resurrection and the fullness of God’s kingdom.
Jesus was the full revelation of this God who acted for justice and deliverance throughout the history of the Chosen People. The continuous message in the Scriptures was the presence of a power and love that transcends all human tragedy. “Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:26) In God’s wisdom, the suffering and death did not destroy the messianic mission but confirmed it as central to the divine plan of love.
The Emmaus experience gives us a fundamental insight into the Christian life. It brings the Jesus story into our life experience. Sooner or later, we run up against the common human fate of broken dreams, love rejected, and our basic mortality. We try to cover all the contingencies but, in the end, we are not ready for what life has in store for us. Who could ever really dream of the coronavirus and its impact on our world? We are like the disciples. We had dreams of great things coming from Jesus, the one who would be our savior. Yet, in our vision of life, we seldom make room for the crucified Christ. For sure, a traumatizing event like a world-wide pandemic would never get on our list of concerns.
Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, now that Covid-19 dominates our daily reality, we have to bring faith and hope to our story. We need faith to truly embrace the story of the Scriptures on our road to Emmaus that find us overwhelmed by a world-wide pandemic. Like the frustrated and broken disciples, faith will help us to slowly see that God is still with us even in these darkest moments. We need to begin to see the Resurrection for what it is in our life: love’s conquest of death, sickness and evil. All is not lost. We do have reason to hope. Indeed, the victory is ours when we walk with Jesus. All the horror and ambiguity of Covid-19 ultimately must lead us to accept ourselves as poor broken sinners that have no way out other than Jesus crucified and Jesus risen. This is the new normal that alone will transcend the incredible power of the virus to destroy our dreams and longings for security and safety. The virus sets a choice before us. We have to decide what really is important. In the process, we are likely to become aware that many of our cherished dreams and ambitions are wrapped up in the values of our consumer-driven culture far-removed from the values of Jesus’ message.
II
Thomas Merton has a beautiful definition of prayer: Prayer is yearning to be in the presence of God, a personal understanding of God’s Word, knowledge of God’s will and the capacity to hear and obey. This is what happened to the disciples in their encounter with Jesus. They were walking away from life, away from the awareness of the presence of God. They were caught in the grim and the crippling reality of their broken dreams. Jesus tells them the story and breaks the bread. Now their eyes are opened. Their heart is engulfed in a fire of love that was there all along. The story and the broken bread let them understand God’s word and say yes to God’s will. Now they could put this truth into action in their lives.
“With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.” (Lk 24:31) The phrase, “opened eyes,” occurs eight times in the New Testament. Six times it is used in Luke. This expression always refers to a deepened understanding of revelation. In this case, the disciples’ eyes are opened when Jesus shares the bread with them. Even though Jesus leaves them physically, and could not be seen, they now knew that he would stay them In the breaking of the bread that is the eucharist. Nourished for the task by the word and the sacrament, they were ready to return to Jerusalem and do God’s work.
The power of deep personal prayer can do the same for us. We can begin to see reality as pregnant with hope and new possibilities once we encounter the risen Christ. The Word of God, especially the encounter with Jesus in the eucharist, facilitates our way to new understanding. It leads us to embrace God’s will. The Word of God gives us direction on our road to Emmaus. It helps us find our way back to our Jerusalem, back into the faithful struggle of our life. Here we see our life in a new light. Our eyes are opened. Our responsibilities and relationships are now a path shepherding us into God’s loving plan for us.
Whether it is in the curse of the Covid-19 or in the deceptions of what we thought was prosperity and good fortune, only Jesus can give us the true freedom that goes beyond all expressions of death and evil. Let us walk with him in the integrity of love on the journey home.
