Luke 24:13-35
By Father Ed Beutner, OFM
Two disciples, nameless (for now).
Their faces not revealed.
Call them meanwhile, “You” and “I.”
Two disciples, you and I are.
Walking for a while. Smiles behind us since Friday –
When he died.
Neither you nor I cried … for years … really cried.
And now the tears come freely and unwilled.
The news that never ought to happen has been brought:
“Jesus killed.”
You and I are discussing what it meant.
How we’d manage.
Why we’d trusted in the first place.
How in being lifted up…
He had let us down.
Wondering how somebody strong as he could have this weakness.
He always gave himself away.
We agree, you and I … one to one.
He’d have managed better if he’d had it planned!
Two disciples, you and I.
Still traveling home to Emmaus.
Our hearts and feelings still unraveling.
Find a stranger.
Never mind his name, his face is kind.
Take him in our stride and pour out to him all the soreness of our story.
All the dryness of our wrung out souls and eyes.
He consoles.
He understands our eyes still burning, blinded by our woe.
He starts to go away.
You and I together say, “Stay with us!”
“At least … sit down and eat!”
Two disciples, you and I
Trying to be polite,
Give him bread.
He breaks.
And gives it back.
He gives himself away.
And sight he gives to burning eyes. And then leaves us.
So it seems.
Not alone,
But leaves us.
With a hundred thousand dreams.