Understanding and Revelation

Et respondens unus, cui nomen Cleophas, dixit ei: Tu solus peregrinus es in Jerusalem, et non cognovisti quae facta sunt in illa his diebus? Peregrinum putabant eum, cujus vultum non agnoscebant. Sed et revera peregrinus erat eis a quorum naturae fragilitate percepta jam resurrectionis gloria longe distabat. Peregrinus erat eis, a quorum adhuc fide, ut pote resurrectionis ejus nescia, manebat extraneus. Quibus ille dixit: Quae? Et dixerunt ei: De Jesu Nazareno, qui fuit vir propheta, potens in opere et sermone coram Deo et omni populo. Prophetam et magnum fatentur, Filium Dei tacent, vel scilicet nondum perfecte credentes, vel solliciti ne inciderent in manus Judaeorum persequentium, quia nesciebant quis esset cum quo loquebantur, quod verum credidere celantes. Et quomodo tradiderunt eum summi sacerdotes et principes nostri in damnationem mortis, et crucifixerunt eum. Nos autem sperabamus quia ipse esset redempturus Israel. Merito tristes incedebant, quia et seipsos quodammodo arguebant, quod in illo redemptionem speraverint, quem jam mortuum viderant, et nec resurrecturum credebant. Et maxime dolebant eum sine culpa occisum, quia noverant innocentem. Et nunc super haec omnia, tertia dies est hodie quod haec facta sunt. Sed et mulieres quaedam ex nostris terruerunt nos, quae ante lucem fuerunt ad monumentum, et non invento corpore ejus, venerunt, dicentes se etiam visionem angelorum vidisse, qui dicunt cum vivere. Terruisse dicuntur merito eos, quorum mentibus plus de non invento corpore dominico moestitiam qua dolebant addere, quam denuntiata per angelos ejus resurrectione, gaudium quo recrearentur videre potuerunt. Et abierunt quidam ex nostris ad monumentum, et ita invenerunt sicut mulieres dixerunt, ipsum vero non invenerunt. Cum ipse Lucas supra Petrum dixerit cucurrisse ad monumentum, et nunc Cleopham dixisse, ipse retulerit quod quidam eorum cucurrerant (0626D)ad monumentum, intelligitur attestari quod duo ierint ad monumentum. Sed Petrum solum primo commemoravit, quia illi primitus Maria nuntiaverit. Et ipse dixit ad eos: O stulti et tardi corde ad credendum in omnibus quae locuti sunt prophetae. Nonne haec oportuit pati Christum, et ita intrare in gloriam suam? Et incipiens a Moyse et omnibus prophetis, interpretabatur illis in omnibus Scripturis quae de ipso erant. Hoc nobis in loco non ulla Scripturam interpretandi, sed gemina nosipsos humiliandi necessitas incumbit, qui neque in Scripturis quantum oportet edocti, neque ad implenda quae discere forte potuimus quantum decet sumus intenti. Nam si Moyses et omnes prophetae Christum locuti sunt, et hunc per angustiam passionis in gloriam suam intraturum qua ratione se gloriantur esse Christianos, qui juxta virium suarum modulum neque Scripturas qualiter ad Christum pertineant investigare, neque ad gloriam quam cum Christo habere cupiunt, per passiones tribulationum desiderant attingere? Et appropinquaverunt castello quo ibant, et ipse se finxit longius ire, et coegerunt illum dicentes: Mane nobiscum, quoniam advesperascit, et inclinata est jam dies. Et intravit cum illis. Nihil simplex veritas per duplicitatem fecit, sed quod dicitur: Finxit se longius ire, talem se exhibuit discipulis in corpore, qualis apud illos in mente erat. Probandi autem erant si hi qui eum etsi necdum ut Deum diligerent, saltem ut peregrinum amare potuissent. Sed quia esse extranei a charitate non poterant hi cum quibus veritas gradiebatur, eum ad hospitium quasi peregrinum vocant. Cur autem dicimus vocant, cum illic scriptum sit: Et coegerunt illum? Ex quo nimirum exemplo colligitur, quia peregrini non solum ad hospitium invitandi sunt, sed etiam trahendi. Et factum est dum recumberet cum illis, accepit panem, et benedixit ac fregit, et porrigebat illis, et aperti sunt oculi eorum, et cognoverunt eum. Quem in Scripturae sacrae expositione non cognoverunt, in panis fractione cognoscunt. Audiendo praecepta Dei illuminati non sunt, faciendo illuminati sunt. Quia scriptum est: Non auditores legis justi sunt apud Deum, sed factores legis justificabuntur. Quisquis ergo vult audita intelligere, festinet ea quae jam intelligere potuit, opere implere Sanctus Beda, In Lucae Evangelium Expositio, Liber VI, Caput XXIV Source: Migne PL 92.626a-627b

And the one named Cleophas answered and said to Him: 'Are you alone a stranger in Jerusalem that you do not know what has happened these past days?' 1 They thought He was a stranger, they did not recognise His face. And indeed He was certainly a stranger to them since by the weakness of their nature they were distant from the glorious teaching of the resurrection. He was a stranger to them because of their faith that was yet ignorant of the resurrection and thus He remained apart from them. He said to them,' What is this?' They said to Him, 'It is about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, powerful in deed and speech before God and all the people.' They called Him a great prophet, but were silent about the Son of God, either because they were not yet perfect believers, or they were worried lest they might fall into the hands of persecuting Jews, and since they did not know who it was they were speaking to they concealed what they truly believed. 'And they handed Him over to the chief priests and our leaders who condemned Him to death, and they crucified Him. But we were hoping that He would be the one who would save Israel.' Rightly they were aggrieved because they reproved themselves, since they had hoped He was to be the redeemer, Him whom they had then seen dead, and they did not believe He would be resurrected. And they also grieved for Him slain without fault because they knew Him to be innocent. 'And now after all these things, today it is three days since they were done. But certain women of ours who were at the tomb before dawn did not find His body there and they were terrified, and they came and said they had seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.' They are rightly said to have been terrified, and more in their minds at not finding the body which they had come to mourn than by the message of the angels about His resurrection in which they would have rejoiced had they been able to see it. 'And some men of ours went to the tomb and they found it just as the women had said, and they did not find Him.' When Luke previously said that Peter had run to the tomb and now he says Cleophas speaks of certain men of theirs running to the tomb, it is understood to bear witness that two had gone to the tomb. But he first recalls Peter only, because Mary had first spoken to him. And He said to them, 'O foolish and slow of heart to believe in everything which the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that Christ suffer and thus enter into His glory?' And He began to interpret from Moses and all the prophets all the Scriptures about Himself No interpretation of Scripture is given to us here, but it imposes on us the necessity of humility who are neither learned in the Scriptures nor zealous to practice what perhaps we were able to learn as much as it befits. For if Moses and all the prophets had spoken of Christ and that He was to enter into His glory through the anguish of the passion, for what reason should Christians glorify themselves who according to the rule of their own people neither strive to investigate the Scriptures for Christ, nor desire to have that glory with Christ which they attain through the suffering of tribulations? And as they went they came near a village and He made to go onwards, but they imposed on Him, saying, 'Stay with us, for evening falls and the day has passed.' And He went in with them. This is no simple truth He made through concealment, but when it is said, 'He made to go onwards,' in such a way he showed Himself in the body to the disciples as He was in their minds. For they were being tested, so that if they did not yet love him as God, they might yet be able to love Him as a stranger. But because they were estranged from the love of the truth He was not able to walk with them, and they called Him into the inn as a stranger. But why do we say that they called Him when it has been written, 'They imposed on Him,'? It is arranged so for the sake of example, because strangers are not only invited but even drawn. And when they sat with Him, He took bread and blessed it and broke it and he held it out to them, at which their eyes were opened and they knew Him. In the breaking of bread they knew Him whom they did not know in the exposition of the sacred Scriptures. They were not illuminated by hearing the teachings of God, but by the act they were enlightened. Whence it is written, 'It is not the hearers of the Lord that are righteous before God, but they are righteous who are doers of the law.' 2 Thus whoever wishes to understand what they have heard, let him make haste to fulfill in works what he has been able to understand. Saint Bede, Commentary On The Gospel of Saint Luke, Book 6, Chapter 24 1 Lk 24.18 2 Rom 2.13