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Jesus drew near and walked with them.
The risen Christ draws close to walk with His unfaithful disciples who abandoned Him during the suffering of His passion (see Luke 24:13-35). They also abandoned the community of faith after they heard news of His resurrection. They were discouraged when He spoke to them. “They stopped, looking downcast.” They are overwhelmed and disappointed by all the events of Christ’s death, explaining, “But we were hoping that He would be the one to redeem Israel.” They did not believe His words or the words of those who had said that He had risen, as He promised.
Despite their past failures, present confusion, discouragement, lack of faith, and infidelity to Jesus and the community of faith, the risen Christ still drew near and walked with them because they belong to Him much more now after His death and resurrection. In the words of St. Peter, “You were ransomed from your futile conduct handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb” (1 Pet. 1:17-21). The risen Christ does not draw close to them because they are faithful and loyal to Him; He draws close to them because He has purchased them with the price of His blood and by His resurrection.
Our risen Savior does the same with us. He is always drawing near to walk with us, no matter our infidelities to Him, sufferings, confusions, discouragement, or sadness. He does not draw near because we are faithful and have our lives in order. He draws near to us because the blood that He has shed for us has made us His own. He is indeed the Good Shepherd who never abandons His weak and sinful flock.
With faith in the power of His blood that makes us His own, we too should draw closer to Him all the time. Why do we fail to realize the presence of the risen Christ in our lives? We do not realize His presence with us because we are not intent on drawing near to Him as He is intent on drawing near to us. We knowingly or unknowingly settle for a “long distance” relationship with Jesus Christ, trying to keep a safe distance from Him, mainly because of our failures, hurts, struggles in life, or fear of what He may ask from us.
The disciples eventually recognized Him “in the breaking of bread.” Let us learn from them five sure steps to draw near to Jesus in our daily walk and begin to recognize His presence in our lives.
1. Cultivate Gratitude for Christ’s Sacrifice
First, we must cultivate profound gratitude for the price that Jesus has paid for us to belong to Him. When we know that Jesus has paid the price of our belonging to Him, we don’t express our gratitude in words alone. Most importantly, we begin to “conduct ourselves with reverence during the time of our sojourn” (1 Pt. 1:17). We express our gratitude by honoring, respecting, adoring, and showing awe for Jesus in all our thoughts, words, and actions. In short, we do all things to please Him, and we live for Him alone.
Do our lives today show that we are truly grateful for the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross? Are we living for His honor or for our selfish desires and agendas? Do we honor and reverence Christ in us and in others? Unless we show our gratitude to Him by our actions, we are not drawing near to Him, and we cannot recognize Him.
2. Engage in Honest Prayer
Secondly, we engage in honest and trustworthy prayer. The risen Christ draws near and invites the disciples to speak to Him honestly from their hearts, “What are you discussing as you walk along? […] What sort of things?” The disciples responded to His invitation to honest prayer and freely expressed all their thoughts, desires, expectations, shock, confusion, disappointment, etc.
They also listened to all that Jesus spoke to them, even His rebuke, “Oh how foolish you are.” Their hearts were enflamed with love through this honest conversation; “Were not our hearts burning within us while He spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” They took all His words to their hearts too.
How do we approach our prayer? How do we respond to Jesus’ unceasing invitation to intimate dialogue with Him? Do we express our desires, frustrations, thoughts, feelings, hurts to the Lord? Do we try to hide things from Him? Are we open to Him revealing Himself and His saving plan to us?
Do we allow Him to enlighten us on the meaning and purpose of suffering and pain in our lives? Are our prayers monologues or true dialogues with Jesus? Are we allowing Jesus to deliver us from our inappropriate images of God? We recognize Jesus with us only when we frequently engage in honest and trustful dialogue with Him.
3. Practice Fraternal Love and Hospitality
Thirdly, we practice fraternal love and hospitality to all. The disciples invited a mysterious stranger to stay with them, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” This was their saving grace because Jesus had “given the impression that He was going on farther.” They may have missed out on recognizing Him if they allowed Him to walk away that night.
We too must practice hospitality and friendship to all persons if we are going to draw close to Jesus. Earlier in the Gospel, speaking to His disciples about a little child, Jesus had promised, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me” (Mk. 9:37). We cannot recognize the risen Christ with us when we are not open to truly loving relationships with others whom Christ has redeemed with His blood. We recognize and enter into communion with our risen Savior by humbly welcoming and serving all those whom we meet along the roads of life.
This is why chaste living allows us to experience the presence of the risen Lord in our lives. We love others in a way that reverences Christ in them and not because of the sexual pleasure or benefit we can get from them. Any form of unchastity, either in thoughts, words, or deeds, by which we reduce others to objects of pleasure, makes us blind to presence of the risen Lord.
4. Be a Witness to Christ in the World
Fourthly, we strive to be Jesus’ faithful witness in our world. The disciples were ready to return to Jerusalem as witnesses of the risen Christ to the community they had abandoned earlier. They did not even wait for dawn to come before they returned to give witness about the risen Christ they had seen, “So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem.” They did not give in to any fear of what their companions would say to them or whether they would believe them after they had initially deserted their company.
We too draw closer to Jesus when we are His faithful and courageous witnesses to others. We give witness to Jesus despite our past failures or present struggles. We just make Him known to others by our words, deeds, and prayers. We do not worry whether they believe or not, whether we are listened to or not, whether we are accepted or rejected. We just make Jesus and His words present in all our relationships and endeavors.
5. Receive the Holy Eucharist Faithfully
Lastly, and most powerfully, we draw close to Jesus through faithful reception of the Holy Eucharist. This is the climax of the risen Christ’s self-revelation to His disciples: “It happened that, while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him, but He vanished from their sight.”
Jesus continues to draw close to us today and forever through His Eucharistic presence. By His Eucharistic presence, He does not vanish from our sight anymore. He remains and draws close to walk with us in all our conditions and experiences of our lives, in our fidelities and infidelities, our joys and sorrows, etc. We recognize Him more when we approach the Eucharist at Holy Mass and Eucharistic adoration with a lively faith and expectation to receive Him and all the graces that He brings.
In each Eucharist, Christ does not just draw close to us. He also gives us the grace to draw close to Him. By the grace of this Eucharist, let us also strive to draw close to Him at every moment so that we too can recognize the abiding presence of the risen Christ with us all the time.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
Photo by Lawrence Walters on Unsplash
