Hearts Aflame

The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is one of the most compelling gospel accounts of a resurrection appearance of Jesus. We are I think very familiar with the story and find within it many treasures which evoke for us a true sense of the real presence of risen Jesus to the two travellers as they trudged along that ancient pathway.

Their journey begins with much sadness and spent hope, which they verbalise and relate firstly between themselves, and then to the stranger who comes alongside them. The stranger listens attentively to all they have to say, allowing them to pour out their feelings with stricken hearts, until finally their explanation ends with an account of the empty tomb. This sparks the stranger to speak. “You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?” The Gospel account then tells us that Jesus, starting with Moses, began to unfold the scriptures for them. A question we may ask is why start with Moses, rather than going to the beginning? Well, I think Luke is asking us in particular, to explore the encounter Moses had at the burning bush, and to see in that moment, a type of encounter with the transcendent, living God – an experience that these two travellers also have as they experience their hearts burning within them.

If we go back then to the book of Exodus, and to the story of Moses, we see a frightened man, whose world has fallen apart, and he chooses to run away. In a similar fashion, the two travellers are also in a state of fear, and as far as they are concerned, they are departing from a scene of desolation. Moses, journeying through the desert, encounters the burning bush, from where the voice of God emanates, commissioning him to go back to Pharoah, to the place from which he was fleeing and to proclaim to his people that they are to be liberated and set free from their slavery. The burning bush becomes the catalyst which triggers Moses’ understanding of who it is that is speaking to him and calling him to be his witness. Similarly, the two travellers, having experienced and listened to the voice of the stranger, are suddenly animated and ignited by what they now understand as their commissioning. They determine to go back to the place from which they were fleeing, and with burning hearts, begin the proclamation of the good news of our freedom from our slavery to sin, and so experience the joy the resurrection. 

This is our moment of commissioning too. At Sunday Mass we have the scriptures explained and we receive the broken bread, recognising in both, the one who calls us to turn around and with our hearts still aflame and burning inside us, begin our task as witnesses to the risen Lord who walks alongside us.