This put up is predicated on Week Eight of An Ignatian Prayer Journey.
Like many people in the present day, the disciples on the highway to Emmaus had been at a loss and in despair over a world seemingly gone mad, seeing the foundational ideas of the world round them being shaken and residing in worry for his or her lives. The horror and shock of the Crucifixion had overwhelmed all hope and threatened the teachings of affection and compassion Jesus had sought to instill. Do the horrors of in the present day’s world occasions overwhelm your sense of hope? Do the teachings of affection and compassion appear pointless within the face of terrorist atrocities, international warming, racial hatred, refugee crises, and so many different evils? Wherever you might be at this second, you might be on that highway to Emmaus.
One thing occurs on this highway.
Christ joins the disciples, walks beside them, breaks bread with them, and opens their hearts along with his Phrase in a manner that’s so overwhelming, the world is now not mad to them. Be aware the world state of affairs has not modified in any respect, however the hearts of the disciples have. For any Christian, for anybody who professes perception within the Resurrection and the teachings of Jesus, our hearts should be overwhelmed by this identical interplay with God on our personal roads to Emmaus. Christ walks beside us in the present day. Christ breaks bread with us in the present day. Christ opens our hearts along with his Phrase in the present day in precisely the identical manner he did on that highway to Emmaus 2,000 years in the past. His teachings are the identical: Love God with all of your coronary heart, all of your soul, and all of your thoughts. Love your neighbor, and pray on your enemies. Forgive all. Welcome the stranger. Take care of the sick. Go to the imprisoned. Present for the least amongst us. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Nothing has modified, besides now we’re those strolling the highway.
This encounter on the highway so turned the hearts of the disciples that they actually rotated and ran again into the fray, again into Jerusalem, again into the world. So should we enable our encounter with Christ in others, in prayer, within the Eucharist, and within the Phrase to show round our hearts in the present day. We should enable ourselves to be so overwhelmed by the revelation of a God of affection that no worry, no evil, no struggling, and no hatred can depart us in despair.
The selection is ours. You’ll be able to proceed in your highway to Emmaus and keep there. Proceed to stay in despair, confusion, instability, and worry. Proceed to stay in a world the place evil has the final phrase and loss of life is the tip of life. Or hear the Phrase, hear the Voice, and be overwhelmed by Love. Return to Jerusalem, again to your ardour, again to therapeutic, again to a lifetime of hope, and again to a world the place love has the final phrase and life by no means ends.
Picture: “Supper at Emmaus” by Matthias Stom, public area by way of Wikimedia Commons.
