Saint Clopas
Today is the optional memorial of Saint Clopas (A.K.A. Cleopas, A.K.A. Alphaeus). For the occasion, I have translated Luke 24:13-35 from its original Greek for the delight and enrichment of my readers.
And behold two of them were journeying that day to a village sixty stadia from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing with each other about all of these happenings. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself approached and journeyed with them, but their eyes were restrained so they could not recognize him. He asked them, “What are these words you are exchanging while you walk?”
They stood, grim faced. Now one, Cleopas by name, answered and said to him “Do you alone dwell in Jerusalem and not know the events there these days?”
Jesus asked him “Which?”
They told him “The ones about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, so our high priests and our rulers handed him over for the death penalty and they crucified him. But we were hoping he was the one about to ransom Israel, but even with all that, it is the third day from when these things happened. However, some women from among us panicked us, having been at the tomb early in the morning, and, not finding his body, they came saying they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. And some of those with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women said, but him they did not see.”
And he said to them “O foolish and slow in heart to believe in all that the Prophets said, was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” And, beginning from Moses and from all the Prophets, he interpreted for them the things about him in all the Scriptures.
And they approached the village where they were going and he pretended to go further, and they compelled him saying, “Stay with us, for it is near evening and the day has waned.” And he went in to stay with them.
And it happened while he was reclining with them, when he took the bread, he blessed it, and when he broke it, he gave it to them. Now their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he became concealed from them. And they said to one another “Weren’t our hearts burning within us when he spoke to us on the way, when he opened the Scriptures to us?”
And, having risen, they returned in that hour to Jerusalem and, finding gathered the Eleven and those with them, said that the Lord is really risen and appeared to Simon, and they explained the things on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:13-35, my translation).
In this piece, I primarily refer to the Saint commemorated today as Cleopas because that is how Saint Luke refers to him.
I was struck by the power of Saint Luke’s language in saying the travelers’ eyes were “restrained,” I had previously seen the word translated as “prevented.” The emphasis on the travelers’ facial expression was surprising, the only other occurrence of the word in the New Testament is in the Gospel according to Matthew, when Jesus describes the ostentatious fasting of “the hypocrites.” Here, though, I believe it reflects the genuine feelings of Cleopas and his companion, who are justified in feeling grim at the prospect of retelling the traumas they have just endured.
Following this, Cleopas and his unnamed companion speak at some length on the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. They voice their hope for Israel’s national restoration, a key component of many ancient Jewish understandings of the Messiah. This hope is reconfigured by and in Jesus who, when asked if he was “at this time going to restore the Kingdom to Israel” replied “it is not yours to know the times and seasons which the Father has set by his own power.”
The word for the Eleven’s response to the testimony of the women at the tomb is noteworthy, as it is related to the word Saint Mark uses for the women’s emotional state after leaving the tomb. This suggests that they were very successful in communicating their terror and wonder to their first audience.
Many wonder what featured in what has been called “the greatest Bible study ever.” Recently, I have been partial to Dr. Scott Hahn’s view, that Jesus walked Cleopas through the parallels between the lives of the Patriarchs and the life of the Holy Family. This view is strengthened by the testimony of the second century A.D. Early Christian author Hegesippus, who reports that Clopas was Jesus’ uncle. I must note here that it was Dr. Hahn who alerted me to the fact that today is Saint Clopas’ feast day.
I appreciate the almost childlike eagerness with which Cleopas and his companion implore Jesus to “stay with us.” The word I have translated “stay” is very rich, it can also be translated as “remain” and “abide.” It is, in part, this richness that makes this word so significant in the Gospel according to John.
It is when Jesus comes in “to stay with them” that something wondrous happens, Jesus takes bread, says the blessing, breaks it, and gives it to his disciples. This is a powerful evocation of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist, and it is by this that he is recognized. Tantalizingly, just as Jesus is recognized, he disappears. Cleopas and his companion are galvanized by this experience to return to Jerusalem and tell the disciples, confirming the testimony of the women.
Saint Clopas, pray for us.