Since the alarm rang this morning, I’ve been in 5 states – Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and exhaustion. All this darting around the countryside can wear one out!
Before hitting the road, we attended mass at Atonement – an absolutely gorgeous setting for a beautiful celebration enhanced by warm hospitality. The first reading (Acts 3) spoke of Peter’s and John’s healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. How magical it must have been for the lame man, having spent a lifetime at the gate prevented from entering due to his deformity [those were the rules], suddenly and miraculously to be allowed to enter sacred space. I wonder if similar rules applied in our churches of today, if we would seek to bar the lame in spirit, troubled of mind or broken-hearted. The irony of my easy access to a place of great beauty, sitting welcomed and comfortable, was not lost on me. Lord I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.
The Gospel for today (Luke 24) was the account of, on and beyond The Road to Emmaus. Themselves in a state of exhaustion, tormented by grief and confused by events, the two disciples encounter a transformed Jesus – himself healed from the deformity of his humanity. He shares extensive knowledge of the scripture, but they do not recognize him until he breaks bread with them. Sometimes all the exegesis in the world won’t reveal Jesus. Sometimes He is most easily found in communion – communion of those healed and invited to enter a sacred space, fully aware of how long they lay begging at the gate before the divine in someone passing the same way revealed all.
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