You walk beside me, Lord.
Orma does not leave your step on the ground.
I don’t see you:
I feel and breathe your presence
in every atom of air that feeds me.

Ada Negri

On the road to Emmaus two disciples walk with sad faces (cf. Lk 24:17). The Prophet of Nazareth had once conquered them, but his death, and on a cross to boot, shattered their every dream of ransom. Even God did not intervene. The disappointment is therefore twofold: politically the Roman presence still burdens Israel, and theologically God has not recognized Jesus as his Messiah. Between the powerful prophet and the crucifix there is therefore no continuity but rather rupture. Jesus, the mysterious wayfarer, rereads his own history in the light of the Scriptures. To understand the mystery of the cross, from which new life flows, it is
necessary to start from revelation. The cross is a way of love and not of self-preservation; it is a way of stubbornness, because even if despised, love does not fail. Sure, it’s also a path of weakness but but it triumphs. Indeed, the Crucified One has risen. If humanity has considered him an imposter, God approved him and resurrected him by raising him to his glory. The paschal event thus becomes the criterion of interpretation of the story. One last note. For Luke, the event of the resurrection brings about an opening of the Scriptures (Lk 24:32), of the mind (Lk 24:45), of the heart (Lk Acts 16:14) and of the eyes (Lk 24:31). Easter light illuminates the whole person. The world suddenly becomes conversational and friendly, peopled with faces and voices.
Waking up in the presence of the Risen means regaining consciousness, being reborn (consciousness =cum nascentia) together with things. «Christ was born at night – writes Bonhoeffer –, a light in the darkness; noon became night when Christ suffered and died on the cross; but on Easter morning Christ emerged victorious from the tomb».

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Santa Maria – Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey