In today’s Gospel story, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus don’t recognize Jesus. Although they spend a considerable amount of time in his presence, although their hearts are “burning” within them as they realize later, they can’t place him until the very end of the story. This isn’t the only time this has happened. In fact, in the Gospel stories of Jesus’s appearances after his Resurrection, it happens three different times. The first time is when Mary Magdalene sees Jesus on Easter morning near the tomb on but doesn’t recognize him; she thinks maybe he’s the gardener. Then later, in the Gospel of John, Peter and John and some of the other disciples are back in Galilee fishing; Jesus asks them if they’ve caught anything, and they don’t recognize who is speaking to them.
In between those two stories is today’s Gospel. We should ask ourselves: why do all of these disciples not recognize Jesus? After all, this was their Master, the one for whom they had given up everything to be his disciples. Did Jesus look so different? Well, perhaps he did – after all, his body had died and was now risen, so that “death no longer has any power over him” (Rom 6:9). But while the glorified and risen body of Jesus might have looked different in some way, perhaps we could also say that part of the explanation is the disciples themselves. Like the scenario I described at the beginning, we don’t always recognize someone we’re not expecting to encounter.
Maybe the simple answer is that the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus after the Resurrection because they thought he was dead. Even after hearing that maybe somehow he was risen they still believed wholly or in part that he was dead. It took an encounter with a person truly alive to help them to see – a person truly alive who made them, in turn, come alive. The Emmaus story is about the reality of the Resurrection – and what that change means for us, not for Jesus. As we heard, these disciples are so radically changed – so filled with joy and faith – that after Jesus disappears from their midst, they go straight back to Jerusalem – despite the fact that they had just left there, afraid or dismayed, despite the fact that apparently it’s late in the day, and it’s a seven mile journey one way. No matter – they go right back to the apostles in the Upper Room to tell them what has happened to them. The disciples recognized the one who had been changed, who had been dead but now was alive, and having encountered him, *they* are changed as well.
So, friends, perhaps we should ask ourselves, “Well, what about me? Do I feel changed in this Easter season? Is my faith strengthened? Have I been relieved in some way of my fears and troubles in light of Jesus’s Resurrection? Have I encountered the Risen Lord in a new way?” I hope the answer for all of us is, “Yes.” But if not, ask yourself, “Why?” The pandemic has made things tough, and we don’t have the opportunity to come to the Mass right now. That’s a big loss, but it’s too simple to blame everything on that. Instead, if we aren’t feeling enlivened right now – if we are lacking in faith, giving in to fear and dismay – then perhaps we first need to acknowledge that we aren’t really looking for the Risen Christ. Maybe we’re seeking distraction or fulfillment in something else, something earthly, with our faith becoming not much more than lip service. Maybe we are like those on the road to Emmaus, running away from events that we don’t understand.
And if that’s where we find ourselves – if we stop to recognize that it is we who are in need of being changed – then surely the Lord is also already there in our midst to help us to recognize him, in turn. Perhaps he is opening again the Scriptures, so that we can encounter him in a new way in the pages of God’s written Word. Perhaps he helps us to realize his Real Presence in the Eucharist, the breaking of the sacrificial bread, for which our hearts should grow fonder in this time of absence. Perhaps he accompanies us in the quiet journey of prayer, where he helps us to realize that – of all events in the world, past and present, of all the things of time and history – his Resurrection stands above all. Do we realize that? Or are we still looking for him among the dead?
Friends, this Emmaus story is our story. In the breaking of the bread of this Eucharist, let us look with new recognition on the Risen Lord present to us. The great challenges of this time need not fill us with fear or dismay if we see that Jesus has come to be in our midst. Instead, with hearts burning with faith, let us go and announce to others just Whom we have come to recognize along our way.
Maybe the simple answer is that the disciples didn’t recognize Jesus after the Resurrection because they thought he was dead. Even after hearing that maybe somehow he was risen they still believed wholly or in part that he was dead. It took an encounter with a person truly alive to help them to see – a person truly alive who made them, in turn, come alive. The Emmaus story is about the reality of the Resurrection – and what that change means for us, not for Jesus. As we heard, these disciples are so radically changed – so filled with joy and faith – that after Jesus disappears from their midst, they go straight back to Jerusalem – despite the fact that they had just left there, afraid or dismayed, despite the fact that apparently it’s late in the day, and it’s a seven mile journey one way. No matter – they go right back to the apostles in the Upper Room to tell them what has happened to them. The disciples recognized the one who had been changed, who had been dead but now was alive, and having encountered him, *they* are changed as well.
Lelio Orsi, Road to Emmaus (c. 1565)
So, friends, perhaps we should ask ourselves, “Well, what about me? Do I feel changed in this Easter season? Is my faith strengthened? Have I been relieved in some way of my fears and troubles in light of Jesus’s Resurrection? Have I encountered the Risen Lord in a new way?” I hope the answer for all of us is, “Yes.” But if not, ask yourself, “Why?” The pandemic has made things tough, and we don’t have the opportunity to come to the Mass right now. That’s a big loss, but it’s too simple to blame everything on that. Instead, if we aren’t feeling enlivened right now – if we are lacking in faith, giving in to fear and dismay – then perhaps we first need to acknowledge that we aren’t really looking for the Risen Christ. Maybe we’re seeking distraction or fulfillment in something else, something earthly, with our faith becoming not much more than lip service. Maybe we are like those on the road to Emmaus, running away from events that we don’t understand.
And if that’s where we find ourselves – if we stop to recognize that it is we who are in need of being changed – then surely the Lord is also already there in our midst to help us to recognize him, in turn. Perhaps he is opening again the Scriptures, so that we can encounter him in a new way in the pages of God’s written Word. Perhaps he helps us to realize his Real Presence in the Eucharist, the breaking of the sacrificial bread, for which our hearts should grow fonder in this time of absence. Perhaps he accompanies us in the quiet journey of prayer, where he helps us to realize that – of all events in the world, past and present, of all the things of time and history – his Resurrection stands above all. Do we realize that? Or are we still looking for him among the dead?
Friends, this Emmaus story is our story. In the breaking of the bread of this Eucharist, let us look with new recognition on the Risen Lord present to us. The great challenges of this time need not fill us with fear or dismay if we see that Jesus has come to be in our midst. Instead, with hearts burning with faith, let us go and announce to others just Whom we have come to recognize along our way.
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