Your have made known to us the path of life; you will fill us with joy in your presence.

My friends, as we negotiate the often, ordinary and sometimes, vicarious pathways of our everyday lives, who accompanies us on this journey?

For the two disciples walking to Emmaus? DISAPPOINTMENT, UNFULFILLED DREAMS, DASHED HOPES, AND THEIR BROKEN HEARTS – are their travel companions on the road. Bummed out with all that has happened in Jerusalem, they take leave, pound the pavement to Emmaus. So much for that promise.

3 days later and I will be back. Yeah, Right! How did we get duped into this one?

Can you feel the disciple’s frustration … melancholy? We had hoped he would be the one. And instead, all ended way back in Jerusalem with his crucifixion – he is dead! His spirited movement? Crushed. Life – as the disciples had known it – over!

We enter the story with the two disciples walking along, the two rehashing all of the events of the last 3 days. Trying to make sense of it all. Overhearing their conversation, a stranger catches up with them. Grace meets them where they are and accompanies them along the way. So caught up in their banter, they do not even recognize him, at first. The two disciples spill out the story to the stranger,

as he listens intently to their sorrow, and the hopelessness they bear. And, even though, the two of them feel warmed by this stranger’s presence, neither one of them says anything. And all they could say: “We had hoped he would be the one who would free us.” We had hoped. The disciples crushed and lost.

My friends, do we recognize grace meeting us where we are – listening intently to our sorrows, and bearing our hopelessness – or do we mouth those same words: We had hoped. We had hoped that taking our son to see all these specialists might help us to understand, but it didn’t. I had hoped that this new work I took on would be satisfying but it isn’t. I had hoped having fallen in love, he would be the one, but he isn’t. We had hoped that the 2 months of chemo would reverse our mother’s cancer, but it didn’t. We had hoped.

So what to do? Is that all there is to life? Our dashed hopes, our broken hearts, disappointments, and our unfulfilled expectations! It’s so easy to just throw in the towel … living embittered, joyless, cynical lives. And that, my friends, is a dead end. So, what to do? Where might we find buoyance, joy, and hope again? Return to past consolations. Return to the familiar. Invite grace in.

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us.” for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”

Every Sunday we return to the familiar after another week on the road filled with our successes and joy, as well as disappointments and hard truths. All roads lead to Christ our Hope. We invite grace in and grace accompanies us as we: gather to listen to the scriptures, a familiar story, of a faithful God who delivers the people whom she loves from slavery to freedom. Grace accompanies us as

we share a meal around this table of hospitality. We offer what we bring, taking what little we have,

our dashed hopes and disappointments, and as the blessing is given, and all is lifted up, grace meets us where we are our lives are transformed, providing hope, consolation.

Like the hope of the disciples, ours is raised from the dead. And, when we are sent forth at the end of Mass, we respond, our hearts burning within us, “Thanks be to God!” We go out in hope that Christ will work through us more than we can imagine.

This morning four of our younger community members – Madeline, Ellie, Nichole, and Evelyn – will enter into this narrative in a much more intentional way. Receiving for the first time the gift of the Eucharist. Each will meet Jesus on their road, and grace will meet them there.

Your have made known to us the path of life; you will fill us with joy in your presence.

_________________________

Mike Bayard, S.J.

3rd Sunday of Easter 2014 (A)

Christ our Hope, Seattle, WA