Acts 2:14,22-33; Psa 15(16):1-2,5,7-11; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Lk 24:13-35
What do you do when you find yourself in a difficult and incomprehensible situation? When things become too confusing, when all of a sudden, the joy and hope of a good life vanishes like a smoke, what do you do? When the things you so much believe in, the things you hold so dear, all of a sudden
seem to be all lies, what do you do? When all your expectations, dreams, and hopes suddenly become a thing of ‘how I wish’, what do you do? When you are in crisis of faith, God seems not to be what you imagine him to be any longer, the Holy Scripture seems to be turning into a folklore and a make-up
story for you, what do you do? Do you seek explanations, taking time to reflect on things and try to seek meaning at the right place, or do you draw your conclusion, desert everything and make a change of life?
In today’s gospel, two of Jesus’s disciples are seen in a moment of crisis. What happened to them? As we can hear from their voice, “their hope in finally having a savior who would make life better for them, all of a sudden vanished” (Cf Lk 24:21). When Jesus started his earthly ministry, he was able to convince his followers that he came from God to liberate the sons of Israel. He presented himself as the new David who has come to save his people. But the question is: “Did they understand the kind of liberation/salvation Jesus was referring to? The answer is No. At this time, Rome was controlling the whole world and Israelites were under Roman empire. While living in their land, they
were living under the control and rule of their masters, the Romans.
Hence, the people of Israel were expecting a charismatic leader who would liberate them from the hands of the Roman empire. And seeing Jesus, and hearing him spoke, they believed him to be this ‘Messiah’. As they were hoping for the ‘great day’ of their redemption, Jesus freely handed himself over to the same Romans he has supposedly came to oppose. “How?” “Was this man deceiving us all these whiles?” He could not even save himself from Roman terrible death by crucifixion, how come he was speaking of himself as Israel’s saviors? Was this not the man who did a lot of miracles, healing every kind of sickness, even called back to life, the dead Lazarus. We believed that he has every power to do everything. But it seems we have believed wrongly…. he is not the one we have thought him to be.”
Dearest friends, from the response of the two disciples, we can hear the sound of a shattered hope. We can hear the sound of many men and women of our society today. We can hear the deep hopelessness that surrounds us in our journey of faith and journey of life. After Jesus was crucified, the disciples locked themselves up, trying to figure out what has really happened, and at the same time being afraid of what happens next. Would the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and the High priests, whose customs the disciples broke while they were with Jesus, come now to do to them what they have done to their ‘believed-to-be-savior’? As this was happening, another strange news about the same Jesus started flying: his body is not found in the tomb, and angels
spoke to some women among us that he is alive (cf 24:23), yet, no one has seen him. “But wait a second…alive? How? Someone who could not prevent his own death, how can he be alive?” At this point, it became too much for these two disciples. Their confusion got tripled, and no longer able to keep them in a locked room with the rest of the disciples… they must now have to abandon everything and return to their place…to Emmaus.
On their way, away from Jerusalem, heading to Emmaus, they kept trying to make sense of everything, Jesus came as a stranger, moving with them. Dearest friend, when every hope seems to have vanished, when we feel so disappointed in both God and man, that the only thing that keeps hitting hard in our heart is ‘end everything…move away….forsake this life…go away from this way…throw away everything that reminds you of God…’, at such moments, Jesus never leaves us alone. He walks with us. The Scripture says that Jesus himself came near and went with them (v.15). The more they were
running away, the more Jesus was drawing near, to get to them, and to move with them. Even in that ‘shatteredness’ of our hope…in that situation of meaninglessness of life… Jesus understands what we pass through… he follows us even in our attempt to move away from him, from the church, from the community of his followers, from life.
Dearest friend, these two disciples were discussing about the only thing that has sustained their life struggle: hope in salvation by God. Can I ask you? What normally is the content of your discussion with people? When you sit with people, when you visit friends, when you meet people, is your discussion
with them able to attract Jesus in your midst or do your discussions so bad that even the angels dread to come close? When Jesus asked them: what are you discussing with each other while you walk along (v. 17), not minding that Jesus’s identity was not revealed to them yet, hence, Jesus was still a stranger, they did not say to him “How does it concern you?” They did not say to him “Oga please shift…wetin be your own nah….Did they send you?…Please whoever sent you, tell them that you did not find us…Please we would like to be alone….we are fine”. They rather opened themselves and shared their story with this stranger Jesus.
My dearest one, there is nothing as healing as sharing our difficult stories…there is nothing as burden-releasing as pouring out our disappointment. No matter how wounded we are, no matter how shattered, there are many people who are interested in lending you a shoulder to weep on.
Above all, God is always there to heal us. The two disciples saw Jesus as an ignorant man, so ignorant that he did not even know what everyone
knew. If it was in our context, they would have asked Jesus: are you the only person not on Facebook, or Whatsapp, or Telegram or Tiktok? Don’t you listen to radio or Tv? But the funny thing here is that while these two disciples were seeing Jesus as an ignorant person, they were themselves who were
ignorant of what has happened and with whom they were speaking.
Dearest friends, many times, we think that we know more than every other one, without knowing that what we seem to know is nothing but a mirage…a non-truth. Let us learn to be humble in approaching people. The Scripture says that Jesus explained the scripture to them, and how everything is fulfilled in him. Jesus changed their understanding of the Messiah and made them to understand the importance of his passion, death and resurrection. Dearest friend, the things about faith can never be understood if not by
God’s assistance. God is so huge that our effort to understand him using our expectations in the world may take us far from what God is. Only God himself can illumine us especially on the difficult things of our faith.
When the two disciples reach their destination, Jesus pretended to be going further. But they urged him “Stay with us, it is almost evening, and the day is now nearly over” (v.29a). Without this invitation by the two disciples, Jesus would have left them. The fact that these two disciples were in crisis of faith
did not take away from them their character of caring for even a stranger. They invited Jesus to their table service. And in the course of the meal, Jesus revealed himself to them. In the breaking of bread, the two disciples’ eyes were opened, and they recognized that they have been moving with Jesus, the Risen One. Dearest one, the power of the Holy Eucharist is that when we open ourselves to the Eucharistic Lord, and invite him to come and stay with us, he feeds our weakened spirit and revives our spiritual eyes in order to be able to see him present with us, even in our moment of crisis.
The Scripture says that at that same hour, the two disciples went back to Jerusalem. Imagine people who were asking a stranger not to go on with his journey because it was getting dark, all of a sudden, forgot about the dark hour and moved back to the city of the Lord’s glorification. This is the power of knowing that Jesus is alive and that he moves with us. Whenever Jesus is revealed, the darkness of our lives is dispelled. Whenever Jesus shows himself, all our fears disappear.
May we encounter this Risen Lord, so that we may join others in saying: Truly, he is alive…Our Hope is Alive!!! Amen.
Fr. Chukwuezugo Nnamah