A Midsummer's Reflection Series

Sunday, June 21, 2026

Meditation 21: Luke 24:13-35

This week’s artwork from Vincent Van Gogh is entitled, “The White Orchard”. It was paint in April 1888 when Van Gogh arrived in Arles, France. The perspective guides your gaze upward into the tangle of branches. Looking at the painting, you feel as if you are in the middle of the flowering trees. 

Soon after Van Gogh arrived in Arles, the spring came. There were many fruit orchards around the city. He enthusiastically painted a large series of orchards in blossom. These plum trees were poorly maintained, as their long branches show. Van Gogh was especially fond of timeworn trees like these.

Though this was painted in springtime, it gives you the sense and feeling of summer. The warmth of the colors and serenity of the orchard give us a sense of the slow pace of the summer months, warm hot days of being closer to the sun.

Today is the first day of summer and it is Father’s Day. What does this painting invoke for you about the summer months that lie ahead?  Is there a welcoming and inviting feeling in Van Gogh’s orchard? How might this inspire you this summer?

We probably don’t often think about the Mass as a moment of hospitality, but it is perhaps the greatest example of hospitality that we offer to God and He offers to us in any given day. Perhaps we can catch a glimpse of this by looking more closely at the story of Jesus encountering two of His disciples on the way to Emmaus after His glorious resurrection in Luke 24:13-35.

Jesus, without waiting to be recognized, drew close to two of His disciples as they headed toward Emmaus in deep conversation, and Jesus journeyed along with them (24:15). They did not yet recognize Him, but they spoke with Him as He engaged them in conversation (24:17-27). After they approached their destination and Jesus seemed to be continuing His own journey, they took the opportunity to offer Him a little hospitality in making the following request of Him: “Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent” (24:29). They offered Him company and hospitality at the end of the day.  

If we attend carefully to the passage, we see something quite interesting unfold. First, Jesus explained Scripture to them: “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (24:27). Then, as He stayed with them, “he was at table with them, he took bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them” (24:30).

In fact, the Gospel of Luke informs us that it was precisely when he “took,” “blessed,” “broke,” and “gave” the bread to them that Jesus “vanished out of their sight” (24:31) and, moreover, that “he was known to them in the breaking of the bread” (24:35). This is evocative of the Eucharist. Luke employed the same language of taking, blessing, breaking, and giving at the Last Supper in Chapter 22, during that first Eucharist.  

At the Mass, we, too, hear the Scriptures and have them interpreted for us. We, too, are present for the breaking and blessing of the bread and we, like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread. When we prepare ourselves well for Mass and strive to be recollected there, we, like those disciples, are in a sense asking Jesus to “stay with us.” He then becomes the host and feeds us supernaturally with the grace we need. 

Jesus, remain with us as you remained with your disciples on the way to Emmaus.

Stay with us, Lord, as the day is now far spent. 

Dr. Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. is a professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of the St. Paul Studies Center at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He spent 15 years as a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. In his final year in that role, Dr. Morrow worked on the Preaching as Hospitality Formation Program, writing these reflections on Scripture through a lens of hospitality. 

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