Christian faithful see in Christ what God is doing to each human being, to humankind, and ultimately to all of creation (Romans 8).  This “seeing” is not with eyes, but with a mind enlightened by faith. Through the opening of the soul called “faith,” one recognizes that the divine presence is divinizing or immortalizing reality from within. “Without faith, the divine escapes being known,” as the ancient philosopher, Herakleitos, wrote some 500 years before Christ. What God has done and is doing in Christ Jesus, he is continuing in those who, like Christ, open themselves to His deifying presence. In other words, human beings are being transformed into Christ, “from one degree of glory to another,” as the Apostle Paul reminds his disciples in Corinth. To approach the same reality from a different angle: What we see by faith take place on the altar, through the action of the Holy Spirit and prayer, transforming bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood for us, God continues in our hearts and minds through the divinizing actions of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Through faith we are in the process of becoming what we are in Christ.   

In the words of St. John’s Gospel heard at Mass this Sunday, “I will take you to myself, so that where I AM, you also may be.” What Christ tells his disciples is not that he will remove us physically from the world, but by his action and our response, draw us into himself now and eternally. Christ did not appear to establish an evacuation plan to liberate us from reality. On the contrary, reality—God’s creation—is good, and ordered by God for the good of all creatures. In faith-union with Christ we experience the power, the life-giving, the immortalizing presence of the One who is—free of the limitations of time and space, free from death. In reality God’s creating power is ever at work. In the concise formulation of Thomas Aquinas, “Grace does not destroy nature, but perfects it.” Grace is the free, uncaused presence of God at work in us who open
ourselves to God through faith. As we open our hearts and minds to God as Jesus did, we become graced, or “sharers in the divine nature.” Surely Christ Jesus does not abandon us, but perfects us, to the extent that we willingly and freely cooperate with his Spirit at work. 

Hearing the Gospel with faith, as we do when we listen attentively at Mass, God is reaching into our hearts and minds by the word of Christ, and moving us to turn toward the unseen God, and live in his light and peace. Flooded by the presence of the Resurrected Christ, we are do indeed become the body of Christ in the world, and bearers of God’s wisdom, peace, and joy to one another. Even as we know our limitations and weaknesses, God work’s his strength through us as instruments of his deifying presence. “In everything God works for the good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.”  Alleluia

St. Luke’s story of the Resurrected Christ appearing to two disciples while walking along the way to Emmaus (“Warm Spring”) communicates the reality and truth of Christ. It is a priceless account, evidently composed by St. Luke and used as a part of his climax to his Gospel, which is the first half of his story of God in Christ (the Gospel) and Christ present through the Holy Spirit in his faithful (the Acts of the Apostles). The Emmaus-road account is so complete that it contains the essence of what has been called “the Christ Event.” If we knew only this one story of Jesus, it should be enough to elicit a living and saving faith in us. The essence of faith is the opening of the soul to divine Presence.

Note at least the following elements of the Emmaus Way story: the Risen Christ appears to his disciples, as he wills; he enters into a dialogue with disciples, asking questions and answering them in turn; Christ challenges their thinking and especially their lack of faith; he abides with his disciples, or remains with us, at our request; his simple action of breaking bread with his disciples is sufficient for us to recognize that he is present with us. And once made known to us, he no longer needs to appear bodily, as we recognize him alive in us. And note especially that the Risen Christ speaks his word to his disciples, and that his words have a powerful affect in our minds: “Did not our hearts burn within us, as he talked with us on the way, while he opened to us the scriptures” (Luke 24:32)? Without the presence of Christ through faith, reading the scriptures is not spiritually nourishing, but merely eyes glancing over dead letters on an antique page. 

It is my long-standing opinion that Luke, “the beloved physician,” and disciple of the Apostle Paul, has shared with us his own experience of Christ in the Emmaus Road account. I do not mean that Luke was walking along the road, nor that the details bespeak his experience. But trusting faith in the Risen Christ, who reveals himself to his disciples, who is known to them in the Eucharist, in the “breaking of the bread,” and especially the encounter with Christ’s Word burning in his heart was St. Luke’s experience. Why would this man take the effort to write his Gospel and the Acts unless he himself had experienced Christ, and wanted to communicate that experience in writing for the benefit of others? He was being “a good steward of the mysteries of God.” St. Luke surely knew intensely what it means to have his heart set on fire by the Word of Christ dwelling in his soul, and he had to share this life-giving experience. No one who encounters Christ Jesus, the fully deified man of God, crucified for us, risen and alive in God forever, can keep the experience of Christ to himself or herself. “Did not our hearts burn within us, as He talked with us on the way, and open to us the Scriptures?” That is surely my experience, too. Is it yours? The pneumatic presence of Christ in our souls makes our sharing in the sacraments—and especially the Eucharist—a living experience, and not a lifeless routine.
Alleluia!