Third Sunday of Easter Lk 24,13-35

In a small drawing in the Louver, the master painter Rembrandt, with a touchingly simple scene, presented the words from the Gospel of the disciples of Emmaus: “Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him” (Lk 24:31). The room is full of shadows. The light seemed to radiate only from Jesus. On the table, on a clean tablecloth, is the bread that has just become the body of Christ. Jesus prays. Rembrandt captures the two men as they begin to understand what they are witnessing, what has just happened, and who the unknown Pilgrim is who travelled with them from Jerusalem to Emmaus. One man indicates a retreat, and the other a bow.

Rembrandt drew the motif for his image from the texts of today’s gospel. There were also other artists, painters, sculptors, composers, poets, and writers. Who counts those who have experienced their conversion in special circumstances? The story of the Emmaus disciples was repeated, repeated, and will be repeated. These events change people’s character and their views on everything related to life on earth and after death. These are events that surprise individuals and crowds. These are the events where the one who overcame death triumphs: Jesus, who can be known, known, and experienced. Although the conversion takes place unexpectedly or gradually, it is a gift of Jesus, recognizable, and the gift one feels is not only enough to accept but also to survive it properly.

Luke’s testimony speaks of two of Jesus’ disciples going to a village called Emmaus. As he sat with them at the table, he took bread, blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognised him. But he disappeared. Here they said, “Did not our heart burn when he talked with us on the way and explained the Scriptures to us’ (Luke 24: 13, 30-32)?

The encounter took place in the evening on the day of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The resurrected man appears to the disciples as a prophet who accurately and clearly explains the texts of Scripture that foretold the events of the previous day. It is clear in the hearts of both disciples. This grows their faith in the deity of Jesus. However, they did not yet know Jesus in the companion. They hear all that the women told the apostles in the morning, but they do not recognise Jesus. He has dinner and the pilgrim wants to go on, and they respond to the situation with the words, “Stay with us” (Luke 24:29). It is their commitment to what Jesus wants with them. Jesus prepares everything so that man can know and love his God, but man must show his free and conscious consent to cooperation.

The event has more far-reaching significance than just recalling the story of the Emmaus disciples. It is especially necessary to accept the resurrection of Jesus, that he lives and is present alive among us “all the days until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). God does not regret anyone. However, when we ask him, he reveals his secret to us. God becomes visible in His Son. Through him, one can know and experience his love. The knowledge of God is a light that dispels darkness, especially the darkness of the soul, reveals its eyes, ignites the heart and moves the will. By knowing God, man comes to salvation. The grace of God and our response to it cause an invisible hurricane of love that makes those who experience it willing for all to Christ.
History represents converts, converted like pillars of faith. Not only does the sabre take the name Paul, but the heathen, the persecutor, becomes the greatest apostle, the apostle of the nations. He confesses, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Augustine not only leaves the way of life of sin and delusion, but builds a Church in Hippo that appeals to many others and still has and knows what to say to modern man. He also confesses, “The heart is dissatisfied until it rests in you, God.” For two thousand years, Jesus has opened his eyes to anyone who is willing to accept him as his God and Lord. Hl. Francisco Assisi first repairs the church of St Damian, but his dream of a broken church means working in the church in the spirit of true poverty. St. Bernard, “opening his eyes and knowing Jesus,” declares, “He is much more intimate with me than I am.” Similarly, after meeting Jesus, P. Claude defines his relationship with Jesus: “Someone who is more in me than I am.” God, to those who devote themselves to him, accepts him and cooperates with him; he not only makes himself known, but also knows “the abyss, the depth of which we cannot examine,” writes St Theresa of Lisieux, Teacher of the Church.
God uses various paths, events, and people to guide us on his path to come to him. In many cases, God will allow difficult trials on darlings. Not only will he then accept Jesus as his goal and meaning in life, but he will also lose his freedom, others his health, others his wealth, and others his reputation. Baruch Spinoza therefore writes, “Do not cry or be angry, but understand.” And a French proverb advises, “To understand everything means to forgive.”

About St Thomas Aquinas, who wrote not only the well-known Summa Theologica but also other works still read, studied, and known by theologians, we know of an experience he had at the age of fifty, when he served St. Mass. We will never know exactly what it was about on earth. All we know is that his friend Feginald asked him to return to his work, study and writing, and to resume the current debate on religion. Tomas replied with special emphasis, “I can’t write anymore!” Feginald dared to ask again, but Tomas replied even more emphatically: “I can’t write anymore! I have seen things against which everything I have written is like straw.” Theologians believe that God gave Thomas the grace to see part of his love.

Jesus is alive! He is a living being. It’s a fact. The German historian Wellhausen writes: “Jesus’ career gives the impression that it is not completed, but that it was interrupted as soon as it began” (D. Rops: Jesus in His Time). Good Book, Trnava 1991, p. 439). In the human field, maybe. But this “career” was one of those that neither failure nor death could interrupt. It continues in the soul of his faithful.
When Jesus was about to end his mission on earth, he promised, “And, behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Mt 28:20).

We, too, received the Holy Spirit. It is now up to us whether we came to faith through our parents from an early age, or at a mature age under different circumstances. We are all called to bear witness to the light we have received. The history of the living God continues even now in the “mystical body of Christ” – the Church, which Jesus revives by his presence. That is why the Church today mediates the knowledge of Christ, the encounter with Christ, and leads to Christ and gives from what she has received from Christ graces and gifts to those who seek and know Jesus.
Holy Augustine said, “Fill yourself first, only then will you be able to give to others.” Knowing yourself creates humility, and knowing God creates love, as Sister Katharina describes: “As man grows in prayer, so he grows in self-knowledge, though not its sinfulness, but certainly its potential sinfulness. This brings us to a real understanding of what St. Philip says: ‘I am going, but by the grace of God.'” And gradually, as time goes on, it is much easier to accept the weaknesses of others because deep within us lies our potential sinfulness; because we are all human, we all have the same human weakness. ”(L. Vardey: Mother Teresa – The Easy Way. Alpha conti, Bratislava 1998, p. 51). After the spiritual experience of communion with God on the night of November 23, 1654, Pascal wrote a few words from which he can still feel the excitement: “Fire! God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob! Philosophers and scholars are not the only ones … Certainty, certainty, impression, joy, peace! God of Jesus Christ! … ” The great Pascal carried this card with him until the end of his life.

Pascal’s humility, his way of thinking, and his life give an explanation of why they are still today leaving God, the Church. No faith. He causes them to become proud. Their way of thinking is that they are wiser than God. They think they know everything better; they want to dictate to God; they will never be truly free; they are consumed by brazen criticism; and they do nothing good themselves.
On the contrary, we realize that God has given us reason, free will, his commands, and the word to know him and to love so that we will live with him for all eternity.

Rembrandt’s painting reveals his interior. Let us ask for the grace to know and live with the risen Christ, even at this Holy Mass.