Pastor
~ In the aftermath of Jesus’ violent death, the Gospels tell us, the disciples are bewildered, in shock, angry, ashamed, numb, empty. Jesus, the one in whom they had hoped, is gone. Worse still, most of them had turned and run away rather than face the hour of danger. In the day following Jesus’ burial, some of them are still running; two have even left Jerusalem, en route to a place called Emmaus, a town about seven miles northwest of Jerusalem. Who were Cleopas and his companion? Was it his wife? What was in Emmaus? Were they going home? Who knows? All good questions, but after Jesus’ death in Jerusalem, why stay?
We can imagine their conversation in the couple of hours the walk to Emmaus would have taken: “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.” Yes, we can easily imagine saying such things, mostly because we have all said them. And what the two say next is even more familiar and poignant: “We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.” We were hoping. I think those are the some of the saddest words in the scriptures. We were hoping. It is the voice of grief. How many of us have uttered those same words? We were hoping he would live long enough to see his granddaughter get married. We were hoping she could have enjoyed her retirement. We were hoping they would find a cure in time. We were hoping he would come home.
Like those disciples, and like many of you, I know from experience that mourning is the one of the loneliest places in the world.
The Jesuits have a pithy motto that is supposed to sum up their approach to the spiritual life: “Finding God in all things.” Yet, that phrase is often misunderstood. People say, “I find God in all things. Like in nature. I find God in the sunset.” Well, that is a beautiful thought, and I find God there too. But the truth is that just about anybody can find God in a sunset. It’s not that hard. You want hard? Try finding God in an execution, or in cancer, or war. Now that’s hard. You want to find God in nature? OK, try finding God in a tornado or a tsunami or crop failure. That’s hard.
It is also hard to find God in the midst of grief. We can’t blame the disciples for leaving or for their doubts. Doubt, after all, isn’t the opposite of faith. Certainty is the opposite of faith. If there were only certainty, there would be no mystery, and no need for faith. Faith cannot be separated from doubt any more than Easter Sunday can be separated from Good Friday! The Lord himself acknowledges this when he says, “How slow of heart you are to believe all that the prophets spoke.” Yes, we all have doubts, myself included.
And who could blame us for doubting as these two did? We live in a world not unlike theirs. The world is still beset by sin and injustice. How often has our phone pinged and we hear about another scandal, another disaster, another shooting, and we say: “It’s not supposed to be like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. We were hoping it would be different this time…” To take one current example, most of us shake our heads at the current war in Iran. We were hoping it wouldn’t come to this. We were hoping that cooler heads would prevail. We were hoping. So where is God in the midst of war? Well, I believe that God is found in the words and witness and courage of Pope Leo, and his message of peace and hope, calling us and all humanity to a better way. Yes, we Catholics look to Pope Leo to show us Jesus, because the Pope does not offer mere opinions on theology; no, the Pope leads and teaches authentically as the Vicar of Christ and the Successor of Peter. So, if you are disheartened about the war or the state of our world, listen to the Holy Father, and find hope.
Because finding God in all things is hard, but it’s not impossible. God is found wherever love is needed the most. Maybe that is why Jesus appears to those two disciples: they need him. They need his love. So Jesus ministers to them by healing their wounded hearts. “Then they said to one another, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way?’”
Friends, when you are down, or low, or lonely, or sad, or angry, or grieving, or sick, or dying, it is easy to lose hope. But I say to you today, Jesus is there. Jesus is found wherever love is needed the most. The Lord’s promise, the promise he makes to us, the promise he made and kept to our forebears on the road and in the upper room, is nothing less than the gift of himself, crucified and risen, in spirit and in sacrament. He is the blessed hope, always ready to reach inside and reset our broken hearts, to rejoice in our triumphs and bear with us in our hopes – no matter where we may be on the road to Emmaus.
