DEACON ALAN LAYDEN’S HOMILIES

Third Sunday Easter

April 6, 2008

Over the years, we have all heard a particular phrase.  One that is often attached to a statement that is couched in utter disappointment and total sadness.  “We had hoped…. How often have we heard people start a sentence that way?  You know…?   "We had hoped that when our son returned from Iraq he would continue his college studies, but...."…..  "We had hoped that going to marriage counseling would have saved our daughters marriage, but...."…..  "We had hoped that our parents wouldn’t ever have to go to a nursing home, but....”. "We had hoped that our son would be able to meet the mortgage payments on his new house, but...." ….  "We had hoped that we could rebuild our lives after the company went out of business, but..." or… "We had hoped that the experimental drug would help our mother conquer her cancer, but...." No need to continue, we can all fill in the blanks…. For all of us it is the same… some time in our lives…."We had hoped...."

Cleopus and his companion have been traveling together from Jerusalem to Emmaus with another companion…. Disappointment.  Then as this “Stranger” joins them and they talk about all that has happened to them.  They recall and reveal complete loss and as Jesus’ followers, were doing what we might do in such a situation; huddle together, and go about the grim business of returning to and rebuilding their former lives. Some even returned to the grave to do what we also do, visit the burial sights of the dead to grieve there and tell stories of a former time when the loved one was alive. The disciples on the road to Emmaus were not about to fictionalize an account of the risen Christ. They tell the "Stranger" who joins them about the account the women gave about Jesus’ being alive. But these two, and we know others, did not believe them. The disciples had begin to closed the chapter on that part of their lives and seemed to be returning to what and who they were before they followed Jesus of Nazareth.  They are on their way home to return to those former lives.

Not only had Jesus died and his movement was seemingly crushed, but also they, his disciples, had experienced his death in personal ways. Their dreams of a new life for themselves, their families, their religion and their very nation have also died with Jesus’ crucifixion. You can hear their shattered lives in what they tell the Stranger who joins them on their journey, "We had hoped...."

Then they experience a rebirth or renewal of that energy they felt as Jesus’ disciples, as this “Stranger” speaks and beginning with Moses and all of the prophets, this Stranger interprets to them all of what pertains to Jesus in the Scriptures.  So rejuvenating was this dialog that Cleopus and friend invite this Stranger to stay with them.  Even dine with them.  So, during that stay he broke the bread, blessed it and shared it with them and they had Eucharist. 

And every Sunday, with our Priest as Celebrant, we recall that weekend that Cleopus and Companion experienced.  Jesus’ Crucifixion!  His Death!  And, His Resurrection!  What we call the Pascal Mystery.  With the support of a believing and hoping community, we then acknowledge that we need the Word of God and the Eucharist.

Which is why Jesus opens the scriptures for the dispirited disciples on their journey and why he gathers them to pause with him and to break bread. Like them, we constantly need our eyes opened to see Jesus alive and with us—in the Word and the Sacrament. But the disciples didn’t just continue their journey with their hopes renewed, after their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus. Then they returned to the community to discover that the Risen Christ had appeared among them too. That is where we also discover him----risen and in the midst of the community.

When our hopes are dissipated or waning, we too return to where hope is renewed—in the scriptures, in the Eucharist and in this community of believers. Which is exactly what we are doing and where we find ourselves on this Third Sunday of Easter, at our Eucharistic celebration.

And that just leaves me with a question for us all to think about this week.  Do others in our lives recognize us as the people who have taken Jesus into to ourselves and have become for the world, part of that new and ever lasting covenant?  Do they see Eucharist?