A Word about the Appearance of Jesus Christ to the Two Disciples of Emmaus

For those who understand, there is an important lesson in the current reading of the Gospel. Here the Lord appears; They see him and don’t know him. The Teacher walks with his disciples along the path, and He Himself is the path; but they did not follow the path; the Lord found them straying from the path. For when he was with them before suffering, he predicted to them everything about suffering, about death and about his three-day resurrection; He predicted everything, but His death was oblivion for them. When they saw Him hanging on the tree, they were so indignant that they forgot His teaching, did not expect the resurrection, and did not understand the promises. “We,” they say, “hope that this one will at least deliver Israel” (Luke 24:21). You hoped, disciples! Now, then, you don’t hope? Behold, Christ lives, but hope in you is dead. Truly Christ lives. But he who lives finds the hearts of the disciples dead. To their eyes He both appeared and did not appear, was visible and was hidden. For just as He was not seen when they heard Him questioning, and answered the questions? When He walked with them as a companion, and together was their leader? They saw Him, but did not know Him. The eyes did not restrain themselves, but they did not see, but “they held fast, but they did not know.” Where, brethren, did the Lord desire to be known? In the breaking of bread. Good for us! we also break bread and know the Lord. There, and not in another place, He wanted to be known - for us; for He knew that we would not see Him in the flesh, but would eat His flesh. So, let every faithful person who is not in vain called a Christian, who does not go to church in vain, who listens to the word of God with fear and hope, be comforted by the breaking of bread. The absence of the Lord is not absence: have faith, and He Whom you do not see will be with you. – When they lost faith, they also lost hope. The dead walked with the living, the dead walked with life itself. Life went on with them, but life was not renewed in their hearts. Do you want to have life? Do as they did, that you may know the Lord. The disciples received Him for a meal. The Lord seemed to be going on a long journey, but they restrained Him, saying to Him when they reached their place: “Come with us, for it is evening, and bow down for the day.” Hold back the wanderer too if you want to know the Savior. What is taken away by unbelief is returned by hospitality. The Lord revealed Himself in the breaking of bread. Learn where to look for the Lord, learn where to be with Him, where to know Him, when you eat. Those who understand know something better in the present reading than those who do not understand. The Lord, after being known, hid himself. The One whom they supported by faith departed from them in body. Thus He withdrew in body and from the whole church and entered into heaven, so that faith might be built up. For if you only know what you see, then where is faith? And if you believe in what you do not see, then when you see you will rejoice. Let faith be built, for vision will return. What we do not see will come, it will come, brothers, it will come: but look how it finds you. What they are talking about will come: where is it, when, how does it exist? when will it be, when will it come? Rest assured, it will come, and it will come, even if you don’t want it. Woe to those who did not believe - then there will be great fear; but great is the joy for those who believed. The faithful will rejoice, the infidels will be ashamed. The faithful will say: we thank You, Lord; What we have heard is true, what we have believed, what we have hoped for, and what we now see is true. But the infidels will say: somewhere, why didn’t we believe? Somewhere, why did we read what was read to us as untrue? Let those who do not see and believe be praised; for when they see, they will rejoice. For our salvation, the Lord took on flesh, and He also accepted death in the flesh. Having risen on the third day, he no longer dies: having again assumed the essence of flesh, the first showed us an example of an incorruptible resurrection. Then, having ascended in the same flesh to the Father, he sits at the right hand of God, having fellowship with authority in the judgment of the Father, and we look forward to His coming to the judgment of the living and the dead. Let us therefore believe for ourselves that we will receive from the very dust the same flesh, the same bones, and also, forever, the structure of the members. We will all be resurrected, but not all of us will rejoice. “The hour is coming,” says the Lord, “in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will come out, having done good to the resurrection of life, and having done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5, 28, 29).