Today’s Gospel on the road to Emmaus makes me recall the two trees specifically named in the garden of Eden (Gn 2:9): by consuming their fruit one produced life, the other death.

In the Emmaus story, as soon as the risen Jesus took bread, blessed it, and gave it to his followers – a la the Eucharist – they recognized Him (Lk 24:31). Other than when Jesus healed the blind, the last time we saw the words “their eyes were opened” in the bible was when humanity’s first parents in Eden ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil: “Their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked” (Gn 3:7).

Think about it: By eating the forbidden fruit we’re stripped of grace, and immediately cover our nakedness (3:7). When we eat from the new hanging fruit (Jesus) of the new tree of life (the cross) in the Eucharist, we receive the grace to recognize Christ (Lk 24:31) again. What the old Adam obscured in the human soul, the new Adam came to restore.

In Eden after eating the forbidden fruit they lost sight of God (Gn 3:8) and protected themselves from each other. By partaking in the fruit of the new tree of life in the Eucharist, the disciples were able to see God again (Lk 24:31) and regain fellowship with each other (24:32) in His truth.

By partaking in the fruit of the tree of death “their eyes were opened” to sin in the Garden of Eden. By partaking in the new fruit of the tree of life “their eyes were opened” to Truth and Goodness incarnate, in the new Garden of supernatural life, the Church.