Acts 2:14, 22-23; Ps. 16:1-2, 5, 7-11; 1 Pt 1:17-21; Lk.24:13-35
Road to Emmaus is seven miles from Jerusalem. It represents a lifetime journey of faith for us to encounter Jesus along the way that our eyes may be opened. For the baptized child faith comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit but a gift to be unwrapped and explored discovering all of our earthly days all that the gift can reveal about God, self, and others. A child is born with eyes open to believe what we feed their minds and hearts, what to follow, and where to go but we cannot give what we do not ourselves have. We must have God as our destination site or the world will quickly draw us away from our God given purpose but not only us but also all of our household.
Today we speak of having a “bucket list” with destination sites as places for special occasions, where memories are made, dreams come true and we get to live out our indulgence of this life. They are expensive and often last but a short time before returning to what we call “reality”, our daily commitments of life. Is heaven on our bucket list? Reality is life is short in this world before we enter into eternity and eternity has only two main destinations, heaven or hell.
Purgatory is a destination site along the way to heaven to cleanse us of our impurities. Let us try to take care of our impurities now so that purgatory is more of a pit stop than a layover of centuries. Did you know that heaven is outside of time but purgatory is not? Part of the suffering of purgatory is the sense of lasting time waiting to enter the glory of God. Something to ponder! Heaven should be number one on our bucket list and all the rest of our priorities need to be gauged on whether they help lead us there or distract us from God. The road to Emmaus is the road to have our eyes opened to God who draws near to us to be loved and to love us.
For the two disciples on the road to Emmaus “Jesus himself drew near and walked with them but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him”. One may think that Jesus prevented them from recognizing him but we should also consider the state of mind of the two disciples “downcast, conversing and debating” looking back at all that had happened. Their own state of mind in disbelief and their walk was out of step with faith. When we walk out of step with faith our eyes are prevented from seeing Jesus, who draws near to us to be at our side.
When bad things happen in life it is easier to ask “why”, why me, why now, why did this happen? The more we question the more we walk out of step with faith looking back as the disciples did and failing to see God who is always present. Rather than begin with why, ask God to reveal himself. God help me to see you, the work of your grace, your hand in my hand with the eyes of faith that I may be an instrument of faith trusting in your divine providence. This is walking in step with Jesus recognizing it is all about God and God is all about our salvation.
Bad things happen not by the will of God but by the freedom he has given us, but his mercy is everlasting when we repent and come back to him. When we ask God to reveal himself, we will come to understand better why bad things happen and how God brings us good out of evil. We will recognize the power of his love transforming us with his sacred heart as a father of love. We have only to look at the cross as evidence of his power of transformation. Yet we a “slow of heart to believe” to come to him in search of the divine truth.
The disciples were “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”. We can say that they spent three years in formation walking with Jesus, receiving his teaching, and even telling them of his own death and resurrection. We are disciples also and for many considered life-long cradle Catholics. We have in all of history more access than at any other time to all the writings from the beginning of Christianity, from the canon of the Bible, from early Church Fathers, from church encyclicals, compendiums to interpret for us, documentaries, spiritual writings, and yet let us be our own judge where our interests lay and to who do we give our time to. If we are slow of heart to come to the well of life-giving water, we will be “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke”.
The disciples’ eyes were opened not by seeing Jesus but as he vanished from their sight. Their hearts were burning but they needed the miracle to believe. We receive the miracle of the breaking of the bread each time we come to Mass. The road back to Jerusalem is our journey back to the Church to come and celebrate what we have received from Jesus. We encounter him again in his Word not only all that the prophets taught but what he himself is saying to us this day by his word before receiving him in the Eucharist. What does this mean?
The word of God and his body and blood is incarnated into our flesh to be Christ to the world. This was the transformation of the disciples into apostles after the resurrection having received the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. This is the power of Jesus to transform us as we come to receive him in the Mass. Having received him in the Eucharist, we can say Jesus is truly flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and spirit of my soul.
This is the time of our “sojourning” and the gift of life is to be treated with “reverence” because we are being called to holiness. We think of coming to Mass and showing reverence as a holy place and so it is. Let us also go out from Mass as temples of the Holy Spirit with the same reverence because Jesus not only draws near to us but now remains in us. Let us give reverence to the holiness we carry within by the way we talk, the way we act, the choices we make. It will draw us near to the one we love and we will never be alone.
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