Message from Augie

Many people today move through the world with a kind of constant distraction.   A phone in hand, ear buds in the ears, and eyes drawn again and again to the small glowing screen we carry everywhere. 

Walking down the street while listening to a podcast.   Scrolling though messages.  Choking headlines.  Glancing at the endless stream of videos, memes, and updates that seem to refresh themselves every few seconds.  It is possible to walk an entire block that way and hardly notice who passes beside you. A neighbor might walk by.  A friend might wave.  Someone one might speak your name, and yet we keep moving, barely aware.  The person is there the whole time.  We simply did not see them.

                In today’s Gospel we have two disciples walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  They are deep in conversation, trying to make sense of everything that has happened during the past few days.  Their hopes have collapsed.  The future imagined disappeared.   A stranger approached them and they share the story. And towards the end the words that reveal the depth of their disappointment:   “But we had hoped…”

Those words carry the weight of shattered expectation.   Anyone who has lived long enough recognizes that sentence.    We had hoped the treatment would work.  We had hoped the relationship could be repaired.  We had hoped things would turn out differently.  Hope can collapse quietly like that, and when it does the road ahead can feel very long.

That is the road these disciples are walking. Their disappointment was not the end of the story.  It was part of the story. The cross had not been an interruption of God’s plan.  The cross had been the center of it.

That realization does not happen all at once.  Luke suggests something quieter and more gradual.  As Jesus speaks, the disciples begin to feel something stirring inside of them.  They cannot name it, but something in His words begins to ring true.  Faith often begins exactly that same way, not with sudden certainty, but with quiet awakening of the heart. Something had begun to change in the long before they recognized Him.

 SO THE QUESTION:   HAVE YOU EVER HAD AN EMMAUS EXPERIENCE?  AN AWAKENING TO GOD IN YOUR LIFE?

PRAYER TO ST. JUDE:  St. Jude, apostle of Christ, the church honors and prays to you universally as the patron of hopeless and difficult cases.   Pray for us in our needs.   Make use, we implore you of this powerful privilege given to you to bring visible and speedy help where help is needed.  Pray that we humbly accept the trials and disappointments and mistakes which are a part of our human nature.   Help us to see the reflection of the suffering of Christ in the trials and tribulations of our lives.   Let us see in a spirit of great faith and hop the part we even now share in the joy of Christ’s resurrection and which we long to share fully in heaven.   Intercede that we may again experience this joy in answer to our present needs.   If it is God’s dire for us (here make your request)  we know our prayers will be heard through your intercession.  AMEN