Literally, I haven’t been to Emmaus.
But the moment I intend that question in a figurative sense. I do not refer to
the Palestinian village several miles from Jerusalem , but I refer rather to our own Emmaus,
because Emmaus is the place you go when there is nowhere else to go. Emmaus is
the place of lost hopes, shattered dreams, and heavy hearts. Emmaus is the place
you retreat to when you are bone-tired, beaten down, and broken up by the
tragedies and disappointments of life. It may be a village, but it is often a
state of mind, characterised by the absence of joy, the lost sense of meaning,
the frequent loneliness of the human condition, and the seeming absurdity of
life.
Have you been to Emmaus? It is the place you escape to when you are hurting and in need of healing, when you are crying and are in need of comfort, when you are exhausted and in need of renewal. If you have lived at all, I suspect you have been to Emmaus or maybe you are still there. The road to Emmaus is frequented by ordinarily men and women such as Cleopas and his unnamed companion, such as you and me.
Have you been to Emmaus? It is the place you escape to when you are hurting and in need of healing, when you are crying and are in need of comfort, when you are exhausted and in need of renewal. If you have lived at all, I suspect you have been to Emmaus or maybe you are still there. The road to Emmaus is frequented by ordinarily men and women such as Cleopas and his unnamed companion, such as you and me.
Like the disciples of Emmaus, we, too,
have our own ideas of Jesus Christ, his message and his church. We, too, are
conditioned by our upbringing, early education, culture and life experience. The
disciples could not recognise Jesus as long as their mindsets about who he was
and what he was to do were in place. When Jesus demolished their blindness with
his explanation of the Scriptures, their vision of him began to assume a more
realistic tone. The price of recognizing Jesus is always the same: our idea of
him, of the Church, of the spiritual journey, of God himself has to be
shattered. To see with the eyes of faith we must be free of our
culturally-conditioned mindsets. When we let go of our private and limited
vision, He who has been hidden from us by our pre-packaged values and
preconceived ideas causes the scales to fall from our eyes, just as He did with
St. Paul . He was there all the
time. Now at last we perceive his Presence. With the transformed vision of
faith, we return to the humdrum routines and duties of daily life, but now, like
Mary Magdalene, we recognize God giving himself to us in everyone and in
everything.
Yes, Emmaus is a place where we need to
go. Emmaus is a place of the heart. Walking to Emmaus is an exercise of the soul
rather than of the legs. These two early disciples were exploring the depth of
their own faith, or willingness to believe. Freely they shared their story even
though they did not know how the story would end. Walking to Emmaus gives us a
chance to know where we are rather than knowing where we would like to be. When
we are walking to Emmaus the Lord can help us in our journey, because we are
opened to guidance. Cleopas and his friend listen intently to our Lord's words:
they wanted to continue their growth but were not sure what to do next. Their
willingness to listen assured that they would find their way.
Sometimes we forget that we are on a
journey. We want to know all there is to know, and fall into the trap of
thinking that we know it all already. The two disciples had been willing to
listen, and now they were given the gift of discernment. They now knew that what
they had heard was another step on their spiritual journey. Their Lord had risen
and they had spoken with Him and received bread by His hand. They then went to
Jerusalem and met with the
eleven. When the met with the eleven they were told that Jesus had risen and
that He had appeared to Peter. After hearing this the two explained to the
eleven what had happened to them. Here again the two were willing first to
listen and then to speak; their openness to instruction increased their
understanding. We can learn a lot from these two early disciples. We can learn
to listen before we speak.
So where do you go for renewal and
recovery? Many go to the church or the sanctuary where they have sensed God’s
presence in the past. Some go to the beach. The mountains? To meet with friends?
Sometimes, of course, old hopes must die before new hopes can be born to take
their place and so we go from hope to hope. Sometimes an unrealistic hope must
be abandoned before a more realistic hope one can be embraced. Maybe some of you
have run out of hope and are walking a lonely road in search for it once again.
The road to Emmaus may seem lonely because we are so absorbed by our own
troubles, but it is a road that is crowded with fellow pilgrims, many of whom
are hurting just as we are. Oh, we do well at hiding our hurts and
disappointments but all of us have them!
So have you been to Emmaus? Well if you’ve
never been there or if you find yourself today on the road to Emmaus, keep an
eye out for the Stranger. He will be there and I assure you, you do not walk
alone!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.