And that Divine Man had just been executed in Jerusalem. Since
that event they had felt utterly forsaken. That was why they were sad.
He had, indeed, promised that He would rise after death as a pledge for
His tidings of the resurrection of man and eternal life. But the three
days were now up. A story was going about that two women had seen Him
that morning with the wounds made by the nails. But until they could
themselves lay their hands on those wounds, they would not believe it;
no. He must needs be like the rest of the dead.

Then the stranger said: "If the Risen Man does not appear to you as He
appeared to the women, it is because your faith is too weak. If you do
not believe in Him, you surely know from the prophecies how God's
messenger must suffer and die, because only through that gate can
eternal glory be reached."

With such conversation they reached Emmaus, where the two disciples
were to visit a friend. The stranger, they imagined, was going
farther, but they liked Him, and so invited Him to go to the house with
them: "Sir, stay with us; the day draws in, it will soon be evening."

So He went with them. When they sat at supper, and the stranger took
some bread, one whispered to the other: "Look how He breaks the bread!
It is not our Jesus?"

But when in joy unspeakable they went to embrace Him, they saw that
they were alone.

This is what the two disciples related, and no one was more glad to
believe it than Schobal, the dealer; he now asked three hundred gold
pieces for the coat of the man who had risen from the dead.

Thomas was less sure of the Resurrection. "Why should He rise?" asked
the disciple. "Did He come to earth for the sake of this bodily life?
Did He not rest everything on the spiritual life? The true Jesus
Christ was to be with us in the spirit."

The disciples who had accompanied the Master from Galilee went back to
their own land filled with that belief. Things had somewhat changed
there. The condemnation of the Nazarene without any proof of guilt had
vastly angered the Galileans. His glorious death had terrified them.
No, this countryman of theirs was no ordinary man! They would now make
up to His disciples for their ill-conduct towards Him. So His
adherents were well received in Galilee, and resumed the occupations
that they had abandoned two years before. John had brought His mother
home, and gone with her to the quiet house at Nazareth. The others
tried to a