My Dear People, 

Reading the first half of the story reminds me of the old TV crime drama Colombo, in which the title character, a seemingly bumbling detective, would nonchalantly and unassumingly socialize with different “person of interest,” asking disarmingly simple and even naive questions in order to get them to open up. So we find Jesus nonchalantly strolling along with these disciples, acting like a country bumpkin who doesn’t even read the newspaper and, so, is blithely unaware of the national crisis of the past week. Cleopas and his companion unwittingly tell Jesus all about themselves and their expectation of him. 

At that point, Jesus begins to reveal that, if not the Messiah, he is at least a Scripture scholar of the first order, as he proceeds through the Old Testament explaining the key passages that prophesied his ministry. Here again we observe the theme of Christ’s resurrection fulfilling the Old Testament expectations, as in Peter’s sermon above. While we don’t know what texts Jesus exposited, some of those employed in the Easter Vigil would have been good candidates: Genesis 22, Isaiah 54, Exekiel 36-37. To these we could add Deuteronomy 18; Psalms 22, 116, 118; Isaiah 52-53; Wisdom 2; Daniel 9 and many others. 

The disciples press Jesus to stay with them for the night, and at the evening meal, he “takes, blesses, breaks, and gives” the bread to those present. Luke employs this same sequence of four verbs in his account of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, and at the Institution of the Eucharist it became almost a technical phrase for Eucharistic celebration in the early Church. This helps us to understand the significance of their “recognition” of him and his sudden vanishing from their sight. This is meant as Eucharistic instruction for us; we should “recognize” Jesus in the broken bread and no longer seek an apparition of him because he is truly present with us in the Eucharistic host. 

Many, in fact, have pointed out that the entire Emmaus Road experience may be likened to the celebration of the Mass. First, there is the experience of the scriptures (the liturgy of the Word) as they walk along, then there is the celebration of the sacrament proper (the Liturgy of the Eucharist) at the evening meal.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Vincent Clemente