The Emmaus Walk

Yesterday, I participated in an ‘Emmaus walk’. We passed along shaded paved roads along wooded areas and across sun drenched dirt paths through expansive wheat fields. Often, just when the heat and the glare became too much, we would pass under a giant chestnut or oak tree, savoring it’s shadow. We crossed small bridges with gurgling brooks below. I smelt the ebbs and flows of nature.

The process of an Emmaus walk is to replicate St Luke’s description of the two disciples walking away from Jerusalem to Emmaus, on the evening of the day of Our Lord’s resurrection. They are downcast and perplexed by the crucifixion and news of a risen Christ, when Jesus comes and walks with them, though they could not recognize Him.

Participants, one by one, are to describe their current life’s journey while the others listen attentively. I was partnered with two young men in their thirties. Each of us shared on the challenges, anxieties and cross roads that we have arrived at in life. It was a very emotionally moving experience. It was as if Christ was walking with us listening to our pain and when it was appropriate offering a word or two of consolation.

Being with two young men, and listening to their turmoil in discerning their vocations reminded me of that time in life. I felt their anxiety and was hurt by the pain they had experienced so young in life. On the surface persons appear so pleasant and assured yet just below we are so fragile and vulnerable.

I reflected on the forest bathing walk we made earlier in the day. We were encouraged to engage with the environment, use all our senses to smell, see, touch and breathe-in the surroundings. I sensed the complexity, the birth and death, the struggle and fight for space and resources, the giant trees and little saplings pushing their way upwards.

In many ways, the forest mirrored the inner lives of these young men—and my own. Beneath the canopy of calm and beauty, there was a quiet battle for light, for direction, for meaning. Just as the saplings strain upward through shadows, so too do we reach for clarity amid confusion.

Their questions about vocation, about worth, about God’s call, echoed through the woods like whispers in the wind. I realized that discerning one’s path is not a clean or linear process. It is more like a forest path—twisting, uneven, and sometimes obscured—but alive with possibility if we are willing to stay present and trust the light filtering through the leaves

I sensed the presence of Christ guiding us to the scriptures to seek answers to our questions. I also felt inadequate as a clergyman to provide answers. I realized that all I am called to do is journey along with persons and listen. To say - I hear you, I see you, I walk with you.

Later that evening, during a silent dinner, I recalled the Gospel, that the disciples recognized Jesus in the breaking of bread. Their hearts burned within them and they hastened back to tell their fellow disciples. I said a silent prayer for the young men and for you my subscribers, thank you for walking with me.