One of the most beautiful accounts in all of the Bible is that of the journey to Emmaus (Luke 24, 13-35). The minds of those two defeated disciples were turned entirely to the past and its regrets. Everything seemed finished: “we had hoped,” they said; but now they were without hope. Notice how Jesus did not reveal His identity in a blinding flash, He entered their conversation, He entered the past with them; He sifted through the past with them – but differently.
Jesus listened patiently to the version of history that those two had. He didn’t cut them off after a few words. He heard them out. Had He cut them off, their doubts and objections would have remained inside them, suppressed, and therefore all the more powerful. He listened, and in the light of what they said He read the past for them in a new way. “Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the Scriptures.”
What a wonderful consolation it is that Jesus did not impose on them in any way. He waited for them to invite Him. When they came near the village they said, “Stay with us!” Again, He did not impose Himself – He allowed them the courtesy of inviting Him freely.
Faith is God’s invitation to come to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him forever in the next. God’s Son Christ the Lord does not force us, He invites us. But it has to be an invitation on our part, too. Faith, then, is a mutual invitation, because it is an invitation to friendship.
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Uno de los más bellos encuentros con el Señor Resucitado en la Biblia es el episodio con los dos discípulos regresando a su hogar en Emaús (Lucas 24, 13-35). A nosotros nos puede pasar como a ellos: que en el camino de nuestra vida estemos como peregrinos desalentados y sin ilusión.
A veces, sin ser conscientes de la presencia de Dios, viajamos, conversamos con extraños o con amigos, comemos – y somos indiferentes, tenemos poca esperanza. Pero, cuestionados por las palabras y la presencia del Señor Resucitado, seguimos caminando con Él como con nuestro hermano y Señor, le reconocemos en los hermanos y, de modo particular, “al partir el pan” en nuestras asambleas Eucarísticas, y así llegamos a ser un pueblo de esperanza.
Le reconocemos también al partir y repartir el pan con los hermanos, cuando compartimos los unos con los otros todo lo que tenemos. Y si lo hacemos así, la gente seguramente reconocerá también a Jesús en nosotros.
Oremos. “Oh Dios, tú eres un Dios no de muertos, ni tampoco de personas paralizadas por sus temores y limitaciones, sino que eres el Dios de vivos. Resucítanos y haznos marchar animosos, con alegría y esperanza como nuevos discípulos de Emaús, compañeros de camino de aquel a quien resucitaste de entre los muertos, Jesucristo, nuestro Señor Resucitado, que vive y reina por los siglos de los siglos. Amén.”
