Luke 24, 13-35 (The Road to Emmaus) is a defining moment in the Easter experience of the Church, but it also provides a description of all the essential “ingredients” of the whole of the Christian life:
– Running away from where Christ is to be found.
– Meeting Jesus in the unexpected place or person or situation.
– Finding the real meaning and identity of Jesus and His mission in having the Scriptures fully explained. Without the Scriptures we cannot claim to know Jesus.
– Recognizing Jesus in “the breaking of bread,” in our celebration of the Eucharist.
– The work of proclaiming the message of Christ and sharing our experience of it with others so that they may also share it.
– The importance of hospitality and kindness to the stranger.
Our lives are busy, complicated, and messy. Isn’t it true that we sometimes miss (or ignore) Jesus’ presence among us, even though He is always with us, loving each one of us in deeply personal way? When we get caught up in our own concerns, our own plans, our own pain, guilt or anger, we miss seeing Him walking alongside us. When we lose sight of the essential “ingredients” of the Christian life, we have a more difficult time seeing that His love is here for us; it is constant and always life-giving.
The two disciples on the journey to Emmaus, recognizing their encounter with the Risen Jesus (and with their hearts burning inside them), “set out at once” despite the dangers of night travel. They probably did not walk with downcast eyes, but ran, laughing and hugging each other on the road as they realized what had happened. And they began spreading the Good News.
Pope Francis has said that these two became “witnesses of the hope that is Christ – because they met Him. They encountered the ‘Risen Traveler’ who journeys with us; and the same Jesus is among us today. He is here, in unique ways, in His Word and on the altar at Mass, but journeying with us always.”
