Let’s choose Jesus as our life guide.

The Risen One makes himself known to us in not rare events, and our hearts burn. The Emmaus two disciples say about their encounter with the resurrected Jesus during the breaking of bread: “Didn’t our hearts burn when he was talking to us on the way and explaining the Scriptures?” (Lk 24:32).

The experience of the Emmaus disciples shows that the resurrected Jesus will take care of the growth of his disciples’ faith. We have no witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. None of the people were there and did not see when and in what way the Lord Jesus won over his death and rose to a new life. However, Jesus cared for the witnesses who saw him after the resurrection and met him, by whom he could be recognized. Among them is Cleopas and the second disciple, who leave Jerusalem on Sunday morning for Emmaus, about twelve kilometers from Jerusalem. We call them Emmaus disciples after the place where they met the resurrected Christ during their fellow pilgrimage. The disciples were probably among the seventy-two disciples who accompanied Jesus on his travels during his three years of ministry.

On the way, they talk about Jesus, “who was a prophet… how the high priests and leading men had him condemned to death and crucified” (Lk 24:19-20). In the words of the women who returned from the tomb before dawn and “claimed that angels appeared to them and said that he is alive” (Lk 24:22-23), they did not believe what their journey proved. Jesus, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, explained to them what was related to him in the whole Scripture” (Lk 24,25,27).
The event experienced by the disciples of Emmaus is more than just a simple discussion. Still, it is like a Eucharistic catechesis, a “liturgy of the word,” followed by a “liturgy of the Eucharist,” where they recognized Jesus in their fellow traveler – “neighbor.” Jesus’ words can be understood as a model for announcing the good news of Jesus’ teachings. The fact that Jesus lived, died, and rose from the dead becomes the core of the gospel, which will be talked about, proclaimed, and died for this teaching until the end of time.

Already, the first Christians approached the reading of the Holy Scriptures as a sacrament. St. Jerome says: “We receive Christ not only in the Eucharist, but also in the Scriptures.” And St. Augustine clearly states: “The true Christ is both in the word and the Eucharist… I say that Jesus is no less present in the Word than Eucharist.” Not only did the first Christians hold Christ in the Eucharist in great esteem, they built tabernacles – shrines, but the Scriptures were always kept in a place of honor. We see what God gives us to know himself. And to experience the closeness of God is an experience for which it is worth doing much more. The Easter season offers us more witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, whose hearts burned when they discovered the love of Jesus.