Appearance to the Disciples of Emmaus Luke 24:13-35
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
“O Creator of Life, you have saved us by your Passion and have given us life by your resurrection. Now renew our image by your grace. Clothe our bodies with the power of the Spirit, so that we may shine in the robe of glory and in its light see you, the true Bridegroom.” – HESED
The Maronite Liturgy repeats this Sunday the same wonderful prayers of Easter Sunday. All the way to Ascension Thursday, we will sing repeatedly this tremendous truth, Christ has risen from the dead, truly, the Lord is risen.
The accounts of that first Easter Sunday, preciously recorded by the evangelists, and inspired by the Holy Spirit, capture all the confusion and upheaval of that day. And rightly so! There has never been a day like that Easter Sunday in the entire history of mankind. The world is full of tombstones but there is only one empty tomb. It is one of the proofs of the Resurrection, that the disciples simply did not expect the return of Christ from the dead. They humbly publish their incredulity, and their complete lack of faith. If the resurrection had been a construction of their imagination or a grand conspiracy, they would have taken better care to portray themselves in a better light.
Consider the two disciples in the Gospel of this Sunday. They are making their way to Emmaus, downcast and depressed. They are on the verge of despair. They had lost everything on Good Friday. It had all collapsed before their very eyes. They saw their leader condemned as a criminal, a blasphemer, and an enemy of the people. There was nothing in their vocabulary to even hint at the Messiah being destroyed and being raised from the dead. How than did they come to believe something that was completely contrary to their Jewish beliefs? The only explanation that makes any sense is they experienced Christ; they met Him in his glorified reality.
May this gospel account bring each of us to a new encounter with the Risen Jesus. He walks beside each of us every day and we need only to ask Him “to stay with us because it is almost evening and the day is almost over.” Soon we shall leave this life, and if we have walked with Him in this world, we will rejoice with Him in the next.
† Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus