Our journey of discipleship (Mary J. Novak)

  So what does Jesus do as he joins them? He focuses on their harm. He enters into their pain in a way that invites them to share deeply on this long, seven-mile trek. This is so important because what is not named cannot be healed. Jesus listens to their specific pain, pain that is different from the pain of his mother, of Mary Magdalene or of Peter. He lets them share their experiences, their understanding of what happened, their dashed conventional messianic hopes. 

   Only then does Jesus begin the delicate process of putting the disciples’ story within the context of the wider story told in Scripture. This is brought more fully into their conscious imagination when they come together in the breaking of the bread, finally seeing Jesus and healing enough to find their way back to community. 

   In our journey of discipleship, our vision of faith and hope, our understanding of God, Christ and community will be crucified and humiliated, probably more than a few times. We may even walk away. But somewhere on that road, as we walk away from our pain, Christ will appear, in a new guise, and we will be unable initially to recognize him. 

    Eventually, that encounter restructures our imagination and our faith so we recognize Christ in a new and much deeper way. That recognition turns us around and sends us back. What we can find on our own road to Emmaus is a deeper vision and meaning of God, Christ, and our faith community. 

--Mary J. Novak, J.D., M.A.P.S. 

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, The Walk to Emmaus (1965), https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/The-Walk-to-Emmaus/D5A15A585D1F5892 Quotation source