In the first few pages of the chapter, Father Martin describes the frustration he and his friend George experienced in trying to locate and visit sites related to the Gospel story of Emmaus. He ends the description of their abortive efforts by relating them to the Gospel story itself, saying “It too is a story about confusion and suffering.”
Father Martin then begins to analyze the interaction of the Risen Christ with two of his disciples (“Cleopas and his friend”) by noting the sadness the disciples feel when Jesus first approaches and questions them concerning their conversation. Unaware of who has addressed them, they reveal their own confusion and frustration over what has so recently transpired concerning Jesus. Father Martin relates the disciples’ words “We had hoped…” to the sorrow all of us experience when our expectations are dashed and we fail to see our loss and disappointment in the context of God’s plan for our lives.
The Gospel story then recounts the disciples’ invitation to Jesus to stay with them and Jesus’s revelation of himself in the breaking of bread, after which “he vanished from their sight.” Notably, Father Martin suggests that “the disciples came to understand the Resurrection not only through direct experience but also by reflecting on it together, as a community.”
As Father Martin goes on to consider the mystery of why the two disciples could not recognize Jesus, he quickly and reasonably dismisses the “natural” explanations: “that Jesus might have purposely hid his face” or “the dazzling sun prevented them from seeing him,” and he presents a more “supernatural” explanation, while also explaining the shortcomings of the idea of “a shared memory” to explain the disciples’ experiences of the Risen Jesus. Simply remembering Jesus is not likely to have enabled the disciples to overcome the terror that they felt in the wake of Jesus’s crucifixion. “The appearance of the Risen Christ,” he suggests, “was so dramatic, so unmistakable, so obvious—in a word, so real—that it transformed the formerly terrified disciples into courageous proclaimers of the message of Jesus.”
“And what they saw was Jesus, raised from the dead.”
Father Martin goes on to discuss the puzzling question of what the Resurrected Jesus looked like, or “the difficulty of describing the most profound of all spiritual experiences.” In dealing with this question, he refers to the theological idea of a “glorified body,” one that is “created anew by God” and “will never die.” He also makes the following observation: “The Resurrection shows us there is always hope. Whether or not we see it, it is there. Or, more precisely, he is there.”
Father Martin then recalls his own prayerful meditation about this passage when he was facing a difficult time in his ministry. He related his own failure “ to look for God even amid the sadnesses of life,” to the inability of Cleopas and his friend to look beyond their current disappointment to see God at work. These two disciples “seem on the brink of walking away…from all they have experienced with Jesus.” However, as Father Martin observes, “Perhaps in their ‘talking with each other about all these things that had happened,’ they tried to make sense of things,” and in so doing were opening themselves up to Jesus’s revelation of himself; and then when they offer hospitality to a stranger by inviting him to stay with them, they recognized him.
Returning to his and George’s inability to find Emmaus, Father Martin concludes by noting “that even in our confusion God is with us.”
Points to Ponder
- The disciples on their way to Emmaus hear Jesus reveal the truth about himself in his word, and experience the presence of Jesus in the breaking of bread. Are we open to God’s word and presence in the liturgy of the Word and the liturgy of the Eucharist?
- Despite the sadness and disappointment all of us must sometimes face, can we embrace the truth that the Resurrection gives us hope in any circumstance.
Bill Casey
In reflecting on question #2 about sadness and disappointment and whether we can still embrace the truth that the Resurrection gives us hope in any circumstance, Matthew Kelly, a Catholic evangelist says in his book, REDISCOVER JESUS: "It must have been some Sunday morning. The most radical moment in the history of the world was that Sunday morning when Jesus rose from the dead. Ignore it if you wish or pretend it didn't happen, but it is simply impossible to make sense of life and history without acknowledging the Resurrection". St. Paul in 1 Cor. 15:14 says "And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith". For me, these two men have said it all -- if the Resurrection cannot offer me hope in any circumstance, then I will not find hope anywhere!
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