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The Road to Emmaus - touched by God, the Risen Christ

"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, "Where not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"

There are times when we find ourselves in a big gathering or festivities and our memory fails to recall a certain name of the person who looks familiar to us. We feel sorry about that. We recognize him but we cannot tell his name. We don't remember so when someone gives us the name there we go. We start to tell the experiences we've had with him and memories come to the fore.

In today's gospel which is found in this detail only in Luke, tells us a story of two of Jesus' disciples who were walking to Emmaus[1] as they were also deep in discussion about the death of their Master. While they were walking they encounter a stranger who seems to be unaware of what had happened to Jesus of Nazareth, the promised Messiah. Their sadness and hopelessness at that moment first prevents them from seeing God's redemptive purpose. As they continue their walk, this stranger chides them as they are unsure how to interpret what has happened, along with their foolishness for not believing in the words of the prophets. Unknown to them, this stranger is the Risen Christ who reinterprets their social context, their expectations, their deepest disappointment and disillusionment. They have that concept of the Messiah who is going to liberate Israel from Roman domination. However, the Messiah is going to be handed over by the leaders of the people to be crucified and then enter into his glory.

As the Stranger begins to explain to them the real meaning of the Scriptures, their hearts are burning within them. As a result, they invite him to dinner at the end of the day. He joins them and at table with them he takes the bread, blesses and breaks it and hands it to them. At that very moment the disciples recognize him their Master; their eyes are opened and he vanishes from their sight. This familiar rite is the moment of recognition that whenever he is broken and shared he will be recognized.

This experience with Jesus looks back to that event Jesus' Last Supper (Lk 22:14-23) or the Feeding of Five Thousand (Lk 9:16) and looks forward to the life of the Christian community that will make his

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