BREAKDOWNS BEFORE BREAKTHROUGHS
Rev. Ronald Knott
April 30, 2017
With eyes downcast and hopes dashed,
two disciples headed out of town for the
town of Emmaus
themselves all the things that had just
happened.
Luke 24
This story, by the way, is the story that
was read at my first mass. Forty-seven years later, it still speaks to me in a
powerful way. It still reminds me that things are not always as bad as they may
appear on the surface. In fact, it is yet another version of the same
"empty tomb" story we read on Easter Sunday - a big breakdown is often
the surest sign of a big breakthrough.
In this story, it is Sunday evening and
two disciples are walking away from Jerusalem,
dragging their feet in a depression, toward a small town called Emmaus. Some
commentators believe they may have been a married couple - Cleophas and his
unnamed wife. Jesus had died a humiliating death just two days ago.
Earlier that very morning, some women had returned from the tomb, claiming that
the tomb was empty, that they had seen some angels who had told them that Jesus
was alive. Obviously, these two either had not heard this "good news"
or had dismissed those reports as just the wishful thinking of distraught women
friends.
“We had hoped,” they told the mysterious
stranger, “that Jesus was going to be the Messiah, but obviously we were duped.
It did not pan out as we had expected. We were hoping and now we have no hope.
We just had to get away from the whole scene. We are disappointed. We were
badly misled. We are angry. We don’t have any idea what to do next, but we
certainly not going to be taken in again by this latest bit of crazy news.
“Hurt once, shame on you. Hurt twice, shame on me.”
This story symbolizes all people who have
had their hopes blown away. Just as our church has been doing for
the last several years since the explosion of the sexual abuse scandal, these
two demoralized disciples pour out their despair, their anger, their sadness
and their resentment. This mysterious stranger listens and then begins to
review the scriptures, reminding them that God has always intervened to save
his people when they hit bottom.
As they walk along, Jesus goes over story
after story from the scriptures and shows them how God had always come to their
rescue and could even overcome the death of their master. As these two
demoralized disciples listened, Jesus made his case. The fire in their hearts,
that had all but died out, was fanned into flame again. Little by little, their
eyes were opened until they recognized, in the breaking of the bread, that this
stranger was indeed Jesus himself. Having left the gathered disciples back in Jerusalem a few hours earlier, they hastened
back to rejoin the faith community who had their own stories of restored hope
to share.
In many ways, we,as a church are still in
a depression. We are still sharing our anger, resentment and sadness at all
that has happened to us in the last few years. In the midst of all these
dashed hopes, we, 21st century disciples, gather again to
share the scriptures and break the bread, hoping that we will recognize
the presence of Jesus and have our faith renewed and our hope restored.
Renewed by this Easter faith, maybe some of those who have left our faith
community will, like these two disciples, someday soon get up and come back to
rejoin our faith community again. When they do, they may be surprised to find
out that more than 150,000 new members each year have joined us across the
country, through baptism and profession of faith.
One of my favorite ways to explain the
message of Easter is an image I discovered many years ago. In that image,
the church is pictured as a gigantic egg. We woke up a couple of years ago to
realize that this egg was covered with fine cracks. Each month the cracks have
seemed to get bigger and bigger. Some people have simply walked away from it as
they would a hopeless case. Others have been hysterically running around
with ropes and tape and ladders trying to glue it all back together.
There is another response we can make! We
can stand back and let it hatch! Easter reminds us that the church is not
falling apart, but giving birth. The church is not dying, it is being reborn
and renewed. There is not rebirth and renewal without pain.
The Easter message is both simple and
profound: in the long run, no matter what you are facing (cancer, addiction,
divorce or even the loss of a loved one), there is absolutely no reason to lose
hope when one puts one's trust in the man who conquered even death to rise
again! He promised us, in the process, that good will ultimately triumph over
evil when all is said and done!
I will end by quoting the words of one of
those old gospel songs I heard a few weeks ago, entitled “Joy Comes in the
Morning”
If you’ve knelt beside the rubble of an
aching broken heart,
When the things you gave your life to fell
apart,
You’re not the first to be acquainted with
sorrow, grief or pain,
But the Master promised sunshine after
rain.
Hold on my child! Hold on my child!
Weeping only lasts for the night.
Hold on my child! Hold on my child!
The darkest hour means dawn is just in
sight!
I could give you hundreds of examples of
how "breakdowns" have become "breakthroughs" in my own
life. Here are a few. I am sure you could add some of your own.
One of the best days of my priesthood was
the day the diocese told me there was no money for continued education when I
went to the home missions down in the southern part of the state as a newly
ordained priest with no knowledge of evangelization, Bible belt culture or how
to start a church. It made me turn to the Presbyterian Church for help. They
gave me a full scholarship, not for a little program or two, but for a Doctor
of Ministry degree in Parish Revitalization. That degree led me to becoming
pastor of this Cathedral several years later and propelled me from being a
country pastor to working some of the most influential people in Louisville, as
well as some of the most wounded people of our church.
I was very depressed that my mother died
of breast cancer at age 58 and thought it so unfair. I had plans to spoil her
after my father died. Even that turned out to be an occasion of blessings. It
cleared the way for me to be reconciled with my father after 37 years, something
that may not have happened if things had occurred in the order I had hoped.
It may sound strange, but one of the best
things that ever happened while we were renovating this Cathedral was the day
the walls cracked and almost fell to the ground. It brought our project to the
attention to the whole community in a way we could never have made happen
ourselves.
One of the best things that happened to me
after I left here was to have all seventeen of my ideas for the Vocation Office
basically yawned at by the diocese. I shook the dust off and went to St.
Meinrad where the Lilly Endowment gave us almost $2,000,000 to implement my
ideas and propelled me into speaking in over 100 dioceses in 9 countries about
those ideas. I will be in Montana next week and Vancouver two weeks after
that and the island of St. Lucia in September to name a few.
While I was able to develop this very
successful international program for priests during those ten years at St.
Meinrad, the ending was not smooth because of one personality. Because I was
forced to let go of my last dream there, I have been able to develop that dream
much faster and even more successfully on my own. It is called the CATHOLIC
SECOND WIND GUILD, a program for retiring priests, bishops and professional lay
people. I am about to make my 7th trip soon.
Yes, it is true, that it is darkest right
before the dawn, that there is always a great breakdown before a great
breakthrough and that there is no resurrection without a death! That's
why real Christians never give up! No matter what happens! Remember, it is
often the last key on the ring that opens the door!
Hold on my child! Hold on my child!
Weeping only lasts for the night.
Hold on my child! Hold on my child!
The darkest hour means dawn is just in
sight!
Never give up too soon! It's often the last key on the ring that opens the door!
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