by
Damien F. Mackey
We
thank you, Lord, for wonderfully creating us,
but
for even more wonderfully redeeming us.
Back in the
1980’s, I attended a lecture on Luke’s Emmaus account given in Sydney by the
clever (liberal) cardinal, Carlo Maria Martini (d. 2012), an Italian Jesuit and
biblical scholar.
At question
time, a nun, sans habit, arose and proclaimed enthusiastically that
scholars were suggesting that one of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus may
have been a woman.
Cardinal
Martini replied that he, too, had heard of that, but that he thought there was
a compelling reason why that would not have been the case. For Jesus had called
these two disciples “foolish and slow to believe”, and he
never spoke that way to any woman.
The audience laughed and the nun promptly sat down.
That was
good enough for me at the time.
I’ll come
back to that.
Just one
other preliminary point.
German
archaeologist and New Testament scholar, Carsten Peter Thiede (d. 2004) would propose
a different - and, I think, more suitable - location for the village of Emmaus.
On this, see my article:
Carsten
Peter Thiede has discovered the true site of Luke’s Emmaus
(DOC) Carsten Peter Thiede has
discovered the true site of Luke's Emmaus | Academia
For
centuries scholars have tried to work out where Emmaus was. Where,
in
other words, the risen Christ walked, ate and revealed himself. It is a
crucial
location in the map of Christian belief, and one of the great missing
links
of Christian archaeology, which has foxed excavators and biblical
detectives
for more than a millennium and a half. Over the centuries three
different
sites were suggested, but the trail went cold long ago, or so it
seemed.
Now Thiede has produced his most dramatic find to date. His
work
remains highly confidential and will cause a storm in the
archaeological
world when it is disclosed. The lost site of Emmaus is rising
once
again from the soil. Readers will be astonished by this extraordinary
book.
….
Genesis
1 and Luke’s Emmaus can intertwine
I have entitled this article “Emmaus re-visits Eden”,
because it seems to me that - and I am not the only one who has noticed this -
Emmaus, in a sense, reverses Eden.
But
more particularly for me, based on my recently revised article:
Book
of Origins
(10) Book of
Origins
just as Genesis 1 was really a revelation by God of a
creation already effected, so was Emmaus a retelling by the Divine Lord
of a redemption recently completed.
Both cosmic events had concluded with the word “[it is]
finished” (cf. Genesis 2:2; John 19:30).
Genesis 1 tells of the Lord wonderfully creating us; whilst Luke’s
Emmaus account tells of Him even more wonderfully redeeming us.
Luke
24:13-35
On the Road to
Emmaus
Now that same day
two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from
Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had
happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus
himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from
recognizing him.
He asked
them, ‘What are you discussing together as you walk along?’
They stood still,
their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you
the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened
there in these days?’
‘What things?’ he
asked.
About Jesus of
Nazareth’, they replied. ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed
before God and all the people. The chief priests and our
rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified
him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem
Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took
place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the
tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us
that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of
our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but
they did not see Jesus’.
He said to
them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets
have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then
enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the
Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures
concerning himself.
As they approached
the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going
farther. But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly
evening; the day is almost over’. So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the
table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it
to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he
disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts
burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the
Scriptures to us?’
They got up and
returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them,
assembled together and saying, ‘It is true! The Lord has risen and
has appeared to Simon’. Then the two told what had happened on the way,
and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.
Some
similarities with the Eden story (before and after the Fall) are the Lord
walking with a couple in the cool of the day; the couple were “downcast”; they
were “foolish”, lacking in faith; they were departing from the sacred place;
they received a revelation from the Lord; they lost, and again had, access to
the Tree of Life (the Eucharist).
Now,
the Adam and Eve parallel with Emmaus would be even more complete if, as the
nun at Hunter’s Hill had suggested way back then, one of the two disciples was
a woman.
And,
considering that one of the two disciples was, as we read above, Cleopas (Clopas), then it would be
fitting if the other disciple was his wife, Mary, who had been present at the
Crucifixion of the Lord.
Furthermore,
Eden would become Jerusalem. On this see e.g. my article:
Paradise and Garden
of Eden
(4) Paradise and
Garden of Eden
The geographical
point being: the Garden of Eden was located precisely where Jerusalem would
later stand. Jerusalem is given in the Bible (e.g. Ezekiel 5:5) as being the
“centre” of the ancient world, enframed as it was between the Tigris and the
Euphrates in the east, and the Pishon and Gihon (the Blue Nile flowing around
Cush, Ethiopia) in the west.
So, on this basis,
I cannot get at all keen about Edens in Iran or Iraq, or whatever other places
people might like to come up with.
….
God is not limited
by our own thinking. He could have saved humanity any way that He had chosen to
do.
It seems, however
that what He chose was a nicely symmetrical approach: the old Adam and Eve,
through whom sin and death came into the Garden, would be substituted for by a
new Adam and Eve, Christ and Mary.
Just
as, in the beginning, the Lord had revealed to Adam and his wife, Eve, what He
had so marvellously created (of which Genesis 1 is probably merely a brief
summary), so, now, at Emmaus, did the risen Jesus reveal to Cleopas and,
presumably, his wife, Mary, the cosmic saga of his work of Redemption.
He,
in the pattern of an ancient Mass, then broke bread with them and disappeared.
Some
Catholics tell us to where He disappeared, the Eucharist. Jesus is the
Eucharist.
For
more on this, see Dr. Scott Hahn’s brilliant book:
The
EMMAUS PARADIGM An Interpretive Key to the Scriptures:
Hahn_Emmaus-Paradigm_2026.03.08.indd
“When
the disciples met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, he not only explained
to them salvation history but also gave them— and us—the
essential way to understand all of Scripture. In The Emmaus
Paradigm, Scott Hahn breaks open Jesus’s own under standing of the
Scriptures. And as Hahn immerses us in Luke 24, we see that the road to Emmaus,
the road of Scripture, is a journey to the encounter with Jesus
Christ in the Eucharist.”
Most
Rev. Andrew H. Cozzens
Bishop
of Crookston, Minnesota
“Scott
Hahn breaks open his favorite passage of Sacred Scripture in this profound
reading of the Emmaus story, which becomes an interpretive key to understanding
the Gospels, Jesus, the Church, the Holy Eucharist, and one’s role as a
disciple.
Prepare
to have your eyes opened and your heart burning with the desire to know, love,
and serve the Lord, to walk with Jesus as an Easter companion, and to implore
him to ‘stay with us!’”
Most
Rev. Daniel E. Thomas
Bishop
of Toledo, Ohio
“Scott
Hahn’s analysis of the familiar road to Emmaus narrative will leave your heart
burning within you. He beautifully reveals how Jesus is the connective tissue
between the Old and New Testaments, which transforms the way we read the Bible,
experi ence the Mass, and get on the road ourselves to share the Good News with
others.” Chris Stefanick Founder and President of Real Life Catholic “The
Emmaus Paradigm is a powerful and accessible guide to reading all of
Scripture as a unified, living story. Scott Hahn masterfully translates rich
theological truths into clear, compel ling insights for everyday readers. As I
read, this book rekindled for me wonder in the Bible. It’s the perfect catalyst
for a daily Scripture habit.” Lisa Brenninkmeyer Founder and CEO of Walking
with Purpose “In The Emmaus Paradigm, Hahn does what he does best: highlights
typology, the insight of the Church Fathers, and the Scripture itself. This is
a must-read for both the beginner and the advanced reader of Scripture, as
there is something in The Emmaus Paradigm for everyone.” Charbel Raish Director
of Parousia Media and Author of How Islam Led Me Back to Christ “Allow this
book to ‘open your eyes’ to the Real Presence of the One who turned the gloom
of Cleopas and his companion into an ardent, supernatural joy that could not be
contained. Hahn both explains and personally embodies the truth that a heart
set on fire by the Risen Eucharistic Lord cannot but spread its flame to
others!”
Fr.
Sean Davidson
Author
of Prophet of Fire: The Witness of St. John the Baptist
