As the disciples journeyed along the road to Emmaus, their hearts were heavy with sadness and confusion. The One they believed to be the long-awaited Messias had suffered a brutal death. Just at that moment, Our Lord accompanied them, unrecognized, and opened the Scriptures. They beheld a divine poem woven throughout the Old Testament, a symphony of prophecy and fulfillment, and their hearts burned within them.      
History repeats itself. Faithful Catholics are grappling with our own paradox. Just as those disciples firmly believed in the divinity of Christ, so do we firmly believe in the indefectibility of the Church —a rock unshaken by the storms of history. Nonetheless, we are likewise confounded and outraged by the Second Vatican Council.      
In the same way the disciples were bewildered by Christ’s crucifixion, we find ourselves pondering the “crucifixion” of the Church. How glorious would it be if we could also glimpse a divine blueprint? What if the Old Testament, like a mystical mirror, reflected the Church’s history as vividly as it did Christ’s life in the Gospels? Would not our hearts burn within us?      
“As Christ goes, so goes His Church.” The Bride follows the Bridegroom, and like Her Spouse is similarly prefigured and prophesied in the ancient pages of the Old Testament. In this dazzling display, Moses anticipates Constantine, David is a foreshadowing of the Holy Roman Empire, Solomon a prelude to the Renaissance. Luther, Napoleon, and many others are each a brushstroke on God’s canvas. At the end stands the Second Vatican Council, an event also prefigured in the ancient scrolls.      
So let our hearts burn anew with wonder. For in tracing the contours of the Old Testament, Church history unfolds before us. As the sun sets on Church history, we raise our voices in praise: Glory to God for this “Divine Poetry”!