https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+24%3A13-35&version=NLT
Death and resurrection resonates with a passion in this narrative encouraging each of us to recognise Our Saviour walking at our side until our journey's completion. Emmaus is the destination, also known as Ithaka when recalling the home bound voyage of Homer's hero, Odysseus returning to the beginning of his life's story.
Yesterday I was inspired to take another look at Jean Cocteau's (1950) cinematic masterpiece, "Orpheus" (1) loosely drawn from Greek mythology, inviting us to look beyond the predictable view facing us at the end of our nose. Cocteau imagines death as a reflection of life within the context of the story that he presents to his audiences to contemplate the eternal being of our conscious awareness.
It took some time for Jesus' two friends to twig that He was their travelling companion, sitting at their sides dining with them, as if nothing had changed following His crucifixion, and resurrection into new life.
Facing up to the presence of The Saviour alive in our life is a growing awareness that we are sharing our life's journey with a loving friend, encouraging us to let Him motivate us into make life affirming choices, becoming transparent when opening our eyes to the patterns of apparent coincidence emerging during our moments of distress, and failing confidence per the experiences of Jesus' two apostles on their road to Emmaus.
Cocteau's choice to immerse his audiences in a world of poetic self discovery through the medium of film, is his invitation to let the viewer discern the hidden wisdom of his story telling through their eyes, rather than assuming that there can be just one interpretation of life's appeal, to live with an eye on that which becomes visible through the experience of living at one with The Saviour.
(1) French soundtrack/Spanish subtitles:
https://vimeo.com/290226404
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