From Broken Hearts to Burning Hearts: The Road to Emmaus

Scholars aren’t sure where Emmaus was located. There are no less than four sites in Israel that claim they are the New Testament town of “Emmaus.” But where Emmaus was is not really important, nor should it be. In recounting what happened to those two very disillusioned disciples on the road, Luke wants us to understand that “Emmaus” is not a place at all, really. Emmaus is an event. It’s an encounter with the Risen Christ who often hides Himself in plain sight in our lives. And because Emmaus is both an event and an encounter, what happened to two very sad and disillusioned disciples, can also happen to us.

“Stay with us, for the night draws near and the day is far spent…” The disciples are doing more than offering hospitality to a curious stranger for the night. They sense a darkness drawing near that is more than just the long shadows of sundown. It’s a darkness that creeps into the human heart, the darkness that comes from the loss of faith and despair. But they also sense something else in the stranger who walked the road with them…something that sets the heart on fire and reawakens hope.

How many times have we prayed, “Stay with us, Lord,” when the same darkness draws near? And yet, how many times have we also feared to pray these words because of what they might ask of us? “Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great…Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed… Christ takes nothing of this away but gives everything, a hundredfold…(B.XVI)

Emmaus is anywhere, anytime, any way, we find ourselves opening the door to Christ and asking him to remain with us. Emmaus is when our hearts begin to “burn within us” as we listen to Jesus, when the darkness retreats, and in our listening, we begin to grasp that we are not alone on the journey. Another walks with us. Emmaus is that moment when our eyes are opened to see Jesus in the “breaking of the bread,” that is, in the Eucharistic sacrifice in which He gives Himself to us, inviting us to share His company and very life, and in which He assures us of His abiding presence with us and among us. Emmaus is not a ruined village of ancient stones somewhere near Jerusalem. Emmaus is the encounter with the Crucified and Risen Christ who hides himself in plain sight in our lives; in the Word; in the Eucharist; in community; and in the people who most need our love and care.

Emmaus takes place whenever a broken heart, transformed by the event and encounter with Christ, becomes a heart that begins to burn from within.