What prophecies did Christ 'open' on the Road to Emmaus?
If you have ever wondered what Christ's 'sermon' on the road to Emmaus was like, Archbishop Goodier may have the answer.
If you have ever wondered what Christ's 'sermon' on the road to Emmaus was like, Archbishop Goodier may have the answer.
Editor’s Notes
About Archbishop Alban Goodier
Archbishop Alban Goodier (1869-1939) was an English Jesuit and spiritual writer. He was Archbishop of Bombay, India from 1919-26. He was sent to Bombay as a priest in 1914, where he was director of the University College there, and a professor English Literature. He gave conferences on the Catholic faith, drawing large crowds made up of both Catholics and non-Catholics.
In 1919, after a three-year vacancy of the see of Bombay, he was appointed bishop and consecrated by Cardinal Bourne. As Archbishop, he introduced many new institutions and works. He was later named administrator of the diocese of Poona as well.
He resigned in 1926, and returned to England as titular bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia. He assisted Cardinal Bourne as an auxiliary bishop in Westminster (1930-2). After this time, he retired and devoted himself to writing spiritual books in Devon—and it is for these books that he is most known. He died in 1939.
The Risen Jesus
This present text is taken from his work The Risen Jesus. Two of Goodier’s most famous works are on the life of Christ (two volumes, here and here) and his blessed Passion (one volume), but he had no comparable work on what happened after. This work, however, contains a series of extended reflections on how Our Lord brought his doubting followers to faith in him, after his resurrection.
The text is an extract from his reflection on Christ’s encounter with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The Gospel tells us:
[B]eginning at Moses and all the prophets
He expounded to them in all the scriptures
The things that were concerning him
(The above format of the Gospel text is Goodier’s own, and is followed throughout the text below.)
We might imagine what form this “exposition” might have taken. Previously, we have offered our “Old Testament Rosary” schema, which gives an overview of the messianic prophecies: Goodier gives a less broad, but more focused and narrative account of how Our Lord’s exposition may have unfolded.
In this time of disturbance and the events at the Vatican, we hope that this text gives readers a rest from the punditry, and goes some way in increasing faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the prophesied Messias and redeemer of mankind.
The Disciples at Emmaus
Archbishop Alban Goodier SJ
The Risen Jesus, Chapter VI
Second Edition, Manres Press, Roehampton, 1924.
The account of the disciples
So the men had gone on, one thing leading to another; telling the main outline, repeating the details which they wished they could believe, but in the end strengthening themselves in doubt. Meanwhile the stranger had walked by their side saying nothing. Indeed they had scarcely noticed him. His question and his presence had given them occasion to repeat over again their tale of woe and disappointment, and that was some sort of relief.
At last their tale was ended and they lapsed once more into silence. For a minute they walked along without a word; when suddenly the stranger, as it were pulling himself together, capturing their whole attention by his mere manner, with an authority that made them ignore the sudden turning of the tables, broke in upon them with a tender yet convincing cry:—
“O foolish,” he said,
“And slow of heart to believe
In all things which the prophets have spoken
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things
And so to enter into his glory?”
As he spoke he seemed to forget himself and his surroundings, and they forgot themselves as they listened. That he called them foolish caused no resentment; he spoke as one who had authority and knew. That he said they were slow of heart to believe did not trouble them; rather it made them cling the more to one whose words seemed to promise some light, some escape from their slough of despond.
He spoke of the prophets; he spoke of Jesus as if he knew Him, from within as well as from without, from above as well as from below, His relation to the past and to the future, lifting Him out of the petty trifles that litter the valley of this death into the light which was the life, and which leaves death broken and conquered.
The stranger’s exposition of the Law and the histories
With this exordium the stranger began. He reminded them of the first promise of the Christ, which contained the biting of His heel by the serpent; of the first forerunner of the Christ, a brother murdered by a brother. He spoke of Isaac, offered by his father; of Joseph, who through blood and betrayal and bondage rose to be the saviour of his brethren; of the descendant of Juda, who according to Jacob’s prophecy should
“wash his robe in wine
And his garment in the blood of the grape”
and should be
“the expectation of the nations.”
Genesis 49, 10, 11.
He dwelt long on Moses the Deliverer, whose life was in danger from his childhood; of the paschal lamb whose blood was to bring salvation to the people; of the brazen serpent, set aloft that men might see it and believe; of the blood that was to be shed at the high-priest’s consecration; of the blood-sacrifice for sin,
“the victim that is slain for sin
The blood of which is carried into the tabernacle of the testimony
To make atonement in the sanctuary.”
Leviticus 6, 30.
He spoke of the red cow whose blood was shed in expiation, of the scapegoat who carried the sins of the nation into the desert, of the many sacrifices whose blood-sheddings took place every day before their eyes. This alone, had they not been so “foolish and slow of heart to believe,” should have told them that blood would be outpoured in the greatest sacrifice of all.
He reminded them of their forefathers, who fell often, yet rose again,
“and there they offered sacrifices to the Lord,”
Judges 2, 5;
… of Samson, who by his death slew more of his nation’s enemies than he had done in life; of David who marched to the throne through the blood of Jonathan; of David again who in spite of all his glory had nevertheless to be called by God “a man of blood,” and was doomed to find his crown a very crown of thorns.
He recalled the succession of mighty men of old, whose lives were one long tale of evil days; of the prophets, who spoke to succeeding generations, and received only persecution in reward for their labours; of the nation itself of the Jews, of Israel and Juda, which only through death, through long and dreary captivity, could be purified of all its guilt and rise again to life.
They listened and seemed to see all things in a new light. Accustomed as they had been to read their history in the light of the Messias, to interpret their heroes as foreshadowings of the Messias, like most of their generation they had yet missed this feature of Him, that through many tribulations He was destined to enter into His kingdom. Now they saw it all more clearly; the Passion of Jesus had to be; it was pictured in the past, it was a proof of His kingship, instead of a scandal it was a matter for glory, the cross was not a gibbet but a throne.
His explanation of the psalms and prophets
Then with this background fixed, the stranger took up the other sacred records. Had they not pondered the meaning of the psalms? What meant the prophet when he sang:
“Why have the Gentiles raged
And the people devised vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up and the princes met together
Against the Lord and against his Christ?”
Psalm 2, 1, 2.
Or had they not heard Jesus Himself when dying quote the psalm:
“O God, my God look upon me
Why hast thou forsaken me?I am a worm and no man;
The reproach of men
And the outcast of the people
All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn
They have spoken with the lips and wagged the head
He hoped in the Lord
Let him deliver him
Let him save him
Seeing he delighteth in himThey have dug my hands and feet
They have numbered all my bones
And they have looked and stared upon me
They parted my garments amongst them
And upon my vesture they cast lots.”
Psalm 21.
“In thy sight are all they that afflict me
My heart hath expected reproach and misery
And I looked for one that would grieve together with me
And there was none
And for one that would comfort me
And I found none
And they gave me gall for my food
And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Psalm 68.
“He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God
And calleth himself the son of GodIf he be the true son of God
He will defend him
And will deliver him from the hands of his enemies
Let us examine him by outrages and tortures
That we may know his meekness
And try his patience
Let us condemn him to a most shameful death
For there shall be respect had unto him by his words.”
Wisdom 2, 13—20.
“I have given my body to the strikers
And my cheeks to them that plucked them
I have not turned away my face
From them that rebuked me
And spit upon me.”
Isaias 50, 6.
“There is no beauty in him nor comeliness
And we have seen him and there was no sightliness
That we should be desirous of him
Despised and the most abject of men
A man of sorrow and acquainted with infirmity
And his look was as it were hidden and despised
Whereupon we esteemed him not
Surely he hath borne our infirmities
And carried our sorrows
And we have thought him as it were a leper
And as one struck by God and afflicted
But he was wounded for our iniquities
He was bruised for our sins
The chastisement of our peace was upon him
And by his bruises we are healed
All we like sheep have gone astray
Every one hath turned aside into his own way
And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all
He was offered because it was his own will
And he opened not his mouth
He shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter
And shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer
And he shall not open his mouthHe hath delivered his soul unto death
And was reputed with the wicked
And he hath borne the sins of many
And hath prayed for the transgressors.”
Isaias 53.
One by one the great texts were rolled out, and his very speech seemed to give them a new meaning. He spoke as one who saw, as one who was describing to them that which stood out before his eyes, as one who himself had felt every detail of the story; and they, who had long known these passages by heart, who had pondered their meaning and had never understood, suddenly found themselves looking down the avenue of the past from the height of Calvary, looking to Calvary with the vision of the prophets, all so transparent, so triumphant, that what they had hitherto known was as nothing, what they now beheld made their hearts burn within them. They could shout Hosanna at this manifest victory of the Cross.
‘Stay with us’
At last they neared the hamlet to which they were going; in this second part of their journey they had not noticed how the time had sped. It was nearing sunset; the sun was on the horizon, and though still it was broad daylight it would soon be quite dark; to go further than Emmaus that day would not be safe. Still, as they stopped at the door of the inn by the roadside, the stranger made as though he would leave them and go further. He joined his hands together; he bowed to them; the customary leave-taking in the East.
But this did not satisfy them. They had found one with whom they would not so easily part; one who, himself not known and scarcely noticed, had with so few words transformed their whole understanding; one who had stirred in them enthusiasms such as they had never known before; a prophet, and more than a prophet, whose certainty of touch gave him an authority above the Pharisees and scribes. They could not let him go; they would point out to him the unwisdom of proceeding further that evening; there would be room for him in the house, there would be a meal for all, they would be pleased to have him as their guest. So “they constrained him saying:
Stay with us
Because it is towards evening
And the day is now far spent.”
To their delight they found him not hard to persuade. Men are leisurely in the East; they do not make their journeys within a certain time, but move as occasion guides them; that the stranger should easily change his plan, and accept their offer, was only to be expected. They entered the inn together and rested; washed their feet, and reclined for their evening meal.
But now a strange thing happened. Their guest was between them at the table. Already, by a kind of instinct, they had grown accustomed to yielding him precedence; now at the beginning of the meal he seemed to accept the place as his right. The bread lay on the table; he took it in both his hands. His eyes raised themselves to heaven; as he did so, the two disciples felt a strange sensation as of going through something which they had experienced in their lives before. Then his hand was raised above the bread; he was praying; he was blessing it; he broke it in pieces; he distributed the pieces among them.
Their eyes were opened
At once the truth flashed upon them. Their minds flew back to that day in the desert by the lake, when the Master had taken the bread and blessed it, and it had sufficed to feed five thousand men, not counting the women and children; to a like occasion, when with the same rite He had fed four thousand from the northern cities; to the story of what He had done, with His apostles round Him, on the night before He had suffered. Their eyes were opened; they could not be mistaken; none but He could have done such a thing in such a way; He had died, He had risen as the prophets had said, He had been with them all the time though they had not recognised Him; He was with them at that moment; the man who was with them was Jesus risen from the dead.
They looked up, not knowing what to say or do. He was gone. The place where He had reclined was empty, and they saw only one another. More and more overwhelming; and yet, after the first discovery, the second was almost a relief. Before they were spell-bound; since the time He had joined them on the road He had held them captive, now they found relief in speaking with one another. They confirmed each other’s discovery; they wondered it had taken them so long to recognise Him; if they had only thought, the very manner of His conversation on the road, and the effect it had had upon them, might have revealed to them who He was. For His words were more than instructive, they had stirred them to the very depths; they appealed more to the heart than to the mind, they were light and life.
“Was not our heart burning within us,”
they said to one another,
“Whilst he spoke in the way
And opened to us the scriptures?”
There could be no question of further supper. By this time the sun had set, and the night was falling over the earth. The road back to Jerusalem would be dark and dangerous; nevertheless, in spite of the warning with which they had persuaded Jesus to abide with them, there was no doubt between them but they must return, and let the others know the wonderful thing that had happened. Tired as they were with their afternoon walk, the two hours’ journey back was nothing.
As they went they could recall what He had said; here He quoted from the prophets, here He had shown them the meaning of their own history, here He had dwelt on Moses, it was exactly at this spot that He had joined them. They noted it all; they examined every intonation, every gesture; all familiar yet unnoticed, as clear as the scriptures themselves now that they had been explained, yet they too for all these years had not been understood; how strange, how strange, that they had been so dense!
From Archbishop Alban Goodier SJ’s The Risen Jesus.
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