Reflection
There is a residue of the “we had hoped” in all of us. Like the Emmaus’ disciples, our basic problem is one of unbelief. They had been witnesses to all that took place; yet, there was something preventing them from seeing the truth. We are like those disciples. We wander around in life. Like them, we know the facts about the life and ministry of Jesus, yet, we may walk along the road of our lives in confusion and unbelief. Our eyes are kept from recognizing him. But, when we have moments of insight, or are touched by the Spirit our hearts burn within us as we are moved from confusion to belief.
Prayer
Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.
Action
Reflection on the Emmaus story. What are its contemporary implications?
Suggested Reading
Now that same day, two of them were going to a village called Emmaus about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
Luke 24:13-21
We need a church able to dialogue with those disciples who, having left Jerusalem behind, are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment, disillusioned by a Christianity now considered barren, fruitless soil, incapable of generating meaning.
Pope Francis
We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.
Dorothy Day
The Emmaus Road story teaches what accompaniment means: walking together, sharing in conversation about what really matters, extending hospitality to strangers, breaking bread together.
Don Richter
The Gateway to Christianity is not through an intricate labyrinth of dogma, but by a simple belief in the person of Christ.
Norman Vincent Peale
It seems to me that when we’re truly present to one another, when we listen, empathize, and honestly open ourselves to our own and others’ experiences and insights, we experience the presence of the sacred. And this presence is transformative.
Michael J. Baylay
Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.
Elton Trueblood
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.
Blaise Pascal
Christianity is not a message which has to be believed, but an experience of faith that becomes a message.
Edward Schillebeeckx