On To Emmaus

I am told by the psychologists that people can be grouped as to whether they are thinkers or feelers. According to this typology, developed by Carl Jung and popularized by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator , thinkers process data and make decisions based on rational thought and are therefore called “head” people. Feelers or “heart” people on the other hand, process information and make decisions based on the congruity of the information with their feelings.  So a thinker will walk out of the cinema saying, “That was a great movie, the plot was so clever and cohesive”.  The feeler will walk out of a movie and say, “That was such a great movie, I cried and laughed all that way through

Another school of thought suggests that the dominance of brain hemisphere will determine how we respond to the world. Left brain dominant people will favor logic and reason, whilst people whose right brain hemispheres are dominant will come at things from less structured and more intuitive, creative orientations. [Robert Theising, www.theway.org]

It would seem that the two disciples dragging themselves home to Emmaus after the trauma of Jesus’ death were trying to think the problem through with their left brains.  Granted, they were exhausted with grief.  The name of their home town, Emmaus means “warm springs” and I would like to speculate that after the day they had just had all they wanted was a warm soak and a good night’s rest.  I sense their tired irritation in the way they respond to the unrecognized stranger who engages with them on the walk home. “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?

The left brained reader will be pleased to know that a walk of seven miles would take about an hour and forty five minutes. Enough time to get into quite a testy discussion with someone who seemed to be obtuse.  Jesus, the unrecognized companion, who always begins where we are; responds to their thinking, left brain questions and explains, from the scriptures, all the reasons why the death of Jesus was necessary. After the one hundred and five minute journey is finished, the two travelers invite the stranger home in the way middle-eastern hospitality would demand.

It is as they sit down for the evening meal, doing their duty instead of opting for the more selfish soak in the warm springs, that the stranger breaks the bread and is recognized as Jesus himself.  The fellow traveler is indeed the companion! (Latin: com panis = bread sharer)

In the moment of recognition he also vanishes! Am I the only one who hears the echoes of “Don’t touch me Mary” and “He is not here, he is risen,.. he has gone ahead of them into Galilee”?  It seems that one cannot really grasp nor hold onto this risen Lord.  One can only glimpse with insight as these warm-spring Emmaus wonderers, bow with reverence like Thomas, “My Lord and my God” , and follow him with the other disciples to the places where he is going ahead of us, like Galilee.

The shift in the Emmaus disciples is immediate.  From left brain thinking dominance, their feeling function and right brain intuition takes over.  These irritable grieving men feel a warm spring rising in their hearts at the recognition of the risen Christ.  It is a warmth that with a Pentecostal wind, could become a blaze!

It may happen anywhere at any time. All it needs is an open heart, an open mind and an open eye.  Oh by the way, some grief, irritability and exhaustion could also help!

Adapted Renew International, Prayer Time Cycle A