Fifth Sunday after Easter
Throughout paschaltide we have turned our attention to the apparitions of Our Blessed Lord following His Resurrection. On this last Sunday before the Ascension, I propose that we consider what is probably the best known of all the apparitions, namely to the disciples on route to Emmaus. As we shall see, it will help us understand better the great feast we celebrate this coming Thursday.
It was sometime in the morning of the first Easter Sunday that our two disciples decide to withdraw. They had stayed with the others through the trauma of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. In the early morning of this first day of the week, there were reports that the body of the Lord had been stolen. The women had gone early to the tomb, but had come back, clearly having lost their wits, saying that they had seen Him alive. This was a bit too much for Cleophas and his companion (probably St Luke, who recounts the story), so they decide they need some time off. They leave the group of disciples. In other words, they leave the Church.
Not a good move, but fortunately the Good Shepherd goes after the lost sheep. As they make their way to Emmaus, they are conversing. And of what? Obviously, of the only One who is really of any interest to them. Our Lord approaches and walks with them in silence, for some time listening to their conversation. At a lull in the talk, he asks them: What are these discourses that you hold one with another as you walk, and are sad? Cleophas said to Him: Art Thou the only stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things that have been done there in these days? To whom he said: What things? (Lk 24:17-19).
The only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know about Jesus! Imagine. But Jesus is pleased that, even though they have made a mistake in leaving the company of the apostles, they are still talking about Him. [A lesson: when people leave the Catholic Church or even reject God, try to get them talking about Jesus. You cannot approach a fire without feeling some warmth from it.] And so they tell Jesus all about Himself! [Another lesson: Jesus does like to hear our baby talk about Him. Nothing we can say about Him will do Him justice, but still He is quite pleased that we care enough about Him to make Him the subject of our conversation].
After Cleophas summarises the events that Jesus knew better than they, He shifts gears and commences His lesson: O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things that were concerning Him (Lk 24:25-27). Those things in all the Scriptures that concerned Him must have taken a while, for Our Lord Himself told the Pharisees that the Scriptures in their entirety are about Christ. We can assume however that He abridged the matter a great deal in reminding them, for example, of how Abel the Just was killed by his own brother for offering a sacrifice pleasing to God, how Joseph was sold into slavery and thus became the saviour of His people, how the paschal lamb was sacrificed and its blood place on the doors to protect the Hebrews from extermination. He no doubt mentioned the psalms which portray the Passion of the Messiah and of course the Suffering Servant of Isaiah which has been called the Proto-Passion, so explicit is it in its description of the death of Our Lord.
Finally, they reach Emmaus and Jesus pretends to go further, so what do they do? They more or less force Him to stay. [Lesson: Jesus likes to be forced, to be urged with such great eagerness, for it shows how much we love and want Him]. The disciples indeed have come to love Him along the way, even though they have not yet recognised Him. He does enter the house with them and as He breaks the Bread, their eyes are opened, they recognise Him, and He vanishes!
The story is marvellous, and even 2,000 years later, continues to move us. But there are deeper lessons here than most of us realise. First of all, the event of the Passion itself teaches us that the way of the cross is the way that we must all follow: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? Is not the cross the way that has been cut out for each of us who have been marked with the sign of the Cross from our entrance into the Church? When we meet with any sorrow or pain in life, we should remind ourselves of those words: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? Ought not I to have suffered these things? Were they not necessary to make me the person I am today? Did I not require them in order to mature in the faith and reach a certain level of true love in my life. As the Imitation of Christ says: ‘He who has not suffered, what does he know?’
There is however another lesson. After the trial of the Passion and the Resurrection, the Lord does not stay visibly with the disciples, nor does He take them with Him to Heaven right away. In the episode of Emmaus, we can see that He actually plays what we can only call hide and seek with them. While they do not recognise Him, He is happy to converse with them, to open their hearts to His teaching. But as soon as they recognise His presence, He vanishes. Why is this? We must walk through a dark valley of the shadow of death, but as we go we are sustained by Someone who is there, but behind a veil. We do not readily recognise the Lord’s voice and interventions for what they are. They seem hidden from us. But if we persevere in carrying our cross and marching towards the goal that has been set for us, it happens that we realise the grace of God present in our lives. And often as soon as we do, the vision vanishes! We hardly have a moment to bask in the light, to find consolation, and He is gone again.
Why, it may be asked, does the Lord deal with us so? Quite simply because He wants to be loved for Himself. There are plenty of mercenaries out there who do anything for pay. Jesus has few friends who love Him for His own sake. But to have and hold and love Jesus is such a tremendous grace that it is worth suffering for, and it is worth waiting for. Jesus wants to teach us to love Him in spite of the darkness we traverse, in spite of the pain or loneliness we undergo. In those moments, we need to be reminded that the more faith, hope and charity we have, the more are we united with God. Nothing else unites us to God. Experiences do not unite us with God, nor do consolations. Feeling good about God or about ourselves does not make us holy, nor does it make us any closer to Him. Only faith, hope and charity unite us with God. Why is this? Quite simply, as St John of the Cross writes: ‘Because the role of faith, hope and charity is to withdraw the soul from all that is less than God, consequently they unite her with God’ (Dark Night of the Soul).
The same doctor tells us: ’You do very well to seek Him always as one hidden. You honour God greatly and indeed come near to him when you hold Him to be nobler and deeper than anything you can attain. So do not settle down or try to find a corner in what your mind and heart can grasp… And do not be like many heartless people who have a low opinion of God: they think that when they cannot understand Him or sense or feel Him He is further away – when the truth is more the opposite: it is when you understand Him less clearly that you are coming closer to Him’ (Spiritual Canticle). This saint lived what he taught. One of the witnesses in the process of his beatification stated: ‘One indication that he had this kind of faith was seeing him in the suffocating trials he went through… His faith gave him strength, opening doors for him so that he could draw breath in the presence of his God, even when the pathways seemed to be completely closed’.
What does this have to do with the disciples of Emmaus and the Ascension? Very much indeed. The death of Our Lord was the greatest trial a soul could ever endure, and yet it was the path through which all the graces and gifts of God have come to us. We are all called to go through such darkness. Like the disciples, we are foolish of mind and slow of heart (that is to say, of will) and we are hard to convince. And when we do finally see, the light is brief, it does not last. This life is not the eternal homeland. During those times of desolation, darkness and sadness, our task is simple: keep walking with Jesus, keep talking of and with Jesus. Every now and then our heart will burn within us as He opens to us the Scriptures, and every now and then we will get a faint glimpse of the light, but it will not last, not in this life.
Let’s keep all this in mind this Ascension Thursday when the paschal candle is extinguished: the light was given to strengthen our faith, it gave us joy, but when it disappears, it does not mean it’s over. It means that it is now for the theological virtues to really come into play, for then we can approach God much more, even though we will not feel it, and we may feel very far away indeed. So let us move on and never give in to discouragement, which is the Devil’s playground. In spite of the sadness of our hearts and the confusion of our minds, like the disciples, let us speak of Jesus with each other, for no one else can be of any comfort to us.