Emmaus - the everyday road
18.08.2009
The Emmaus Story (Lk 24:13-35) is revealed as our own life story;
Sr Kathleen helps us walk the road to Emmaus and understand what it means.
"WERE not our hearts on fire as he talked with us on the road" (Lk 24:32).
The story begins with Cleophas and his companion travelling from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Their outward journey is a symbol of an inward search but they are going in the wrong direction! They are walking away from Jerusalem, moving from the place of pain! Since they are unable to face Jerusalem because of its association with failure, it's natural for them to want to leave. However, one can't leave failure behind even if one exits the place of failure. Life is a process of either moving away from or moving towards something. It involves a letting go, a dying and rising.
Their Sense of failure
The two disciples were trying to make sense of failure when Jesus joined them on their journey. They set the pace; He joins them and walks no faster or no slower than them. He asked them, "What is it you are debating as you walk?" (Lk 24:17). Jesus wants to know what they are talking about. Their answer was simple, "We had been hoping that He was to be the liberator of Israel" (Lk 24:21). Their hopes are dead. When this happens, the future makes no sense. They are living in the past, preoccupied with disappointment, brooding over their failure.
An invitation
Jesus invites them to tell him their story, "Tell me your story!" "How do you see your life now"? "How do you see the world"?
Before people speak we often know their life stories because they are written on their faces. Jesus will not minister to them until he has heard their life stories. Theirs is about how they live with disappointment and failure.
Then He brings them on a journey through the scriptures. They don't know the scriptures so they can't recognise Him. He still hasn't told them who He is, "Something prevented them from recognising him" (Lk 24:16). He pretends to travel on. In the end they leave with a story to tell.
At the beginning they had no story. Now they are aware and in touch with themselves and their own life story.
Jesus speaks to the disciples directly. He knows it's important to help people clarify what has happened in their lives, how they feel about it and what direction they hope their lives will take. He puts them in touch with the deepest part of themselves as he tries to heal their memories.
A blessing on the past
When we give meaning to pain we are not destroyed or dehumanised by it. To talk about healing is to talk about hurts. Jesus helps them to put a blessing on the past. He gives them a memory, a sense of who they are. He gives them hope, the possibility of new directions, the opportunity to redirect their lives. He did this, not by telling them what to do but as a companion on the road. Now they can minister to others.
Facing the future
How can they face the future? The future can only make sense if there is reconciliation with the past. The story reminds us that we, too, have a narrative to tell. We may be caught in a pattern, perhaps since we were children but we may be hiding it under the mask of success or fame. How do we see ourselves 10 years from now? That depends on how we see ourselves now. We may spend a lot of our lives fighting old grief or mourning our past losses. (Simon the Pharisee keeps reminding Jesus about the woman's past but Jesus wants Simon to know that people can be transformed and are not at the mercy of what happened to them in the past). Once they are comfortable with Him he offers them other options, other ways of seeing.
The mess we are in
We need to admit our own brokenness. If we deny and repress it, it shows up in the form of guilt and anger. Some suffering is inescapable but it must be made meaningful. We have to make life out of death - that's the paschal mystery. We are broken and blessed; we are wounded healers. When we touch our own humanness we bring the humanness of Jesus to people.
We need people
It's important to have friends who can support us and to have a soul-friend with whom we can share the key moments of our life story.
Christian conversation is one of our great ministries. We need people, who join us on our journey through life and who care for us. In their presence we can remove our masks, because like the disciples, we feel comfortable to tell our stories. Because of such friends we can say with the 13th century Persian poet:
Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear, Someone fills the cup in front of us. We taste only sacredness.
Earlier when the disciples had set off from Jerusalem they did so as two discouraged disciples. Like the prophet Elijah failure and disappointment were too much for them. Now that they are in touch with their stories and have been ministered to by Jesus, they are open to appreciate the message of the scriptures and to return to Jerusalem, the place of failure.
A journey transformed
While Jesus was listening to their stories, healing their memories and explaining the scriptures they realised that their hearts were burning within them, "Were not our hearts on fire as he talked with us on the road...?" (Lk 24:32). They have tasted sacredness so they pray, "Stay with us, for evening approaches, and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them (Lk 24:29). Because of the experience in the company of the Stranger on the journey and in Emmaus, their journey has become a pilgrimage and their lives are now transformed. Luke tells us "...they set out and returned to Jerusalem (Lk 24:33), to the place of failure they had left in disappointment and discouragement.
Blessed by the Stranger
We, too, have been blessed by a Stranger who walked into our lives, who lived our life and died our death. We've been asked to do the same; for this is the stranger who according to Paul, left within our hearts the same power He carried in his own (Eph 1:18-20). Trusting the stranger means preparing for each new person who walks into our lives. It's a promise to walk with them on the journey of all journeys, the journey within. The road to Emmaus isn't a road of the past; it's an everyday road. The symbol of journey inspires and speaks to our hearts.
The nameless disciple Cleophas' companion is unnamed in Luke's narrative. Like the Beloved Disciple, the Royal Official, the Samaritan Woman, the Paralytic at the Pool, the Disciple on the Road to Emmaus is nameless. We are that nameless disciple. We are Cleophas's companion, walking away from Jerusalem. But Jesus joins us even when we are walking away from the cross!
Jesus gives the disciples the opportunity to offer hospitality. Otherwise He'll go on. He doesn't reveal Himself until He has received hospitality. Our community is going to be tested on whether we have been hospitable to the stranger. Be kind to strangers. He goes in and stays with them and gives himself to them in Eucharist.
Sr Kathleen Coyle teaches theology in the East Asian Pastoral Institute in the Philippines
