Did Not Our Hearts Burn Within Us?
The two disciples felt depressed and sad. They were on their way to a village called Emmaus. They did know what to do. Their hope “withered before blooming”.
They had given up all hope because Jesus had been crucified. “Their own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free.”
They found it difficult to understand how Jesus who worked so many miracles and had even raised the dead to life, could allow his enemies to put him to death.
Maybe the same in our experience now. During the this Corona virus pandemic, many people have lost their hope. Many people do not know what to do. Some may be questioning God – God, why do you let this happen?
The two disciples only focus on the death of Jesus. They left Jerusalem before they found out the true and triumphant events of that first Easter.
They questioned the first Easter, the resurrection. They left it out of their thinking, their living. They were discouraged, disappointed, disillusioned about something and they started walking away.
Rather than believing, they were described as “amazed” or “astonished.”
Jesus accompanied the two disciples who had lost faith in Him. Because of having failed, as they thought, to triumph over his enemies on the dreadful Good Friday.
Jesus followed them, like the good shepherd He was, and brought them back to fold.
He explained to them about the passage and He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, so that their “heart burn,” and they were awakened.
Perhaps you’ve had some experiences where your heart burned within you when God was speaking directly to you with power and intimacy. Those were one of those precious times.
Maybe during this period, we have more time to read the scripture more regularly and faithfully. Sacred Scripture is to be “read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit through whom it was written” (Dei Verbum, 12).
Pope Francis encourages us never to take God’s Word for granted, “But instead to let ourselves be nourished by it, in order to acknowledge and live fully our relationship with Him and with our brothers and sisters”.
Let your hearts be burnt by the fire of the Holy Spirit.
God bless you.
Fr. Rusdi Santoso, SS.CC.