By Fr. Kevin Canty, CM (National Director), published in AMM Bulletin Easter 2023
One familiar Gospel story of the Risen Jesus appearing to his followers is that given to us by Luke 24:13-35, the story of the two disciples who have left Jerusalem and are walking to a village named Emmaus. They are very depressed, saddened by what they have witnessed in Jerusalem over the past few days. They had high hopes for Jesus and for themselves. But now these hopes are gone. A very sad pair they must have seemed to be to anyone who met them.
But the one who met them was Jesus himself, walking along with them, although they did not recognise him. Perhaps they were too caught up in their own thoughts and feelings that they failed to see just who was now with them.
But what does happen for them? Jesus asks them to talk with him, to share with him what they are discussing. He even invites them to say more than talk about events; he draws them to share their feelings with him, to see how all these events have affected them. He helps them to reflect upon all that has happened and then he talks to them about these events and how they are spoken and written about in the Scriptures. He really asks them to look at what has happened in the light of his story.
And what happens to them when they do this? They not only come to a new understanding of all these events; they are also drawn towards his person, wanting him to stay with them. Once he has gone and they have recognised him, then they begin to realise what has happened to them. They are so changed that they head back to Jerusalem, to tell their story, to tell others of their experience of the Risen Jesus.
This should be our story also. This can be our story also. The Risen Jesus walks with us. He is there with us in so many ways, in the Scriptures, in the Church and its liturgies, in the world around us, in others, in us, in me. He is there with me, in my prayer, in my life. As these two disciples heading for Emmaus knew many facts about Jesus, they were offered something far greater; they were offered an experience of Jesus, that deeply affected them;
Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road.
These days of Holy Week and Easter provide us with this question:
Do we have mere knowledge about the Risen Christ and his journey through Calvary to the Resurrection? Or do we have knowledge of him, an experience of him?
Each day we might search for him but fail to recognise him. Perhaps it is as we talk to him in prayer about what we have experienced, that we will find that he is with us. Perhaps it is as we reflect upon and share with him what we have experienced, how we have felt about what has happened to and for us, that we will find his presence, his love, his consolation, his support and the strength of his Spirit with us. Perhaps we will recognise him when he walks beside us in the person of those others in need, whom we may meet each day. Perhaps we will find he was with us, as we look back over our experience, reflecting on it with him. He will help us to find him present in those in need, with whom we might walk with, the stranger who comes unannounced into our lives.
To be filled with Easter joy, to have ’hearts burning within us’ is the gift the Risen Christ offers us when we can place our story alongside his story. His presence, his word, his compassion, his Spirit, will stir our hearts, when they are open to meet and receive him. Easter day was the day …
on which the Lord appeared to people who had begun to lose hope and opened their eyes to what the Scriptures had foretold…May the Risen Lord breathe on our minds and open our eyes that we may know him in the breaking of bred and follow him in His Risen Life.