Today we read a familiar gospel text in which the disciples are leaving Jerusalem and heading toward Emmaus. A stranger meets them along the way and ask them what is going on. The disciples, as the gospel writer relates, are down cast, that is they are gloomy.
This seems a bit strange. Why would they be gloomy? They tell the stranger about the good news; how the women met the angels and the angels informed them that Jesus was alive. They tell the stranger how some disciples from their group went to the tomb and verified what the women had found.
They were aware of the reality of the resurrection yet they remained downcast and gloomy. Why?
It seems upon speculation that the reason the disciples were sad was because they were awaiting Jesus to appear to them personally. They were selfish in their desire to see Jesus rise. It wasn't enough that he rose, but they wanted him to rise for them, make himself known to them just as he did to the women and the other disciples.
It is always amazing how good news revealed to one can be bad news to another, simply because it wasn't given to him personally.
The beauty of the resurrection, however, isn't that Jesus reveals himself to each individual disciple, but rather when he reveals himself to one he reveals himself to all. When Jesus speaks to one he necessarily speaks to all and this is the true power of the good news. We do not need t0 be eye witnesses to be transformed by the resurrection. Faith is not self-centered, it is God-centered if it is to be faith at all.
Jesus through his radical love for us, in which the heart of God touches the heart of man, takes light from heaven and brings it to earth and enflames love that is immortal in each of us. This immortal love moves us beyond the sensible, beyond the selfish, and helps us to seek the things above, empowering us to truly see and experience the resurrected Christ in the breaking of the bread.
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