That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the Eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Why was Jesus preventing them from recognizing Him? Aren’t these men some of His closest disciples and friends? The answer is that the ressurected Jesus is now in His glorified body, and they are not now able to see God in His full glory. So Jesus was likely hiding His appearance for the moment because the reality of His glorified pressence would be too much for them to handle.
Let me explain. The trinity in heaven is a sight that cannot be comprehended, let alone possibly explained. Thomas Aquinas, the angelic doctor of the church, who was considered by most to be the greatest teacher of the faith the church has ever had, was given a vision of heaven and afterwards he told his scribes that everything he had written were like toilet paper in comparison.
The vision of the Trinity in heaven is commonly called the beatific vision. I believe that this vision is more glorious than anything we could ever possibly imagine. But it is more than just a vision. It is a feast for your whole person. Eyes, ears, taste, touch and smell…, all will all be raised to the most glorious experience you could ever imagine.
But there is one more experience, and that is experience of your soul. The bible speaks of God in Heaven as a fire that burns away all iniquity (aka. Sin). You cannot be in Gods presence, if you have any attachment to sin on your heart, If you do, you will get burned by the fire of His beatific vision. This is why we have to go to confession and to receive communion, in order to continuously separate ourselves from our attachment to sin, and when we die if we are given the gift of purgatory, we will then finally be completely free of all attachment to sin. When we are completely free, perfected in our will, and as God intended us to be. Then, and only then, can we enter into that presence, and bask in the warm embrace of God’s love
But until that time we are unworthy, and incapable of being with God, personally, one on one, but that does not mean that God does not want to be close to us. In fact He yearns to be with us like the father in the prodigal son story yearns to be with his lost son. And so like in today gospel He comes to us, walks with us, teaches us, and ultimately communes with us. We are stuck in sin, and we are incapable of fully seeing Him, and so instead, He conceals Himself in presence in the bread and wine of the eucharist. And in this concealed nature He enters into us, and becomes one with us, and heals us, and ultimately changes us from the inside out.
And then like the men in this story, we can see Him. At mass, in the holy eucharist, we are given a brief glimpse of the God in His glory. The disguise comes off, for just a moment, and we can be with God personally and intimately, and in that moment Jesus is fully revealed in all his glory. But only for the moment. Then the world creeps back in, and our sins catch us again, and then He is gone… Until the next mass. This is why we must stay close to the church and the sacraments. They are the way in which we on earth can touch heaven, even if it is just for a moment, and then eventually forever in heaven.
Oh lord, I thank you for loving us so much. For giving yourself to us in the holy eucharist, and for allowing us to be with you, body, blood, soul, and divinity, while we are still here in this world, stuck in our sin, and iniquity.
