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Reader offers more reflections about disciples on road to Emmaus

My father, John F. Fink, had a reflection in the April 13 issue of The Criterion about who the disciples were whom Jesus met on the road to Emmaus. I happened to talk on this subject as lecturer at a Knights of Columbus gathering in Nashville, Tenn. Here are a few reasons I also believe that the “other” disciple was Mary, the wife of Cleopas.

First, the two disciples’ eyes are opened at the breaking of the bread. What other meal in the Bible opens the eyes of a married couple? Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden at the first creation when they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Now, on the first day of the new creation (Easter Sunday) this married couple eats of the fruit of the tree of life—the cross, and the Eucharist is fruit of that tree.

Second, this story is also prefigured earlier in Luke’s Gospel when another married couple loses Jesus for three days. When they find him, Mary asks, “Why have you done this to us?” (Lk 2:48)

Jesus replies, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk 2:49)—that it was necessary. After Cleopas and Mary lose Jesus for three days, he tells them, “Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Lk 24:26). Jesus seems to rebuke both couples. “Oh, how foolish you are” (Lk 24:25).

Third, the Gospel of John tells us, “Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala” (Jn 19:25). Clopas is the Hebrew version of the Greek name Cleopas and was an extremely rare name for a first-century Jew. So we know Cleopas and Mary were both in Jerusalem.

Fourth, when they arrived in Emmaus they invited Jesus to stay with them in the home they shared. That would make sense if they were married.

Fifth, God walks with Adam and Eve in the garden, and God walks with Cleopas and Mary on the road to Emmaus. God wants to walk with us in our marriages. That’s why Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said that a marriage takes three.

And finally, the most conclusive proof that they were a married couple is the fact that the Greek word used for conversing and debating in Lk 24:13 really means to argue, so they must be married.

I also mentioned that the Emmaus story prefigures the Mass since Jesus first interprets the Scriptures for them (the Liturgy of the Word) and then he breaks the Bread (the Liturgy of the Eucharist). Jesus established a sacramental Church. The disciples’ eyes were not opened by just hearing the Word of God, but at the breaking of the bread.

- Robert P. Fink | Brentwood, Tenn.