Today’s Gospel is the familiar Emmaus story.
Remember…these two disciples are disciples of Jesus. They walk with him for seven miles, and they don’t realize who he is.
Luke, writing some 50 years after the event, is teaching his community (and us) something crucial. Things aren’t always what they seem. We may think the Lord is absent, but in fact he is present. Truly present. It’s a real presence, not just a memory.
Luke is also teaching us that one of the most powerful experiences of the Risen Lord is the Eucharist. That is where Jesus is specially present – in his words and in the breaking of the bread.
Note that the disciples didn’t recognize him in his words (while they were on the way).
I need to think about that. Because that’s what I’m doing right now – reflecting on the Scriptures.
Could it be that the Risen Lord has been with me these past few minutes, and I haven’t realized it?
Could be.
It is not recorded that anyone actually witnessed the Resurrection. No one – not Mary Magdalene, or Peter, or the Beloved Disciple – saw Jesus emerge from the tomb. (There are some apocryphal accounts, but the Church has never accepted these as part of the Scriptures.)
Some of the disciples saw the empty tomb on Easter morning, but this is not in itself compelling evidence of the Resurrection. (Mary Magdalene’s thought was that someone had taken the body of Jesus.)
What is compelling is that after the Resurrection, the Risen Christ appears to the disciples.
But is this compelling evidence? Did they really see him, or was it some kind of mystical experience?
While nothing forces us to believe that their experience of the Risen Christ was real, there is much that warrants belief in this. Most of all, it is the change that took place in these first witnesses. Before their experience of the Risen Christ they were skeptical. But afterwards, there was a radical change that lasted for the rest of their lives. For some of them, it would be at the price of their lives.
The Gospel descriptions of these encounters indicate a happening far different from a dream, an ecstatic episode or merely a subjective experience. It is reasonable to say that the change that took place in these witnesses is only understandable in the light of an actual experience.
To believe in the Resurrection ultimately requires an act of faith. But the accounts of these early witnesses provide very strong support for that act of faith.