Acts 2:14,22-33
1 Peter 1:17-21
Luke 24:13-35
Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?
This is the second time that we hear the Emmaus story in the season of Eastertide. We heard it first on Wednesday in the Easter Octave. There is so much to ponder in this text that I sometimes wish that we could hear it several days in a row.
So many of the Gospel stories operate on several levels. The stories have their place in the overall structure of the Gospel and then when used in the liturgy another layer of meaning is added. When both or one of these layers of meaning touch our own story, a new level of meaning is opened up. I see this dynamic most clearly with the Emmaus story.
We’ve become accustomed to the journey metaphor being used in many areas of our lives. There is an implicit understanding that certain sorts of situations require a mental and physical journey. We have learnt the wisdom of the process of the journey being as important as arriving at the destination. The Emmaus story offers us an outer and an inner journey. When we hear the text we are invited to make both journeys too.
Denis McBride has deepened my understanding of the dynamic at work here. He sees many strands in the journey:
from without to within,
from confusion to understanding,
from death to life,
from hopelessness to hope,
from blindness to recognition,
from absence to presence,
from Jerusalem to Jerusalem,
from separation to community.
Read through the Gospel story. Where do you find yourself on this journey?