Stay With Us, Lord

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author.

“For that very day, two of the disciples were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.” And this famous event of the disciples going to Emmaus, I think it’s helpful, as I’ve often done, to see how much what they are experiencing, might also correspond to what we’ve been experiencing. So their hope in Jesus seems to be crushed. With all that’s happened to Jesus. They say, we had hoped. It seems that their faith, their hope, their trust, has been crushed by all the evil that they’ve just experienced. And so they’re leaving Jerusalem, and that might, there might also be kind of a sign there, because Jerusalem is the gathering, is an image of the Church where the disciples were gathered. And it might also be that their confidence in the Church, their confidence in the apostles has also been broken. And so they’re going home, they’re leaving, in a sense, they’re leaving the gathering, leaving the Church, and going home. And they’re confused, they’re sad, they’re discouraged by all that has just happened. And they don’t understand. This doesn’t make sense between what they were expecting, what they’re hoping for in Jesus, and what they’ve experienced, as it can often happen to us between what we’re hoping for, what we’re expecting, to what we’re hoping or expecting God to do, and the way life actually turns out. And so they say that there’s some women who said that these accounts of the resurrection are of angels, but they don’t seem to believe them. And so it’s interesting to see then what happens and how, what light that also shows, sheds on the situation of us right now. And I say right now in this cold little chapel. Because what happens is Jesus comes. They’re not asking Jesus, that doesn’t say that they’re asking Jesus to come, they’ve given up on Him. But Jesus comes, Jesus takes the initiative of coming to them. And something that I never thought of before, but this has happened in just two days after Jesus’s crucifixion. All that He went through, think of all that He went through in the sufferings of His life, leading up to and then the unimaginable suffering of the crucifixion. Wouldn’t it seem that He’s gonna take a while to rest and enjoy things after the resurrection? But right away, what does He do? He begins coming back to visit HHis disciples. He doesn’t take a break. I mean, I don’t know what it’s like to be risen in heaven. But He doesn’t just say, Okay, well, okay, I’m just gonna enjoy things for a while. And right away. He’s, he’s, he’s, after all that He suffered, He’s right away, His first concern is to go back and visit HHHHHHHis disciples. And so He began to walk with them, but they don’t recognize Him. So Jesus takes the initiative, He doesn’t wait for them to call to Him. He takes the initiative of coming to them. But His presence is hidden, as it’s often hidden in our life. Last week, we were reflecting on what Jesus said to Thomas, “blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.” And we don’t see His presence. We’re called to believe without seeing His presence. That’s our situation. And so then what happens? Because again, Jesus is teaching us a lot in this passage. So He began, first of all, He asked them some questions. What is this conversation you’re holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still looking sad, so He’s walking with them. And then HHe’s asking them “What’s going on? What are you worried about?”  What’s just happened? And so He invites them just to tell Him what’s on their mind and what’s weighing them down. And that’s His, so He’s teaching us here, a very simple, natural way to begin prayer with the Lord. Because a lot of times, you know, especially sometimes when we’re going through really rough times, and we’re maybe, we’re very troubled we’re very anxious, maybe we’re sometimes discouraged and despairing. And so we could do what Jesus invites these disciples to do, simply talking to him about what we’re going through, getting that off our chest. And so that’s a very simple, natural, human way of beginning this conversation. And Jesus is inviting them to do that. And so then what when they’ve had a chance to do that, then He begins to respond to them. And this response is pretty, pretty frank.  “Oh, foolish men, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.”  And we’ve often spoken here in the mission, about the importance of prophets and prophecy. So Jesus is saying “slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken” that that’s actually a very important passage for the Mission of Divine Mercy, because the Mission of Divine Mercy is faith, so that God can act. And we’ve called attention to the fact that one of the ways He’s called our attention to the fact that, one of the ways He acts is, is through prophetic messages. And so here, they’re saying, “slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken,” Jesus says, that, “was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory.” And so He’s helping them to understand what they’ve just lived through. Were a situation where it seemed completely out of control and dominated by evil. How often have we been in situations and maybe we feel that now, where things seem out of control, and, or rather, they seem in the control of evil. And yet Jesus is showing them that what seemed out of control or dominated by evil was actually part of God’s plan, not that God was responsible for the evil, but that His plan is so great, that even evil cannot frustrate His great plan of salvation. And that this was what seemed to be the destruction of Jesus, that the failure of Jesus’ mission was actually the accomplishment of Jesus’ mission. And so He’s helping them to understand the events that they have just lived, in a divine light. He had tried to prepare them. He had told them what was going to happen. But still, when it happened, it was hard for them to recognize it. And I think that that’s something that we often experience, that Jesus has told us that we’re also called to follow His path, if we want to follow Him of the path of the cross. But when we experienced that, when we experienced the Paschall mysteries, we often see it in a very human way. And so we can get very discouraged, we can lose hope. And so Jesus is helping them to understand what really happened, to understand it profoundly. And so He, it says, “And beginning with Moses and the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning Himself.” So one of the ways that He’s speaking to them, is through Scripture. And He’s showing them how much they have just lived through, what had been prophesied for so many centuries, and what they had often heard the prophecies that they had often heard, these prophecies had just been realized in their presence. And so that’s one way, prayer is talking to God. It’s a very simple way to begin prayer. But much more important than prayer – is listening to God, learning to listen to God, God who helps us understand the events that we’re living, and helps us understand it with also with the light of Scripture, often speaking to us through Scripture. In fact, they’ll even say later on, “did not our hearts burn within us? While He talked to us on the road, while He opened to us the Scriptures, the scriptures began to come alive,” because they were living, without realizing it, in that suffering. They were living what God had – this great plan of God. And so this is showing us a very, like a very, a very visible understanding of what prayer is. Prayer, first of all, it’s Jesus who takes initiative. We often feel that we’re the ones who have to take the initiative, but it’s Jesus who’s anxious come to us, He takes the initiative, even if we can’t see Him. And we can, we can engage as He invites the apostles there by talking with Him. But especially by learning to be quiet, and listen to Him, who speaks to us, and our hearts, as He says to St. Faustina and also speaks to us through Scripture. And so that’s something that we can do right now, during Mass. Every Mass is the occasion for us to come, talk to God, bring Him all that we’re going through. But also be quiet and listen to Him. Listen to Him in Scripture and listen to Him speaking to us in silence. And that’s why the silent times at Mass are so helpful. And then, there, they begin to arrive at Emmaus, and it’s growing dark. And that darkness is perhaps also, maybe it can be like a symbol also there, of the darkness, and the loneliness that they were feeling, and we can experience in this world. And so they say, “stay with us, because it’s getting dark, don’t leave us.” Something about this mysterious stranger has helped them so much. Don’t leave, stay with us. They don’t want to be without Him. And it seems like Jesus was just waiting for that request. Saint John Paul wrote a document on the Eucharist. And he focused it on that phrase, “stay with us”. Jesus wanted to hear that; Jesus wanted that invitation from them. Because that’s what He wanted. He wanted not just to visit them, He wanted to not just talk to them, but He wanted to stay with them. And there’s so many passages of Scripture which speak of His desire to stay with us. And I’ll just read, I’ll just read one of those. He says, and this was just, just a few days earlier, at the Last Supper said, “Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. As the Father has loved Me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.” So inviting the disciples to remain with Him, and Him wanting to remain with them. And so what does He do? So he does go in with them. But then it says, “when He was at a table with them, He took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them.” He took blessed, broke and gave – these words which are the same words that the gospel uses to speak of the Eucharist when Jesus instituted the Eucharist. And it says, “And then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him. But He vanished out of their sight.” It’s when He took the bread, blessed it broke it and gave it to them, after their requests that He stay with them. That’s when they realized that Jesus was with them. And then He disappeared from their site. And so this gospel, speaking to us also of His desire to remain with us, in the Holy Eucharist, and His real presence, when this world is sometimes cold, and windy, and somber, like right now.  Jesus wanting to come and stay with us, for union, for communion, for holy communion with Him. And the storms and struggles of our life. Jesus wants to stay with us. And so that’s the great gift of this holy Eucharist that we’re coming in here. And we’re sacrificing to celebrate Jesus’ desire to stay with us. And so after that, then they, after that experience, they returned. It’s very late now, but they still go back, all the way back to Jerusalem, like going back to the Church. “And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the 11 gathered together.” And it says that they told what had happened on the road, and how He was made known to them in the breaking of the bread, which is the way the early Church referred to the holy Eucharist. And so with all that we’re going through right now in our world. Jesus wants us. And I’ve been returning to this a lot, because Jesus wants us to understand what we’re going through, what our Church or what our world is going through right now, in the light of the Paschall mystery, in the light of His suffering, death and resurrection, because that’s the mystery that we’re living. And so we have to understand it not just with human understanding, human perspective, but from the light that comes from Jesus, from the light of the Holy Spirit. With our Blessed Mother, we asked her, to help us open our hearts to this light. And so this gospel is giving us a very, like a very clear program, to realize that Jesus is walking with us, even when we can’t see Him, to talk to Him, to bring to Him. And we can do that right now in the Mass, in the offertory. To bring to Him all that we’re going through, or all that other people we know are going through, all the difficulties they’re going through, to bring all that to Him, but also in the Mass, to be listening to Him. Him speaking through scripture, Him speaking to our hearts, and helping us understand with faith, what we’re going through right now in our lives. And then we prepare to receive the Holy Eucharist, which is the great sacrament of Jesus wanting to stay with us, to be with us. He who is Emmanuel, God with us.  Amen

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Luke 24:13-35
Road to Emmaus
Holy Eucharist