THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER April 6, 2008 Reflections on Acts 2:14, 22-23 Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11 1 Peter 1:17-21 Luke 24:13-35 by Mary Benet McKinney, O.S.B.

Cleopas and his companion (Some Scripture scholars suggest it probably was his wife!) were downcast – disappointed – confused – sad – angry. But Jesus was with them all the way, breaking open the Scripture for them. Only later did they realize what had happened – their hearts burned within them! Jack Shea says that the purpose of the Scripture is to burn hearts. It doesn’t matter where we are on the journey, Jesus is there wanting to burn our hearts. The question for us is, “Do we let him?”

There are a great variety of journeys that we travel as we go through life. How often we have heard that, taught it, reflected upon it, wondered about it, muddled our way through it or rejoiced because of it. And every year in the post Easter season we are reminded of the importance of mindful journeying and challenged by this gospel story. We are to hear it, not just as a re-run, but as a graced opportunity to unpack it with new eyes.

There are many approaches to journeying. We can journey TOWARD something or AWAY from something. Or we can journey on automatic, paying slight attention to what’s happening.

If we journey toward something that delights us, we are filled with anticipation and excitement, joyful and grateful. Or we can journey toward uncertainty and discover in our hearts a mixture of hope and fear, moving slowly perhaps, determined to go on but unsure.

Then there is the journey away from something that is hard, too painful to risk getting any closer to, paralyzed by fearful memories or future real or imagined threats.

Or maybe we just plod along on automatic, moving, doing, living without conscious purpose, failing to notice the way we are going, the people who journey with us, the countless opportunities for growth, for joy, for new life.

Wherever we find ourselves, today’s Gospel has much to teach us. Most importantly that Jesus travels with us! And as he travels he listens to our words, our moods, our fears and our hopes. And then he responds! He breaks open the Scripture for us so that our hearts burn and then breaks the bread with us so that we will have no doubts about his presence.

Go back to Jack Shea’s insight: the purpose of scripture is to burn the heart. Or we might say, to melt the heart, to make it pliable. Is that your experience? As you hear Scripture or read it, does it warm the cockles of your heart? Do you find yourself willing to be formed and shaped by the Word? Do you realize that somehow Scripture doesn’t just tell the story or teach, rather it breaks open the heart and causes it to long for the nourishment to be found in the breaking of the bead?

It is not by accident that in every Eucharistic celebration we hear the Word first. We must hear, be attentive to, keenly aware of what Jesus has to say to us. Only then, can he stay with us, sit down at table with us, break the bread of our lives, bless it and feed us with himself.

If then we have heard the Word, our hearts are burning, longing, deeply desiring an intimacy with our God. And it will happen as he comes to us, takes up residence within our very bodies, lets us live the resurrected life with him, lets us, too, be the Word made flesh!

We pray then this day that Jesus will show us the path we are to travel, keep us on it with joy and expectation and keep us from running away in fear. And most of all save us from living on automatic. But if we do, may he, even then, walk with us, listen to us and then break open the Scripture for us so that our hearts will burn within us. Then may he break the bread of our lives, bless it and enable us to share it with those who travel with us!

Let us then move into this day with the words we sang as a response after our first reading in our hearts and on our lips: Lord, you will show us the path to life!

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