The Curse of Oak Island is a television series following a group of people endeavouring to locate some presumed ancient treasure, supposedly hidden by the Aztecs.
To date, the group has bored holes many feet into the earth and drained a swamp. A metallurgist has walked the island with a metal detector, searching for any material that may give the group a sense of where best to concentrate their efforts.
On a recent programme, one of the team, at the end of a fruitless day, exclaimed, “The journey is the treasure.”
Our Gospel for this Sunday is the familiar story from Luke, commonly known as “The Walk to Emmaus” — Emmaus being a village some seven miles from Jerusalem (Lk 24:13–35).
On a trip to the Holy Land, you can visit all kinds of places. You can visit the Church of the Nativity, the site of Christ’s birth in Bethlehem. You can pray in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem and attend Mass on Mount Calvary in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
You can pray at the site of the Lord’s Ascension or kneel in Nazareth at the place of the Annunciation. All in all, pilgrims can pray at the sites of all the mysteries of the rosary — save the Coronation.
One place you may not visit, however, is the town of Emmaus.
Search as you might, the location of the village in today’s Gospel has been lost to history. Several sites over many years have been suggested.
While our Gospel tells us the town was seven miles from Jerusalem, the writer does not tell us in which direction to start walking — north, south, east, or west.
Maybe that is the whole point of the story: the walk, not the arrival.
“Are we there yet?” Don’t be in such a hurry — the journey is just as important.
Then we might well notice our hearts burning within us. The recognition will happen not at the end, but while on the journey.
We will not have to wait until we are sitting at table. The recognition has come through a shared walk and a shared storytelling.
The painting is by the Italian Lelio Orsi (1511–1587). Titled “The Walk to Emmaus,” it is part of the collection of the National Gallery, London.