Was the Road to Emmaus a Mental Breakdown?

What does the road to Emmaus encounter (Luke 24:13-35) tell us about (a) the likelihood that the Resurrection appearances were hallucinations, (b) the relationship between Jesus and the Old Testament Scriptures, and (c) the way Christ continues to be present in the Eucharist today?

[TrixRN]

I always wondered how Jesus was with us always until the end of the age, as a Protestant. It seemed so amorphous & vague. Fast forward many years & I began discerning the Church. When I learned what Catholics have always believed about the Eucharist my mind was BLOWN! It made so much sense. The Eucharist completed my conversion.🙏❤️
Thank you for these teachings you post. You open the Scriptures in a new way for me.🙏❤️

[SuperIliad]

This single episode underscores why we are not to simply "read" the Bible, or infer its meanings on our own. Christ promised to not leave us orphans and this is one way he fulfills his promise. He has given us true and faithful scholarship to mine the endless treasures of Scripture.

[erikb]

So eye opening about the road to emmaus being the first mass. Thanks!

[irishandscottish]

Currently binge watching all your videos!
They are great for listening to while doing
How on earth I have gone so long without discovering your channel I have no idea considering I’ve followed Trent and Catholic answers for a long time and many other Catholic channels

[mickyfrazer]

The best explanation of the Road to Emeaus I've heard. Better even than Scott Hahn's

[benjaminshirley]

Very dense and concise lesson! Much appreciated!

[AllanKoayTC]

i'm glad for your detailed explanation about the road to Emmaus and the breaking of the bread, which i've thought was a Eucharistic moment that underlines John 6. but i wasn't knowledgeable enough to be able to break it down like you did.

[KatieAlexisLovitt]

Joe, I've been binging your podcast on Google for the past two days and had to come here to tell you, my man! This one is my favorite so far! Love it!

[mmeyerdc]

What a great lesson. I was particularly interested in the discussion of Jesus' fulfillment of specific verses in the Hebrew scriptures.

[lucillemasters]

So much in this episode to think about, thank you. As an aside, I was struck by my comparison of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Abraham over the sacrifice of their sons, whilst you were talking about Abraham and the symbolism of Isaac, the wood etc. Reinforced how Immaculate she is.

[tonyl]

Really thorough and sharp analysis of the Emmaus event and its implications! Keep up the great work!

[billveek]

Where did you come from? My go to Catholic YouTube channel now, real examined scripture and explanation, thank you. AMDG

[Bob_Oxnard-spgr]

Joe, this is one of your all-time best episodes. Tremendous analysis. Your podcast on hell/infinity might still be the very best, but this one is up there. Thank you brother!

[JoshN]

Great episode! I always walk away with a new perspective, even in topics that I thought it was well versed in. Haha I know you probably are set for topics, but I’d love to see an episode on the sacrifice of the mass. I have had some challenges put to me by friends and while I have heard plenty of evidence in favor of the Catholic position, I find your explanations and examples resonate with me more. God bless you brother! I’ll be praying for you.

[stephenbastasch]

However ... Fatima was not like a traffic or industrial accident. An accident will be seen or not seen depending on who was paying attention at the time. But Fatima's dancing sun was fully prophesied, and people's expectation was that *something* would happen on October 13 as predicted by Lucia dos Santos.

Moreover, during a rainstorm Lucia suddenly pointed to the sky, directing everyone's attention heavenward, saying, "Look at the sun!" The clouds parted and "the sun" appeared as a non-blinding disk which then changed color, "rained" prismatic colors, and ultimately seemed to detach itself from the sky and plunge, like a falling leaf, toward the earth.

This even was witnessed not only at the miraculous site of the Cova da Iria, but also in the town of Fatima itself, by witnesses not in any way under the "psychological influence" of the three children who were at the Cova at the time.

Fatima seems not to fit very well with the "mass hallucination" theory. Ditto *most* of the Gospels' resurrection narratives, which present the risen Christ appearing to individuals or to relatively small groups. AFAIK, there is only one account of an appearance "to 500" (but some conflate that with a garbled memory of the Spirit's activity on the first Christian Pentecost). Most of Jesus's posthumous manifestations seem to be low-key and designed for private persons and small groups. Paul's own experience was witnessed only by himself alone.

Maybe individual hallucination can be invoked, but mass hallucination seems unworkable in this case.

[JamesRichardWiley]

My mother saw the Blessed Virgin, I saw Satan once, my neighbor receives visits from her dead husband every night, and Peter saw the risen Christ on the way out of Rome followed by other sightings once the word got around.

[hglundahl]

44:43 God and Mary.
Stabat mater dolorosa ... not only God, but also the Blessed Virgin represent Abraham on Calvary.

[Bob_Oxnard-spgr]

Joe, can you do a podcast on the end of Mark?

[hglundahl]

37:13 Would you agree that the EXodus parallel proves the Real Presence, since Jesus as the New Passover Lamb needs to become the Food of the Faithful?

[V-xn]

It’s off topic and related to the Eucharist, but I couldn’t help but think about how Protestants would explain the breaking of bread in Acts 2 when it is clear that the passage summarises what new Christian communities did as their most important activities: “And they DEVOTED themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

Obviously, to protestants Eucharistic bread is just bread and nothing more. Well, imagine a scientist who says “I dedicated my life to studying the ocean, the animals in the ocean, and to drinking of water.”. Why would he mention drinking water? This is what all people normally and necessarily do, and no one, unless they are insane, would dedicate their life to it..

But Protestants would say: “it’s not simply bread: it’s the Lord’s Supper and it’s in remembrance of Our Lord.” Why would someone who dedicated his life to God would have to do this meaningless ritual to remember who he dedicated his life to in the first place? Would they otherwise forget? Imagine someone saying : “I dedicated my life to care of old people, and to remembering my mother”. Why? “So I don’t forget about the old people”.

My point is the entire protestant religion makes Christianity, christians and the Bible sound idiotic, superfluous and insane in so many places for someone who listens to their teachings and interpretations. Furthermore I would add that Protestantism pushes the unbelievers further away from Christianity and those who they convert or raise in their midst they turn into Bible-only, the book
-that-fell-from-they-sky kind of religious fanatics of Koran-style religion completely detached from both its deep historicity and sanity.