On Sunday, 26 April 2020, Pope Francis offered a homily at the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae on the Gospel of the desciples journeying to Emmaus:
The Lord walks next to us, as we have seen here with these two disciples. He listens to our restlessness, He knows it, and at a certain point He says something to us. The Lord likes to hear how we speak, to understand us well and to give the right answer to that disquiet. The Lord does not speed up His pace, He always keeps in step with us, very often slow, but His patience is thus.
There is an ancient rule of pilgrims, which says that the true pilgrim should go at the pace of the slowest person. And Jesus is capable of this, He does it, He does not speed up, He waits for us to take the first step. And when it is the right moment, He asks the question. In this case it is clear: “What are you discussing?” (see v. 17). He makes Himself appear ignorant to make us speak to Him. He likes it when we speak to Him. He likes to hear this, He likes us to speak to Him in this way, to listen to Him and to answer, He makes us talk. As if He were ignorant, but with great respect. And then He answers, He explains, up to the necessary point. Here He says to us: “‘Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into His glory?’” Then “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the scriptures” (v. 26). He explains, He clarifies. I confess that I am curious to know how Jesus explained, to do the same. It was a beautiful catechesis.
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The Lord accompanies us because He wants to meet us. That is why we say that the core of Christianity is an encounter: it is the encounter with Jesus. “Why are you a Christian? Why are you a Christian?” And a lot of people are unable to say. Some, by tradition. Others cannot say it, because they met Jesus, but they didn’t realize it was an encounter with Jesus. Jesus is always looking for us. Always. And we have our restlessness. In the moment in which our restlessness meets Jesus, that is where the life of grace begin, life in its fullness, the life of the Christian journey.
May the Lord give us all this grace to meet Jesus every day; to know, to be aware that it is really He who is walking with us in all our moments. He is our pilgrim companion.
Vatican.va
