Christ the Wayfarer

Another Wayfarer came to walk with them on the way. Pope John Paul II writes that, “weighed down with sadness, they never imagined that this stranger was none other than their Master risen from the dead. Yet they felt their hearts burning within them (cf. v. 32) as he spoke to them and ‘explained’ the Scriptures. The light of the Word unlocked the hardness of their hearts and ‘opened their eyes’ (cf. v. 31).”

The Prayer of Desire

It was at this moment that the Holy Spirit caused a mysterious invocation to well up from deep inside them. They spoke prophetically, not for themselves alone, for all wayfarers of every time and place. They spoke for the pilgrim Church, for the Church hungry and thirsty as she makes her way through history. They spoke for the Church, the Bride of Christ, burning with desire to behold His Face, to hear His voice, to abide, adoring, in His presence. “Stay with us, Lord” (Lk 24:29).

The Real Presence

Taking their prayer to heart, Jesus “went in with them” (Lk 24:29). “And it came to pass, whilst He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him: and he vanished out of their sight” (Lk 24:30-31). He vanished out of their sight, but His real presence remained. There, in the Bread set before them on the table, they began, with the eyes of faith, to discern the Eucharistic Face of their Lord, the blessed Countenance of Christ hidden beneath the sacramental veils.

Eucharistic Adoration

In that moment, after that mysterious Breaking of the Bread, two disciples, with a fire burning in their hearts, discovered with amazement the Eucharistic adoration that, over the course of the centuries, would be discovered and cherished by the Church obedient to the command of her Lord: “Do this for a commemoration of me” (Lk 22:19).

Eucharistic Conversion

Pope John Paul II’s Year of the Eucharist was more than a passing observance; it was a grace of conversion in the strictest sense of the word: a turning toward the Eucharistic Face, a rekindling of that fire that burned in the hearts of the disciples of Emmaus. The Year of the Eucharist was a beginning, not an end. What have we done with its unique grace? How has it changed us? We will be held accountable for it. “And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more” (Lk 12:48).

The Eucharistic Face of Christ

Live, then, in the radiance of the Eucharistic Face of Christ. Adore the abiding presence of the Divine Wayfarer. The Paschal Mystery is fire and light. That the fire may burn brightly within, pray ceaselessly: Mane nobiscum, Domine (Lk 24:29). And that the light of His Face may shine before your eyes, say with faith again and again: “Lift up the light of your Face on us, O Lord” (Ps 66:2).

by Father Mark