Today is the Third Sunday of Easter in the Roman Catholic Church. We read one of my one of my favorite Gospels, Luke 24:13-35, also known as the story of the Road to Emmaus. The story where two disciples of Jesus, leaving Jerusalem on the first Easter, walk to Emmaus and run into a stranger. This story has always moved me.
Two people who knew Jesus are devastated and lost after his Crucifixion, and they don’t recognize Jesus when he is walking next to them. This is completely understandable to me. Why would they expect to see him? They are focused on the road ahead of them. Yet today it made me reflect on how often Jesus may be walking by my side, but because of my state of mind, I too miss him.
I have hit a rough patch in the road lately. I am not talking about some kind of a spiritual dark night of the soul. Metaphorically it is more like I have some bad blisters on my feet. I know I have to pick myself up and keep walking. My fear is that as I continue on this next leg of my pilgrimage that I will focus on those blisters, and not on those around me… Be it Jesus or people God has put on my path.
So I will say a prayer tonight that I and all other pilgrims keep our eye and hearts open to Jesus. I also pray that the next time we break bread that we too will understand what God is telling us along this path.
