The post-Resurrection account of the journey to Emmaus is a familiar Scripture reading. The account echoes through the liturgies of the Easter season. As described in Luke 24: 13-35, Jesus walks with two disciples along the road to Emmaus while engaging in a lively discussion about the recent events in Jerusalem.
Luke tells us that Jesus begins the conversation by asking the disciples a question: “What are you discussing as you walk along?” (v 17). In return they question Jesus in amazement. “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” (v 18)
The disciples do not recognise the Lord until He breaks bread with them later in the evening. Only then “their eyes were opened” and they recognised Him in the breaking of the bread (v 31).
The Easter season offers numerous catechetical opportunities to reflect on the wondrous works of God in our lives and in the world. This is also the time of the liturgical year when opportunities for mystagogical catechesis abound. The Emmaus journey presents catechists with a biblical lens to engage in mystagogical catechesis during the Easter Season. Through the lens of the journey of the disciples to Emmaus, catechists and students, especially our neophytes, those who were received into the Church and those preparing for Confirmation can walk with Christ on the Easter journey to the Solemnity of Pentecost
We can learn to reflect on the experience of the disciples as they journeyed to Emmaus. One can only imagine the profound experience of walking and talking with the Lord, now resurrected and present to the disciples.
We can be encouraged to place ourselves in the scene of Emmaus as the disciples listen attentively to the Risen Lord.
The conversation that follows between Christ and the disciples as they walk the dusty road to Emmaus might well be considered a first “Bible study group”, as it were. For us Luke tells us, “then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, (Jesus) interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures” (v 27). We come to understand God’s word as we persevere in our journey with the Lord who desires to walk and talk with us along life’s way.
The disciples’ journey to Emmaus encourages us not only to read and ponder the words of Scripture but also to translate into our daily lives the meaning of what we hear proclaimed in the Gospels each Sunday.
As we live the joyful mystery of Easter, we continue on our journey with the Resurrected Lord on the path of faith. Then we, like the disciples, will come to recognise his abiding presence in the Eucharist – a divine presence that extends into our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our parishes and our world.
(Excerpts from the Catechist magazine April/May 2012) – Louise Zamora Archdiocesan Catechetical Office