The Heart Burning ExperienceAs the two-hour journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus was coming to a close, they approached the village at which time Jesus acted as if He was continuing on further. God has given the world the greatest and most perilous gift that one can receive—the gift of free will. This gift that has been bestowed upon each of us to either invite Christ into our hearts or allow Him to pass on is the same gift that is offered in the Book of Revelation where we find the Lord saying, “Those to whom I love I rebuke and discipline…here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me” (3:19-20).
This was the very situation in the Emmaus story. Jesus had been knocking on the two disciples hearts throughout the journey and now as He acted as if He was going further the two men needed to make a decision to either invite this stranger to stay with them or to allow Him to continue on His way. They elected to invite Him to stay.
The three entered a dwelling where a basic meal was quickly prepared. As the meal was placed upon the table the moment came for Jesus to disclose His true identity. How did He do it? “He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.” It was through the action of the breaking of the bread that their eyes were opened to the stranger’s true identity. It was an action they had no doubt seen before. They no doubt saw His hands—that they were different from when He had last broken bread before their eyes. They were the nail-pierced hands of the Savior of the world. But it was in the act of the breaking of the bread that resulted in their knowing Him in an instant. And then in another instant, He was gone.
Each time we come to the Lords table, we witness the intimate act of the breaking of the bread. It is through this simple act that God has chosen to open our eyes—the eyes of our mind and the eyes of our heart in order that we may understand what He has done for all of us.
Why did the two disciples not recognize Jesus on the road? Had they not heard Him teach, had they not witnessed the miracles worked by His hands, and had they not heard Him tell them all that as the Messiah He would suffer, die and on the third day rise again? They had indeed. But the two disciples could not recognize Jesus because they had the wrong expectations concerning the Messiah. They had human expectations for fulfilling a divine plan. They had expected Jesus would deliver Israel from the hands of her oppressors as a military and political Messiah. So Jesus had to come to them as a stranger in order to fill in the gaps of their misconceptions.
If the Lords first disciples, who were first hand witnesses, needed to observe the Eucharist in order to recognize the Savior of the world then how much more do we need it? We need it not only to open our eyes so we too can recognize Christ but also to serve as a reminder of what Christ Jesus endured to pay for our sins lest we become so preoccupied with our lives and activities that we fail to commune with Him. The Eucharist is a touching memorial that should fill our hearts with gratitude as we partake of it with other believers. It should bring to our minds those scenes of our Lords suffering portrayed in the Gospels. Christ desires that we remember how He died. He desires that we remember because everything we have as Catholic Christians centers in His death. However, this memorial is not simply the recalling of historical facts.
To Be Continued...
