THE DISCIPLES OF EMMAUS REFLECTIONS

a)   This passage is an exemplary page that shows us how to meet the Risen Lord who is alive and present in the daily life of each one of us.

b)   The two pilgrim Disciples are a figure of the Church. She changes heart, face and walk when she has ‘experience’ of the Living Lord in the double communion : table of the Word and table of the Bread. There is a change from the situation “they did not recognise him” to the situation “they recognised him” in two successive moments:

• they listen to the Lord who proclaims the Word (“he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures”) and
• they see the face of the Lord while breaking the Bread (“their eyes were opened”).

• Centre of this passage is the person of Jesus dead and risen, in front of whom “everybody is foolish and slow to believe”. The two Disciples know the Scripture, but they refuse to accept the scandal of the Cross, not knowing that it is the ‘Cross’ the key to open the understanding of the Scripture and the whole Plan of Salvation.

• We too are invited, as the women and Peter, to go to the Sepulchre in pilgrimage. As they realised, we too will see that the sepulchre is empty. It is not there the Living One. He has not abandoned us.

• He is walking on the roads of the world, in our towns, in our villages. He has gone out looking for the brothers and sisters who got lost. As He did to the Disciples of Emmaus, He is coming near to each one of us. He shares with us our moments of disappointment and of hope. He meets us in our condition of pilgrims, walking along with us wherever we go. He does not go away from us even if we try to go away from him. “The Son of Man has come to look for and to save those who were lost”.