When two of the disciples were going towards a village called Emmaus, despairing arid sad, as they conversed upon all that had happened, the Lord Jesus drew near, and as a stranger joined Himself to them, and journeyed with them, entering into conversation, asking them questions and replying to their inquiries, and giving them wholesome instructions, as is recorded in the Gospel. At length, constrained by them, He went in with them and manifested Himself to them. Give heed to all that happened, and consider the goodness and kindness of our Lord. First, in that His ardent love was unable to endure that they should thus wander and be sad. Truly as a faithful friend, a constant companion, the benign Lord joins Himself to them, seeks the cause of their sadness, and expounds to them the Scriptures, inflaming their hearts and cleansing them from all the rust of their corrupt nature.
And this He fain would do daily with us. When we are weighed down with trouble or overcome with weariness, if we speak of Him, He will comfort and illuminate our hearts, and inflame them with His love ; for the best remedy for such disorders is to turn at once to God. Wherefore the Prophet says, “O how sweet are Thy words unto my throat; yea, sweeter than honey unto my mouth.”1 And again, “Thy word is tried to the uttermost, and Thy servant loveth it.”2 And thus, of meditating upon God, the same Prophet says, “My heart was hot within me; and while I was thus musing, the fire kindled.”3
Secondly, consider the goodness of our Lord, not only expressed in love, but in deep humility. Behold Him, with what lowliness He walks with them ; He, the Lord of all, walks with them, as if only one of them. Do you not see He still adheres to the principles of lowliness? He has left us an example, that we may imitate Him. He did not disdain those disciples who were of a lower degree, but joins them, and enters into familiar converse with them. The world would act very differently ; they would choose out the chief and the rich, and would only make companions of such. In another way, too, His humility is manifest. For the proud do not like to expend grand sayings amongst a few ; but our Lord with two reveals His sacred things : He despises not a few, no, not even one, for He once talked with the woman of Samaria.
Thirdly, consider the goodness of our Lord, how on this occasion He instructed His disciples in moral truth, how He refreshes and comforts them. You may depict Him to yourself how He made as though He would go further, that He might draw out their desire, and that they might invite and detain Him in their company ; and how, afterwards, He graciously entered in with them, took bread, blessed it with His most holy Hands, brake it, and gave it to them, and revealed Himself to them. Daily would He do the same spiritually with us, for He wills to be held and invited by means of our desires, prayers, and holy meditations. And therefore we ought always to pray, and not to faint, as He Himself hath taught us. All this was done for our instruction, that we should apply ourselves to works of kindness and hospitality, and learn how Divine lessons have not only to be heard and read, but to be fulfilled in act. Concerning this, you will find ample matter in the homily of Gregory upon the Gospel. Christ, however, only remained for a brief interval with those disciples, but immediately, when He had given them bread, vanished out of their sight. For He willed to console others, by the same means by which He had comforted them.
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