Luke 24:31

Their eyes were opened. "See here the power and effect of the Eucharist. It opens the eyes of the mind to the knowledge of Jesus, and enables it to comprehend heavenly and divine mysteries. For the flesh of Christ possesses a great and illuminative power." Theophylact. Hence S. Augustine (Serm. 140 De Temp.) says, "Whosoever thou art that believest, the breaking of bread consoles thee, the absence of the Lord is no absence. Have faith, and He whom thou seest not is with thee."

Tropologically, he goes on to say, "By the exercise of hospitality we come to the knowledge of Christ." Again, "Let him who wishes to understand what he has heard, put in practice what he has understood." "Behold the Lord was not known whilst He was speaking, but when He gives them to eat, He allows Himself to be recognised." Gregory. Or according to the Gloss. "Truth is understood better in operation than by hearing; and none know Christ unless they are partakers of His Body, i.e. the Church, whose unity the Apostle commends in the sacrament of bread, saying, 'we being many are one bread, and one body.'" 1 Corinthians 10:17.

And He vanished out of their sight. άφαντσς ε̉γένετο, absconditus ab illis, Arabic version. Christ was present with His disciples, but made Himself invisible to them: a power possessed, as theologians teach us, by His glorified body. So after His resurrection He was wont to appear to His disciples and vanish from their midst.

Calvin, rashly, denies this, and contrary to its meaning translates άφαντος by "He withdrew Himself." He denies this somewhat craftily, lest he might be compelled to acknowledge that Christ was present in the Eucharist, but hidden and invisible.

The causes why Christ vanished out of their sight directly He was recognised by the disciples are these

1. To show that He had risen from the dead, and had become glorified. For it is the property of a glorified body to appear or disappear at will. His sudden disappearance therefore was a new argument by which Christ proved the truth of His resurrection.

2. To teach that by the resurrection He had passed from this mortal life to a state of glory, and therefore no longer held familiar converse with men, but with God and the angels.

3. To teach us how we ought to reverence Christ, and those blessed ones who have entered into heaven. For we are bound to render to our glorified Lord the worship of latria, and to the blessed saints that of dulia.

4. That the disciples might return to the Apostles, who were sorrowing over the death of Christ, and comfort them by the tidings of His resurrection and appearing.

Ver. 32. And they said one to another, Did not our Hearts burn within us? This was a new and certain proof that Christ was alive from the dead. For Christ taught not as Aristotle, Plato, and the philosophers, but so as to inflame the hearts of his hearers with divine love. Let then all teachers and interpreters of Holy Scripture imitate their Master, and seek not only to enlighten the understandings of those who attend upon their teaching, but to kindle the love of God in their hearts as well. Let them not be content with being as the Cherubim, but be also as the Seraphim. Let them be as S. Francis and his disciple S. Bonaventura, who became known as the "Seraphic Doctor."

So David wrote, "Thy word is very pure" (ignitum, Vulgate), Psalms 119:140; and Solomon: "Every word of God is pure," Proverbs 30:5; and Moses: "From His right hand went a fiery law," Deuteronomy 32:2.

So also Christ. declared, "I am come to send fire on the earth." Luke 12:49. Thus the Baptist "was a burning and a shining light," S. John 5:35; and Elias the prophet "stood up as fire, and his word burned like a lamp," Ecclus. 48:1. Let us be, each one, an Ignatius, a burning and fiery disciple and preacher of Christ, so that the words of the prophet may be true of us, "Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps." "They ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning."