Thursday in the Octave of Easter
On Easter Sunday night, two disillusioned disciples hightail it out of a Jerusalem fraught with danger. They’d hitched their caboose to the Jesus train (so to speak), and it derailed big time: a faith shattering body blow —- or so they thought. A stranger, the veiled Jesus appearing clueless about the horrible incidents of the last three days, walks beside them. Has he been living under a rock?, they wonder. Their fearful hearts were closed to recognize him.
Only when he opens the scriptures and breaks the bread do the scales fall from their eyes. He appears to disappear, but in the eucharistic bread he remains present to them in a new and profound way. Afraid no longer, they heartily return to Jerusalem.
We are all on an Emmaus walk. “The whole world has become an Emmaus, for the LORD has opened all the divine paths of the earth” (St. Josemaria Escriva). Do we recognize that Jesus travels besides us as he did that Easter Sunday night? Are our hearts and minds willing to recognize him?
Do we break open the familiar scriptures deep within us — as he did along the way?
Importantly, the Emmaus story is the story of every Mass. Jesus is fully present in our gathering, in the assembly (whenever two or more are gathered together). He is fully present in the proclaimed scriptures and in the bread broken and cup-out-poured. And then, as he does with Cleopas and his companion, Jesus commissions us to go and tell what we have experienced.
Be consoled that, as sure he walked with the two Emmaus-bound disciples, he now walks with us.
—Timothy J. Cronin