Yesterday, I was invited by Bishop Mack to peach on the Sunday gospel at the cathedral. Here are some of the highlights for your reflection.
Someone walked into church with a Tim Horton’s coffee and it reminded of a moment when I observed a group of guys at Tim Horton’s gathered to just “shoot the bull.”
In the gospel, we have Cleopas, Jesus’ uncle by the way and his friend chatting about recent events in Jerusalem. However, they are very down in the dumps because as they said: “we had hoped.” It’s Easter night as they are walking out of Jerusalem to Emmaus which was a Roman spa town something like Las Vegas. Their dream was shattered hoping Jesus his nephew was going to save them from Roman rule. Then a stranger comes along and oddly, uncle Cleopas does not recognize his nephew.
This stranger explains it all and excited the men invited him to “stay with them” for dinner. At the table, he takes the bread, blesses it, broke it and hands it to them and “their eyes were opened” and He vanishes.
So what does the read to Emmaus teach us? Whenever we are discouraged in our faith, whenever our hopes seem to be crucified, we need to go back to Galilee and Jerusalem, that is, to the dream, to the road of discipleship that we had embarked upon before everything went wrong. The temptation is when things are not working out to our expectations we abandon being a disciple.
Now when I was deployed to help the people of Divine Mercy in Las Vegas their dream had been shattered when their pastor abandoned them. They went into shock and disbelief. They were like Uncle Cleopas and his buddy, downcast and empty.
We have a choice. We can simply give up the quest or take on a new spirit that believes that there is a greater force at work, a force in whose hands we will always be safe. That’s what happened at Divine Mercy. From shock and despair, they found the courage to keep going and reopen their doors because there was a greater force at work, a force in whose hands they will always be safe.
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who feel overwhelmed by life, when we feel that we just can't go on. Easter faith is a work in progress. What we know for sure is that on the road there will always be a stranger walking with us, explaining that whatever has happened to us, God is always with us, love overcomes hate, and life is stronger than death.
