A reflection on The Road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35)

By Harry Marston

The Road to Emmaus (Lk 24:13-35) is a crucial revelation of Christ in terms of the Sacraments. The passage is an important reflection on both the Sacrament of the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is also a powerful example to illustrate to the children that nothing in Sacred Scripture is random - everything has a deeper meaning - this passage explained to the children should help ignite an inquisitive view on Scripture.

Firstly, Jesus walking with the disciples on the road could allude to Jesus being with us during our life - often we don’t recognise Jesus or don’t search carefully enough for him. The lack of faith expressed by the disciples and potential sin, meant that they did not recognise him, in other words, it is sin and unfaithfulness that puts obstacles in the way of our knowing of Jesus. Crucially, Jesus did not distance himself from the disciples, rather the obstacles were so great and thus Jesus seemed far from them. However, when the disciples, ‘urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over”’, we receive an illustration of the faithful asking for forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Of course, Jesus, ‘went in to stay with them’, or granted us forgiveness. Once this ‘atonement’ was accomplished, it allowed the disciples to ‘recognise’ him ‘when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them’.

Ultimately, Jesus may seem distant from us on our journey of life when we, sinners, place obstacles in the way (the crucial word here is seem). We can remove these obstacles through the Sacrament of Reconciliation and consequently allow ourselves to know Jesus, to recognise Jesus, to be close to Jesus and to receive Jesus. You could also explain it as attempting to view an image on a screen with low resolution. The image is there, it won’t physically come closer or move further away yet it seems far. The removal of these obstacles (the greater the resolution), the more clear the image becomes and consequently we can see, know and therefore receive the image.

This passage explains to the children the importance of the two Sacraments but also gives them a visible, tangible idea to help them understand how the Sacraments work.