The Meal at Emmaus

Dear All,

I have been thinking about tomorrow's Gospel reading in preparation.

Here it is: Luke 24.13-35

There's something about meals.

I often wonder about the imagery used to describe hell in our tradition. A fire that is never extinguished...

That speaks to me of a hunger that is never satisfied. A desire never consummated. 

Maybe that's why icons often depict hell as a huge mouth devouring everything and everyone in it's path.

Hellmouth - Miniature from the Hours of Catherine of Cleves

And as an antidote we are given a Eucharistic meal that satisfies and speaks of an eternal wedding banquet, where all hunger and thirst and craving for intimacy find the object they were longing for all along: God himself - the Bread of Life; the Living Water; the Bridgegroom.

God does not devour. God gives himself as food. 

And all this was sparked by a C.S Lewis quote: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

God bless you all.