By Caravaggio 1606
“And they recognized him in the breaking of the bread.” Lk 24: 31
The Good News of Disillusionment
May 8, 2011 Third Sunday of Easter
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.
That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were goingto a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” Disappointment and sadness were written all over their faces.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to Him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?” And He replied, “What sort of things?” They said to Him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed Him over to a sentence of death and crucified Him. But we were hoping He would be the glorious Messiah who was going to set Israel free from the Romans. Besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find His body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that He was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but Him they did not see.”
And He said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them what referred to Him in all the Scriptures. As they approached the village to which they were going, He gave the impression that He was going on farther. But they urged Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So He went in to stay with them. And it happened that, while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized Him in the breaking of the bread, but He vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way, and how they recognized the Lord in the breaking of bread.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction
Mother’s Day 2011
The original intent and inspiration of Mother’s Day was not to honor mothers themselves but to honor their wishes that the killing of war be stopped. The killing of Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011 is not an occasion for rejoicing but an occasion for resurrecting the original intent and inspiration of Mother’s Day as a day dedicated to finding the path to peace.The Road to Emmaus
Illusions
A weird Old Testament symbolism
Years ago the first Mass of a newly ordained priest was a super-big event. No matter how poor your family was, you always hired a professional photographer who took shots of the important moments and gestures of your first Mass. The best shots were encased in an expensive photo album.Many years after my first Mass, and some years after the remarkable church revolution of Vatican II (1962-1965), I came upon my first Mass album, and was taken by surprise. There suddenly the album stood uncomfortably before me, confronting me with pretenses now long faded away, with a worn-out ecclesiology now replaced by a new one, and with a youthful enthusiasm now moderated by a bit of arthritis and hard experience. Psychologists would call my experience a “middle age crisis.”
The `uncomfortable’ first Mass album stared at me and confronted me with shattered illusions about priesthood. Then with a bit of guilt, and when no one was looking, I performed a kind of weird Old Testament symbolism. In the Old Testament the Lord God commanded Jeremiah to take his loincloth and bury it in a hole in a rock. (Jer 13: 1-11) I took the costly first Mass album, wrapped it in a shroud and secretly buried it! Someone less given to symbolism would simply have kept the album as a good old book of past memories and youthful illusions.
Even God has shattered hopes and expectations, and even God becomes disillusioned. Jeremiah’s weird but bold bit of symbolism ends with Yahweh saying, “Just as a loincloth clings to a man’s waist, so I was hoping that the whole House of Judah would cling to me to be my people, my glory, my honor and my boast, but it did not.” (Jer 13:11) Yahweh sounds disappointed and sad like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, who were hoping that Jesus would be the one who would free Israel from the Romans, but He did not.”
Disillusionment – everyone’s story
Disillusionment is everyone’s story and everyone’s journey. Irish writer and poet Oscar Wilde writes,”At least once in our lifetime, we all walk with Christ to Emmaus.” Not only first Mass albums but also wedding albums, viewed many years later, jump out with shattered illusions. In one of his poems Russian Yevgeny Yevtushenko is watching a wedding procession with the Madonna in a little Italian village. He describes the procession. Up front walk the unmarried maidens, attired in white and with candles in their hands. They’re staring into their flickering flames, “imagining all sorts of secret trysts with some young man of the village.” They’re filled with hope and expectation, “because the hour of their disillusionment had not yet arrived. “ Then behind the maidens come the married women. They’re attired in black, their feet shuffle heavily, and their countenance is “grave and disillusioned.”
Conclusion
Disillusionments – rungs of growth
Illusions are detours or wrong turns in the journey of life. On the other hand, disillusionments are, in fact, rungs in the ladder of growth. There are shortcuts to almost everything these days. There are, however, no shortcuts to growth. At the end of the day, our disillusionments are really good news; they’re stepping stones to growth. At least once in our lifetime, “we all walk with Christ on the road to Emmaus” -- the road of shattered illusions. And we happily remind ourselves that “to be disillusioned is to begin to live.”
