Can
you imagine the joy of the apostles when they confirmed the
Resurrection of their Lord? Their joy became deeper and ingrained
when they heard the testimony of the two disciples on the road
to Emmaus who met a “stranger,” heard the prophetic
words from his lips, broke bread on the modest table, and then
suddenly the “stranger” was gone, leaving behind
amazement, regret and thankfulness for becoming the first witnesses,
seeing Christ with their own eyes, and as the first bearers
of good news announcing the Resurrection of the Son of God.
The two
travelers to Emmaus are the models for the world’s inhabitants.
We too are travelers in this world and during our journey throughout
our lives, from our student days to our various positions of
employment through adulthood and old age; we are listeners to
God’s word. The “stranger” always speaks to
us by and through the Bible. Therefore it is necessary to:
1. Listen
to the Prophetic Words. Listening is not a passive activity.
In Biblical and Christian understanding listening to the Gospel
and Christ symbolizes not only understanding God’s word
and commandments, but also practicing them, bearing witness
to those truths and demonstrating their validity by the way
we live. When God’s words resonate in our ears and do
not find fertile ground, when the words fall amidst thorns
and rocks, they dry up and wither (Mt 13:6-7), thus drying
in us the breath of God, corrupting the image of God in us,
and turning us into beings without foundation and persons
without principles, scattered by the wind. In our lives, listening
represents the seed that falls into healthy soil and blooms
with God’s nurturing. With our Christian faith and life
it becomes the flour in the heavenly bread, which gives life
to the world. Whether we are students, employees, entrepreneurs,
employers, or retirees, we are called to open our souls to
God’s word so that we can live the desirable life of
a true and faithful Christian, enriched with His words.
2. Breaking
Bread with Christ. “I am the bread of life. He who comes
to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall
never thirst.” (John 6:35)
The bread of life is distributed to us during every Divine
Liturgy. Are we, therefore, participants with Christ, who
as resurrected God sits at the banquet with all those who
want to share His joy with His living presence? Thus, we are
in communion with the resurrected Savior, creating the family
which belongs to Christ that we call Church. The Church becomes
one with Christ when the faithful worship Him in spirit and
in truth (John 4:24) and become communicants to each other
and to God. The same unity that the persons of the Trinity
have to each other is created in the faithful during the Divine
Liturgy, and Christ with his bread and body lives and makes
us live. We are a part of Christ’s Church by our participation—our
working participation—when we are joined in prayer,
when our love to God and to each other become the consecrated
bread and wine of our soul as sacrifice and offering.
By sharing our bread with Christ we become a living Church
(I Cor. 3:16) where the Holy Spirit joins us to each other
and guides us to an everlasting true life, in order to enjoy
God’s Kingdom.
3. Proclaim
the Resurrection of Christ. It was with great trust that the
travelers on the road to Emmaus proclaimed they had seen the
Lord. Was not the encounter with Christ the strength that
armed the apostles, who became the evangelizers and witnesses
of Christ’s Resurrection? God’s miraculous influence
was necessary to transform fishermen into fishers of men (Luke
5:11) so that we would all be invited to a resurrected and
new life. On the one hand our life on earth is God’s
gift to us, and on the one hand the resurrected and new life
is a blessing, like God’s Holy Oil (Muron) that descends
on every faithful who believes in the salvation and resurrection
of Christ. The travelers on the road to Emmaus saw the Lord
and believed. Blessed are we who have not seen and yet have
come to believe (John 20:29), in the same way that our forefathers
accepted Christ and sacrificed their lives to bear witness.
During these
days when we live with the mystery of Christ’s Resurrection,
let us all become travelers to Emmaus, meet Christ through our
faith, listen and follow His teachings, and together become
communicants to His sacrifice and be witnesses and preachers
to his miraculous resurrection.
Then our Lord will come to us, just the way He came to the disciples
right after the proclamation of the travelers to Emmaus. He
will strengthen us by banishing our weaknesses, doubts, fears
and troubles, saying to us:
“It is I, do not be afraid.” (Luke 24:36)
Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan
Prelate
Armenian Apostolic Church of America
Eastern United States of America
Easter 2006
|
