The Road to Emmaus

Without intending to, it seems that I fasted from blog-posting for all of Lent. Perhaps that wasn't a coincidence.

Now, here we are in the first week of Easter, the penances and disciplines of Lent behind us, basking in the glow of the Christ's victory over sin and death.

Today's gospel relates the account of the two travelers on the road to Emmaus, a village that history hasn't preserved for us - it seems to be known in only one place, this gospel story. One of the travelers is identified as Cleopas, or Clopas - he would seem to be the husband of one of the Mary's who stood vigil at the foot of the cross, a woman who is referred to as a 'sister' of the Blessed Mother. Some have suggested that Clopas was the brother of Joseph, Jesus' foster-father. 

Perhaps these two men had to go to this obscure village for business reasons, now that the Sabbath was over. Whatever the case, their minds were clearly focused on only one thing, the events of last Friday and the shocking, incredible news they'd heard this day - that the rabbi they had followed and believed was the promised Messiah of Israel, executed by torture by a jealous and hateful religious bureaucracy and a corrupt Roman government, had been raised back to life after three days in a borrowed tomb.

Then Jesus joins them on the road and, just like Mary Magdalene, they're not able to recognize Him, someone they had had a close friendship with for several years. It would seem that resurrection from the dead has a profound effect on one's appearance - as Peter Kreeft puts it, 'profoundly the same, and profoundly different'. Recognition will finally come at the supper table, when bread is blessed and broken and given - the Eucharistic significance is also profound.

But the time on the road is also a pointer to a much deeper reality. If the breaking and sharing of bread is an intimate Liturgy of the Eucharist, the opening of the scriptures on the road and explaining all of it that refers to the Christ is also an intimate Liturgy of the Word. And so, in this story of two downcast followers of Jesus, trying to make sense of what's happening in their world, we're shown the Mass - all of it - shared by the Risen Savior and two of His friends.

As the saying goes: 'coincidence? I think not.....'