IT WAS HIM! I KNOW IT WAS HIM! WE RECOGNIZED HIM AT THE TABLE!

With eyes downcast and hopes dashed,

two disciples headed out of town for the

town of Emmaus, discussing among

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-one 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, 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.

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.  But this Easter, in the midst of all these dashed hopes, we, 21^st  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 typically more than 150,000 new members a year join 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 no rebirth and renewal without pain.  The sounds of giving birth and dying are sounds of pain and they are easily mistaken, one for the other. 

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 one 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 that we used to sing in my "parish missions," one I included last Sunday, 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!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_x7eCuk8NM

Yes, it is true, it is darkest right before the dawn, there is always a great breakdown before a great breakthrough and there is no resurrection without a death!  That's why real Christians never give up! No matter what happens! Never! This is especially good to remember as we go through this dreadful pandemic!  "Hold on my child, hold on!"