Some years ago a friend greeted me when I was on a train journey. That came as a surprise, because I hadn’t
expected to see him there. In fact,
although I was sitting next to him I didn’t
recognised him. And even when he greeted
me, I found it difficult to put a name to his familiar face. My problem was that I didn’t expect him to
be on my train, making the same journey as me.
My imagination couldn’t make the leap to recognise him in an unexpected
situation. I expect most of you have had
a similar experience.
That’s something like what happened to the disciples on the road to
Emmaus. Jesus was the last person they
expected to meet. After all, everyone
knew that he’d just been crucified and then buried. With His death all the hope they’d placed in
Him had been shattered. They were
desolate!
When the risen Lord joined them as they sadly talked about Him they
didn’t recognise Him, partly because they didn’t expect to see Him. They didn’t realise who it was who
explained that the Scriptures foretold that He must suffer and die, and that He
would rise from the grave. They only
recognise Him at the end of the journey, when the risen Lord, shared a meal
with them and broke bread in a familiar way.
Luke recorded this graphic account of the risen Lord’s appearance to
help convince us that He did not abandon us when He ascended to heaven. We have two sceptical witnesses who became
convinced that the Lord had truly risen.
They hastened to share this wonderful news the disciples. That sums up the mission of the Church and of
each of us.
This episode is meant to reassure us that Jesus is now with us in new
ways. He speaks to our minds and hearts
through the Scriptures. As the two
disciples recognised Jesus in the breaking of bread, we are reminded that we
meet him in the sacramental life of the Church –especially in the
Eucharist. Finally, this episode tells
us that our crucified and risen Lord accompanies us as we journey through life,
just as He did the disciples on the road to Emmaus.
But throughout this account of Christ’s resurrection appearance
there’s the problem of recognising Him.
That requires both God’s gift of faith and also our openness to the
unexpected. We need to realise that
the Word of God Himself speaks to us personally through the written text of the
Scriptures. And when we receive the
sacraments we must look beyond the physical appearance of, say, bread, wine,
water and words, and make the leap of faith to believe that we meet Jesus Himself,
approaching us to help us in our different needs.
Finally, we meet Jesus in the people we encounter in our journey
through life. Some may be easy to
recognise as being really Christ-like.
But it may be much hard to recognise Jesus, as He identifies with the
needy, the despised and rejected in society.
Today’s Gospel reminds us that we need great sensitivity to appreciate
Christ who is already in our midst in so many ways. We can so easily miss Him!
Isidore O.P.
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