On the afternoon of Easter, two of Jesus’ disciples were walking to Emmaus, a
village about seven miles away from Jerusalem (Luke 24:13-35). The Risen Jesus
approaches them but they do not realize that it is Jesus, “their eyes were prevented
from recognizing Him” (Lk 24:16).
He asks what they are talking about. The disciples are surprised that anyone in
Jerusalem might not know about the death of Jesus. They explain to him that Jesus was
“a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; how our chief priests
and leaders delivered Him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him” (Lk 24:19-
20).
The disciples confess, “We were hoping that He was the one who would redeem
Israel” (Lk 24:21). Cleopas admits that some women had been to His tomb and found it
empty and that a vision of angels told them He was alive.
The stranger rebukes them: “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer
these things and enter into His glory” (Lk 24:25-26).
Jesus proceeds to open the passages of the Old Testament that concern His
death and Resurrection: “Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He
interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the Scriptures” (Lk 24:27).
As they came to their destination, they urge Him to stay with them: “When He
was at table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them”
(Lk 24:30). Luke tells us: “Their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He
vanished out of their sight” (Lk 24:31).
What was Jesus’ purpose in appearing to the disciples? The Acts of the Apostles
tells us: “He presented Himself alive after His Passion by many proofs, appearing to
them during forty days and speaking of the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3).
Jesus’ giving of Himself on the Cross is central to our redemption yet we should
not forget the importance of His Resurrection. The Resurrection is not just an
attachment to His death. The Resurrection completes the process that Jesus began in
dying, as St. Paul declares: “He rose again for our justification” (Rom 4:25).
After rising from the dead, Jesus might have simply ascended to the Father and
sent the Holy Spirit. Yet Jesus had a relationship with His disciples that needed healing
and had to continue but in a new way.
St. Thomas Aquinas explains that the Resurrection needed to be known:
“Christ’s Resurrection is for the common salvation of all so it came to the knowledge of

all; yet not so that it was directly manifested to all, but only to some, through whose
testimony it could be brought to the knowledge of all” (3a. 55, 1, ad 2).
St. Thomas notices that Jesus appeared more often on the first day than
afterwards. Thomas thinks the reason was to encourage them to believe: “The disciples
were to be admonished by many proofs to accept the faith in His Resurrection from the
very outset” (3a. 55, 3, ad 3).
Thomas reflects: “Our Lord appeared to strengthen and comfort them” (Thomas
Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 2524).
In His appearances after the Resurrection, Jesus greets the disciples with the
word “peace.” St. Thomas explains: “It was necessary to say this because their peace
was disturbed in many ways. Their peace with God was troubled; they had sinned
against Him, some by denying Him, others by running away” (Commentary on John,
2532).
Jesus’ appearances enabled the apostles to witness to other disciples that He
was risen: “The apostles were able to testify to the Resurrection even by sight, because
of their testimony of their own eyes they saw Christ alive, whom they had known to be
dead” (3a. 55, 2, ad 1).
Jesus showed the disciples that the one they were seeing was really Himself: “In
order to manifest the truth of the Resurrection, it sufficed for Him to appear several
times before them, to speak familiarly to them, to eat and drink and to let them touch
Him” (3a. 55, 3). For these reasons, Jesus shows them His wounds (3a. 54, 4).
Thomas Aquinas has today’s Gospel in mind when he reflects that, sometimes,
Jesus did not immediately reveal Himself:
“Christ’s Resurrection was to be manifested in the same way as Divine things are
revealed. Divine things are revealed to men in various ways, according as they
are variously disposed. Those who have minds well disposed, perceive Divine
things rightly, whereas those not so disposed perceive them with a certain
confusion of doubt or error… He appeared in another shape to those who
seemed to be already tepid in their faith… as if He were a stranger” (3a. 55, 4).
The disciples did not readily believe that He had risen, even when angels
announced it. The two disciples admit that some women had announced that He had
risen. Jesus charged them with being “foolish and slow of heart to believe” (Lk 24:25).
The Acts of the Apostles speaks of “many proofs.” Thomas points out:
“[Jesus showed] that it was a true Resurrection… by offering His body to be
handled… He shows that it was identically the same body which He had before,
by showing them the scars of the wounds… by eating and drinking with His

disciples… by replying to His disciples questions and greeting them when they
were in His presence, showing that He both heard and saw … in the works of the
intellectual life by their conversation with Him and discoursing on the Scriptures”
(3a. 55, 6).
Thomas Aquinas maintains that the “proofs” were not based on reason which
“would not be efficacious for establishing faith in the Resurrection which is beyond
human reason” (3a. 55, 5).
Rather the “proofs” were from the Old Testament, as see in today’s Gospel: “It
was from the authority of the Sacred Scriptures that He proved to them the truth of His
Resurrection, which authority is the basis of faith, when He said to them: ‘All things must
be fulfilled that are written in the Law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms,
concerning Me’” (Lk 24:44) (3a. 55, 5).
The Risen Jesus’ appearances were brief. Thomas notes: “He was not desirous
of living with them constantly as He had done before, lest it might seem that He rose to
the same life as before” (3a. 55, 3).
Although Jesus would not be present with the disciples as He had been, He
would continue to be present with them in a new way, as we can see from today’s
Gospel.
While Jesus interprets the Scriptures, the two disciples experience their “hearts
burning” within them (Lk 24:32) but they still do not recognize Him. The disciples insist
that He join them for a meal. They recognize Him when He breaks the bread.
Raymond Brown, an eminent Biblical scholar, concedes that Jesus may have
had a “characteristic way” of breaking the bread but “more is involved.” Brown states
that whether “breaking the bread” is used as a noun or a verb, “it is generally thought to
refer to a Eucharistic meal” (Raymond E. Brown, S.S., A Risen Christ at Eastertime, 49).
Thomas Aquinas teaches:
“This sacrament was appropriately instituted at the supper, when Christ
conversed with His disciples for the last time… For Christ is Himself contained in
the Eucharist sacramentally. Consequently, when Christ was going to leave His
disciples in His physical presence, He left Himself with them under the
sacramental species…” (3a. 73, 5).
Raymond Brown reflects, “The Christians of Luke’s time had the Scriptures and the
breaking of the bread – those same means of knowing the Lord… In the matter of
encountering the risen Jesus with faith, a past generation is not more privileged than the
present one” (Raymond E. Brown, S.S., A Risen Christ at Eastertime, 50).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.

References to Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, give the part of the Summa, the
question and the article. In this case, it is the third part of the Summa, questions 55 and
73, and various articles. If the reference is a reply to an objection that had been raised
earlier, the reference will offer “ad…” with the number of the objection.
References to Thomas Commentary on the Gospel of John may be found in the
translation by Fr. James A. Weisheipl, O.P. and Fabian R. Larcher, O.P., published by
St. Bede’s Publications.