PART 5-They Could Not Remain
They did not remain in the room long.
The bread was still in their hands when they rose.
For several moments neither of the two men moved.
The room was quiet again.
Only the faint sound of the evening wind moved along the walls of the house.
One of them looked down at the piece of bread in his hand.
The other stood a few steps away from the table.
The silence did not last long.
The words came quickly now.
“…while he opened the Scriptures to us?”
The other man nodded.
There was no need for long explanations.
Both of them understood the same thing at the same moment.
Only hours earlier they had been walking away from Jerusalem.
Their steps had been slow.
Their conversation had been heavy with confusion.
They had spoken about events that no longer made sense to them.
But now the road behind them looked different.
Night had already fallen.
The path that led back toward Jerusalem was darker than before.
Yet neither of them hesitated.
They left the table where the lamp still burned.
Moments later they were already on the road again.
Their steps were faster now.
More than once their feet struck loose stones along the path.
Still they continued.
The hills grew darker as they climbed.
Far ahead the lights of Jerusalem began to appear again.
When they reached the house where the disciples were gathered, voices could already be heard inside.
Several people were speaking at once.
Simon was among them.
The room fell silent when the two travelers entered.
They tried to begin their story at the same time.
About the stranger who had walked with them.
About the Scriptures that had been opened along the road.
About the bread that had been broken in the house at Emmaus.
But before their story was finished, voices from the room answered them.
“The Lord has truly risen.
He has appeared to Simon.”
The room filled again with overlapping voices.
Stories moved from one person to another.
But the two who had just returned from Emmaus were no longer trying to piece together broken fragments.
The road that had carried them away had now carried them back.
Scriptural Anchors
Luke 24:33–35
Luke 24:12
Psalm 119:130
Quote
“The Lord opened the Scriptures to them on the road, and their hearts were kindled to return.”
— St. Bede the Venerable
CODA-Who Are You
Years later, in another city, shouting burst out from a house.
Men rushed through the doorway.
Some stumbled as they fled.
Others turned once before running farther down the street.
Inside the doorway a man stood breathing heavily.
His eyes were red.
In his hand he gripped a torn piece of cloth.
A robe had been ripped from someone only moments earlier.
He raised his fist toward those who were running away.
His voice cracked as he shouted after them.
“Jesus I know.
Paul I know.
But who are you!”
The men kept running.
The shouting faded into the distance.
And the door of the house slowly swung back into place.
In another house, on another night long before that moment, voices had once filled a small room in Jerusalem.
Two travelers had just returned from the road to Emmaus.
They were still speaking when the room suddenly grew quiet.
No door had opened.
No footsteps were heard.
Yet someone stood among them.
He looked at them and said,
“Peace be with you.”
The small lamps still burned along the walls.
Every face in the room turned toward the one standing in the middle of them.
And on that night, no one in that house asked the question that had echoed through another house years later.
Who are you.
Livora Gracely 
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