Is your heart burning?
If so, is your heart on fire carrying you beyond the fear
and your personal desires , “Ad Majorem
Dei Gloriam”, for the greater glory of God ?
The Gospel Reading of the 3rd Sunday of Easter
(Year A), Luke 24:13-35, can pose this question to the faithful.
In this Easter Gospel story, Cleopas and the other disciples
were walking to Emmaus on the day that Jesus rose, grief-stricken and confused.
Their hearts were heavy with sadness, because Jesus, the
man, whom they had thought to be the Messiah, died on the Cross. They were in
bewilderment, because they did not understand why the tomb of Jesus, was found
empty earlier that morning.
The death of Jesus and the empty tomb of his – these two
facts made no sense to them.
So, these two disciples of Jesus were debating about what
could have happened to Jesus after his death, perhaps, trying to make sense out
of this befuddling situation.
Psychologically, this is a typical reaction to grief.
So, a man they did not recognize who he was appeared to them
on the way and joined in them on the journey. And, this man asked, Cleopas and
the other disciple, “What are you
discussing as you walk along?”(Luke 24:17). Unbeknownst to them, it was the risen Jesus,
the Christ! But, their eyes were prevented from recognizing him as the risen
Lord (Luke 24:16).
Then, these disciples said to the man, “Are you the only
visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there
in these days?”(Luke 24:18).
The man asked, “What
sort of thing?”(Luke 24:19).
So, Cleopas and the other disciple explained to this man
about what they know about what happened to Jesus, whom they called “a prophet
mightily in deed and word before God and all the people”(Luke 24:19) at that
time.
In response, the man said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these
things and enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26).
This is an interesting point in the Gospel narrative,
because the risen Jesus, whom they did not recognize, was making himself look
like a person who does not know anything about what happened to Jesus – though
this has been discussed everywhere in Jerusalem. Jesus they did not recognize appeared to be
an ignorant person, while the two disciples seemed knowledgeable, just like
anyone else in Jerusalem, about what happened to Jesus, even though they did
not understand what they know and what they told Jesus on the way to
Emmaus. However, when Jesus said, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets spoke!...”, the tide of the story makes a
180-degree turn!
Now, Jesus, whom they still did not recognize, held the upper hand and began to explain to Cleopas and the other disciples what they
did not know – what they did not understand.
Here, the risen Jesus was giving them a review of all his teaching in
the past 3 years in reference to the scriptures. This explanation of Jesus The scriptural reference for this may
include, Isaiah 53 on the Suffering Messiah, Deuteronomy 18:15 on Moses’
alluding to the Messianic quality in one of his successors, and Psalm 22:1-18
on an indication of the suffering of the Messiah.
I am sure that Cleopas and the other disciple were amazed by
the way Jesus, whom they still did not recognized, explained and interpreted
the scriptures, to help them understand the meaning behind the passion, the
death, and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ.
The fact that they invited Jesus to have dinner with them in
Emmaus clearly shows that both Cleopas and the other disciple were drawn to
Jesus’ explanation and interpretation – besides it was getting dark into the evening. So, they were eager to
listen to what Jesus had to say more over dinner.
And, there is another big turning point in this Gospel
narrative!
At dinner, when Jesus blessed and broke the bread and
distributed it to Cleopas and the other disciple, the tide of their lives
changed forever, as their eyes finally opened to the truth, which was taught by
Jesus and prophesized in the scriptures, as Jesus just explained (Luke
24:30-31).
Then, Jesus’ physical appearance vanished suddenly. But,
their hearts were left burning. And, the Gospel story here suggests that their
hearts began burning in them as Jesus was explaining and interpreting the
scriptures to them on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:32).
As their eyes opened by Jesus breaking the bread in Emmaus,
the fire, on which their hearts were, became greater - greater enough to run back to Jerusalem,
where the rest of the disciples were still hiding, to tell this news to them.
So, upon listening to this Gospel story, have you found your
heart burning? Is the fire, on which
your heart is on, now greater than ever, upon your encounter with the risen
Lord?
Do you find yourself having a hard time containing what you
know about Jesus, the Paschal Mystery, and his teaching, just to yourself? If so, you must be on the move to share the
risen Christ in your heart with others!
And, if this is the case to you, your eyes are already
open! In the Buddhist sense, this means
becoming buddha, which means “being
awaken” in Sanskrit, relating to the verb, “budh”
(to awaken).
To view this Gospel story in reference to Buddhism, Cleopas
and the other disciples were walking on the way to become “buddha “ – in light
of the truth of the Christ’s teaching, which is based on the scriptures that he
interpreted and explained. And, what
prepared them to become “buddha” were Jesus’ explanation of the scriptures on
the way to Emmaus and the breaking of
the bread in Emmaus.
In fact, this Gospel story is about Mass!
The two important elements in opening the eyes of these two
disciples – making them “buddha”: the Word of God – the scriptures – on the way
to Emmaus, and the Blessed and Broken Bread in Emmaus, correspond to the two
pillars of Mass: the Liturgy of the Word, and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
When I teach my students, who are on the parish religious
education program, about Mass, I tell them that the Liturgy of the Word is like
an appetizer to the main dinner, which is the Eucharist. The students seem to relate this explanation
to Mass well. In fact, the Gospel story
also make sense out of this my explanation of Mass better, as Jesus’
interpretation of the scripture on the way to Emmaus prepared the two disciples
open their eyes, thus making them truly understand and appreciate the meaning
of the blessing and breaking the bread, remembering the Last Supper.
And, I tell my students that they really need to pay
attention to the Word of God spoken from the scriptures and explained in homily
in order for them to be truly entitled to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist at
Mass.
In a way, we must become “buddha” every time we are at Mass
by the time we get in line to the alter and receive the Eucharist.
So, the aisle to the alter to us at Mass is like the road to
Emmaus to Cleopas and the other disciple.
Our hearts must be burning already by the time we stand in
line toward the later to receive the Eucharist.
And, with the Eucharist, the flames of our burning hearts shall become
greater and set us ready to go proclaiming the Good News without hesitation and
fear! After all, that was how Cleopas
and the other disciple were, in response to the bread that Jesus blessed and
broke, after listening to his explanation and interpretation of the scriptures.
That is why the presiding priest says, “Go in peace, and announce
the Gospel of the Lord!” in sending us off at the end of Mass, reflecting these
Latin words: Ite, missa est, which
can be interpreted as, “Go, you are being sent”. The Latin word, “missa”, for Mass, is also related to the words, “mission” and “dismiss”. The Spanish word for Mass, “Misa”, sounds much closer to the Latin
word, to really make us feel being sent and commissioned.
Our Mass must be an Emmaus experience!
If you are a priest, this is what you must strive for –
making Mass you preside a true Emmaus experience to everyone at Mass. The same goes to those who serve as
ministers, including sacristans, ushers, lectors, choirs, and Eucharistic
ministers.
In regard to ushers, it is important to keep in mind that
the Emmaus story in the Luke’s Gospel is also about hospitality, which ushers
are primarily responsible at Mass. If
Cleopas and the other disciples did not show their hospitality to Jesus in
Emmaus, they would not have become “buddha”,
because of no blessing and breaking of bread.
Even though their hearts began to burn, the flames could have been gone
after a while. These two disciples’
hospitality to Jesus is very important.
Likewise, we must be hospitable to the risen Christ all the
time, because as Paul said to the Ephesians, he may dwell in our hearts
(Ephesians 3:17), while we seek God with all our heart (Jeremiah 29:13) and the
Kingdom of God first (Luke 12:31, Matthew 6:33).
And, in attending Mass, we must be as attentive as Cleopas
and the other disciple were to Jesus on the way to Emmaus and in Emmaus – so that
our hearts begin to burn in a way to be sent out (missa) to proclaim the Good News of the risen Lord, without fear
and hesitation. The first reading (Acts 2:14, 22-33) and the second reading (1
Peter 1:17-21) of the 3rd Sunday of Easter (Year A) shows a good
example by Peter, after he also recognized the risen Christ and got his heart
burning.
…….........................
So, what if your feel your heart is not burning as it should…?
As a pastoral psychologist, this is more like a question I
handle in my clinical practice and ministry.
In fact, there are many people who feel that their hearts
are not burning well. Some even feel that their hearts are burned…burned out.
In this case, an important question we can ask ourselves is - What prevents us from recognizing the risen
Christ?
As said above, both Cleopas and the other disciples in the 3rd Sunday of Easter Gospel story were with heavy hearts - too heavy with grief and confusion - to recognize the risen Christ, joining on their journey to Emmaus.
Perhaps, anxieties and stress in life? Grieving over a certain loss in your life? Feeling confused about something that makes no sense? Stressed about something or about these feelings? But, you understand in your head that you “should
not” worry and get stressed out. Maybe
you have tried to relax and worked on stress management programs. Perhaps, even
tried counseling and psychotherapy. But,
in spite of all this, you may still feel that your heart is not burning quite
well or burning like a bad furnace, producing carbon monoxide rather than
carbon dioxide.
To such clients, I always remind them that it takes some
time for our hearts to get burning, because it take a while to recognize the
risen Christ. In other words, it take some time for us to sink in the deeper
meaning of Easter. The slow of heart that
Jesus pointed out in Luke 24:25 is not a symptom limited to Cleopas and the
other disciple in the Gospel story. In fact, that was a common symptom to all
the disciples at an early stage of Easter.
Gospel narratives consistently
describe how slow disciples were in recognizing the risen Christ (Luke
24:13-35, 36-43; Mark 16:9-13; John 20:11-18,24-28, 21:1-14). In fact,
psychologically speaking, it tells us how slow it is for us to recognize the
risen Christ.
In the New Testament, the
disciples are a collective projection of our hearts, which desire to have a
closer relationship with the Lord but find it difficult to understand and
follow the teaching of the Lord because of the multitudes of worries due to our
internal insecurity. We do not have to
be as obviously doubtful about the Resurrection as Thomas was.
An important lesson we can take
from these “slow heart” – slow burning – disciples to us is that they actually
listened to the risen Christ.
So, even though whatever clogs
our hearts at this time may prevent us from recognizing the risen Christ and
making it difficult to understand the scriptures, we shall keep paying
attention to the Word of God in the scriptures, and to its interpretations in
homilies. For a better result, it is always good to participate in a quality
religious education programs and prayer groups with a good scripture study
component.
And, most importantly, we
continuously pray for God’s grace to guide us on our respective road to Emmaus,
making our encounter with the risen Christ, through the Word of God and the
Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In fact, as a pastoral
psychologist, I know that the very person who can lift your heavy heart and
make it burning afresh is the risen Christ. It is not a psychologist. Not even
a pastoral minister, either. My clinical
and pastoral role here is to guide people with such heavy hearts – too heavy to
recognize the risen Christ, too burdened to find the risen Christ in the Word
of God and the Eucharist – to where they are likely to encounter him as the
disciples, including the Cleopas and the other disciples, did.
For this practice, I sometimes
use David Haas’ “You are Mine”. It is a
beautiful Catholic contemporary hymn, about the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
This gentle hymn reminds us that
the risen Christ comes to us in the silence.
And, the silence can be understood in many ways, depending on your
particular situation.
For those who are burdened with
fear and anxiety, the silence may mean that you have been silenced because of
fear and anxiety. If this is the case,
then, it may be exactly where Jesus comes to you – to lift your heart so that
you can begin to see better, by lifting your fear and anxiety.
The hymn sings that Jesus is with
us. He is our Emmanuel - meaning that he is our God with us. And,
the risen Lord was a companion to Cleopas and the other disciple all the way to
Emmaus in the Gospel story. He will be with us until our eyes open and
recognize him as the risen Christ – until his teaching on the Word of God, the
scriptures, make sense to us – namely, until we become “buddha” in light of the
Christian truth or “Christian Dharma”.
And, this process of our journey
toward Emmaus with Jesus is also a journey of healing and Christian growth into
the fullness.
So, are you willing now to listen
to Jesus, accompanied by angels, gently speaking to you, through this hymn?– if
your hearts are still too heavy to recognize the risen Christ -?
When the risen Jesus came to Cleopas and the other disciple
came to them on their way to Emmaus from Jerusalem, they were kept from
recognizing him (Luke 24:16).
May Christ the Divine Mercy (Diary of St. Faustina, 1074) be
with you as you walk on your road to Emmaus, as it may as well your path toward
the salvation. May the Divine Mercy
gently speaking in this hymn help your heart become burning!
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