The disciples recounted recognizing Jesus in the breaking of bread. Sharing personal experiences of encountering the risen Lord brings peace and conviction.
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The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way as they were leaving Jerusalem and going towards Emmaus. They shared how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread. Can you picture the conviction, the glowing faces, and the joy that was on their faces when they were recounting that event? Their presence, the tone of their voice, and how they were speaking was extremely convincing.
Each one of them shared their own personal encounter with the Risen Lord while they were still speaking about this. Jesus then stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” The conversation about Jesus Christ who is risen brings him back. He makes himself alive and present, but it’s not about theological debate. Rather, it’s about sharing one’s own personal experience of how the Risen Lord entered their life, changed it, and brought them from death to life. Now, they can share not a story of someone else’s encounter but their own story of the encounter with the risen Christ. That’s what evangelization is all about.
There is also a passage in the book of the prophet Isaiah when the seraphim, the angelic figures, were flying around the temple saying “kadosh,” holy, holy, holy, praising and invoking the name of God. This voice of the angels provoked the temple to be filled with smoke with God’s glory, to the point that doorposts were shaken, as if to say, “God is even closer to you and makes himself manifested to you in this powerful external sign.” God is present when we are invoking his name with faith and conviction, making him the story of his appearance in our lives.
When the Lord enters because he has been spoken about, he brings shalom, he brings peace, granting them the Messianic conviction that he is the Christ and that he is risen. Then, the entire narrative in today’s Gospel is about making sure that they understand that he is not a ghost, not a phantom, not a myth, but really present with his glorified and resurrected flesh. He eats fish so that they would not doubt and say, “Maybe that was just a communal imagination, a hallucination that it just seemed to you because of the traumatic experience. So, all of you had a longing for your master, and then you imagined him.” No way! He tells them to touch him, to see his feet and his hands. “I am risen. This body was on the cross, but now it is resurrected, divinized, and glorified. It is a new body that came out of the Tomb because the power of God was at work.” Jesus then tells them that everything in the Scriptures was to be fulfilled in him. His death was not a random accident. It was prophesied, and now he enlightens their minds and opens them to understand the Scriptures like never before.
