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 people went to the sepulchre: and found it so as the women had said, but Him they found not. Then He said to them: O foolish, and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things that were concerning Him. And they drew nigh to the town whither they were going: and He made as though He would go farther. But they constrained Him, saying: Stay with us, because it is towards evening, and the day is now far spent. And He went in with them. And it came to pass, whilst He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed, and broke, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him: and He vanished out of their sight. And they said one to the other: Was not our heart burning within us, whilst He spoke in the way, and opened to us the Scriptures? And rising up the same hour they went back to Jerusalem: and they found the eleven gathered together, and those that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way: and how they knew Him in the breaking of bread.

Why did Jesus appear as a stranger to the two disciples?

He appeared to them as a stranger, says St. Gregory, because He meant to deal with them according to their dispositions, and according to the firmness of their faith. They seemed not to have believed in Him as the Son of God, but to have expected a hero or prince who should deliver them from their subjection to the Romans. Thus Christ was, indeed, yet a stranger in their hearts, and chose to appear to them as such, to free those who loved Him from their false notions, to convince them of the necessity of His passion, and to reveal Himself to them, as soon as their understandings should be enlightened, and their hearts filled with desire. Thus God orders the disposal of His graces according to our dispositions; according to our faith and trust; according to our love and fidelity.

o praise and thank God for the mystery of redemption, the Church sings at the Introit of the Mass: " He hath given