Meeting a Stranger


 Image result for two disciples at emmaus

I love the story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Resurrection. They are downcast as they meet a stranger along the way. He asks them what they are discussing and they tell him about Jesus' horrible death three days before and rumors about his rising from the dead. The stranger is an excellent teacher as he draws from them their knowledge about what has happened. He is also a good counselor who knows that they need to talk about their feelings and reactions to the events. Then he explained to them the meaning of the disturbing things they had witnessed.

When he pretends to continue his journey, they urge him to stay with them for the night. While they are eating, the stranger takes a loaf of bread and breaks it in half. Suddenly they recognize Jesus and are amazed that they were so slow to understand who he was. "Were not our hearts burning within us as we walked with him?"

We too are often unaware of Jesus among us. He wants us to ponder our experiences and realize his presence in all that happens to us. He wants us to see him not only in the breaking of the bread, but in the people and events of our lives. He is present in the homeless person we ignored, in the old man with spittle, in the irritating woman, in the obese teenager. As Matthew reminds us when we come to the Last Judgement, Jesus will say: "I was hungry and you gave me food..."(Ch. 25)
May our hearts burn within us as we encounter the strangers among us.

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