[Pearls Ep 168: Bringing Sunday into the week.]
On Friday we looked at how the account of the disciples on the road to Emmaus has much to tell us about dealing with loss (as well as other trials of life). That was “key #1” to praying with this passage.
What, then, do we do with our losses and trials? It seems repetitive (because it is…) – we bring them to Christ in meditation, meditating with the Emmaus account, in particular.
But the Emmaus account has a particular encouragement for our time of meditation, and that is “key #2.”
Recall that we are invited to place ourselves in the position of the unnamed disciple, who is accompanying Cleopas. Perhaps his companion was a woman (his wife, Mary), or perhaps a man (some surmise it could have been St. Luke). But now – that person is YOU.
For many, even when well along in the spiritual life, there remains some vestige of thought along the lines of, “that’s all well and good, but they were actually walking with Jesus, I’m just sitting here with my bible.”
And that is part of the genius of this passage. Cleopas and his companion didn’t know who Jesus was. The scripture passage tells us, “their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” The spiritual masters offer a number of reasons why “they were prevented,” but all that matters for our discussion is that as far as Cleopas and his companion were concerned, Christ was completely absent.
But later, when they reflect back on their walk they recall “were not our hearts burning within us?” Why were their hearts burning? Because Christ had “opened the Scriptures” to them.
And again, when Christ offers the blessing over the bread, they recognize it was him “in the breaking of the bread.”
St. Luke’s not-so-hidden point is that Christ was hidden from the disciples just as surely as He is physically hidden from us in our life, including when we meditate. But, Christ was fully present to the disciples both in Scripture (“burning hearts”) and the Eucharist (“eyes opened”), just as He is fully present to us when we meditate with scripture and receive the Eucharist.
To drive the point home, and at the risk of putting words in our Lord’s mouth, it seems almost as if Jesus is saying to us – “When you meditate on Scripture and receive the Eucharist, you might as well be walking along the road or sitting at table with Me.”
Tomorrow we’ll look at the third key for meditating with the Emmaus account – listening for Jesus’ unique way of responding to our losses and trials.
Easter blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith
Postscript: On the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35)
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
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, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.