“Did not our hearts burn within us…”
Lk. 24:32
Every generation of Christians must
fight its own demons, struggle with its own sadness. Today, in terms of
feelings, we live in that particular sadness between Good Friday and Easter
Sunday. We are walking on the road to Emmaus. The God, the church, and the
dreams we had as children have died and we are trying to console each other for
our crucified dreams.
Yet the old words, the old creeds,
the ancient alleluias, still burn holes in us and when we hear the words of
Jesus, as we gather for Eucharist, it is still easy enough to sing: “Are not
our hearts burning within us?”
We need to remain on the road to
Emmaus. The resurrected Christ is there to be met. In his company we need to
spill out our sadness, mourn our disappointments, and stir our old hopes. At
some moment our eyes will open and we will recognize the crucified Lord in the
Risen Christ who is actually walking with us now. Our dreams will explode anew,
like a flower bursting into bloom after a long winter, and we will fill with a
new innocence as Easter Sunday happens again.
Lord, may I walk faithfully this
road as You walk with me.
Adapted from Ronald Rolheiser
I thought that to be on the road to Emmaus is to be on the wrong path. Christ has just risen in Jerusalem. Why are these two disciples walking away from Jerusalem to Emmaus, rather than heading to Galilee like He told them? Why is their face downcast? They should be full of joy. Seven miles ... Is it representative of the seven deadly sins? Sin closes our mind to understanding. We walk on the road to Emmaus, only with prayerful footsteps such that we can recognize Him by His signs, beg him to stay with us and open our minds to understanding, and then we need to turn back and rejoin our brothers in Jerusalem.
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