The road to Emmaus. I don’t think those two disciples expected to
be on that road that day facing those circumstances that were confronting them
like a ton of bricks. They had been on the road as
disciples of Christ many times before.
They had traveled down roads to witness the healings and the miracles
that Jesus had performing. They had
traveled down roads to hear his teachings and to go out as missionaries to
preach his message of Good News. This time, however, their road
was one of frustration and desperation.
Their road was without much hope and without a clear focus. Think of the road we have gone
down as a community here in Tupelo this past week. When Bishop Kopacz spoke to me on the phone
this past Friday, I told him that I felt like the week had been 100 days
long. I don’t think that when we
started work on Monday or when the children and youth went to school that
morning, that we expected to see such destruction and chaos later that
afternoon, many of us seeing such things right outside our front doors.
Well, those two disciples met a
stranger on the road to Emmaus that day – that they did not expect. They were sharing stories with
this stranger, explaining their disappointment and unfulfilled expectations:
“We were hoping that Jesus would be the one to redeem our nation Israel!” Yet
they had seen Jesus crucified and buried instead. The stranger they met that day
ended up being Jesus himself! Imagine that. It ended up being in the
breaking of the bread that they recognized the stranger as Jesus. In this moment of tragedy that
we have been experiencing this week here in Tupelo, we all have been seeing the
face of Jesus many times, haven’t we? There have been so many acts of
kindness and generosity, of people reaching out to help each other and going
out of their way to lend a helping hand.
Those cutting up fallen trees with a chainsaw, bringing us water or
lunch, giving us a friend word as they pass by in their cars. In the midst of tragedy and
confusion, we have hope. Bishop Kopacz has been calling
me every day since the tornado hit, asking me how our community is coping and
giving us a message of encouragement and hope. When he called me Friday afternoon to ask me
if he could celebrate mass with us this Saturday afternoon, I was so filled
with emotion when I got off the phone with him, thinking about all we have been
through this week. We are not able to have mass in
our church today, since a new roof is going up and our church building is a
construction zone right now, but we are so fortunate and blessed to have a
Catholic Life Center where we can have mass, since several churches in our community
and so many homes have been completely destroyed, the homes that many of you
live in. I look at the faces of our
second graders today – they have been looking forward to the day when they
would be able to receive the Eucharist for the first time, and that day has
come. Jesus comes to us in a special
way today through the Eucharist and through the enthusiasm and joy of our
children who are receiving it for the first time. Jesus comes to us today as we
break bread together around his table. He comes to us through the
actions of friends and even strangers who help us, who reach out to us, who
touch us. I think back to when we
selected our theme for our Lenten journey from a quote from the Trappist monk
Thomas Merton: Seeking God in all thing. Little did we know that in the
midst of the Easter season, when we are celebrating the risen Christ, the
Christ of resurrection joy, we would be seeking God in the midst of recovering
from a devastating tornado in our community of Tupelo. Yet, Jesus is with us here
every step of the way, both in ways we recognize him, and in ways we don’t recognize
him, like the way the disciples did not recognize Jesus when he starting
traveling with them on the road to Emmaus. We are on this road together as disciples of Christ. He is with us. And we will make it to our destination. And we will not be alone.
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