[stephenkhoo]

ENCOUNTERING THE RISEN LORD OVERCOMES OUR SENSE OF HOPELESSNESS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 3:1-10; LUKE 24:13 – 35
http://www.universalis.com/20140423/mass.htm

We can fully empathize with the disciples at Emmaus. They were so discouraged, especially when they had such great hopes for Jesus the Messiah. And as they recounted, Jesus proved to be such a “great prophet by the things he said and did in the sight of God and of the whole people.” But His tragic and cruel death on the cross dashed all their hopes. As they said, “Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free.”

Just like the disciples at Emmaus, we are often very disappointed with many events in our lives. It could be a death, a tragedy, a betrayal, an act of grave injustice done tot us, a failure or an illness. In such situations, we cannot but feel hopeless. At times, we feel so crippled by such experiences because of the physical, emotional and psychological pain, so much so we want to simply give up. At times, we are just resigned to the situation. This was the case of the man who was crippled from birth. Day after day, year after year, he had no great hope other than that someone would carry him to the Temple gate so that he could beg for his livelihood.

When we are in such doldrums, we cannot expect to look out or look up. Like the disciples at Emmaus, we walk with faces downcast. Like the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate, we dare not look up to the world. The truth is that when we are grappling with our pain, we cannot but be absorbed by our own pain. We cannot see the light beyond our pain. So the tendency is to withdraw and run away from our sorrows, like the disciples who were leaving Jerusalem for Emmaus. Like the crippled man who could only hope that he would have enough to eat every day, we too only entertain small hopes. Like the crippled man and the disciples, we do not believe that God can work wonders and change the situations we are in.

How, then, can we begin to look up and out again? Where can we find such courage and strength? We need to walk with the Risen Lord! Unless the Risen Lord walks with us, we will not have the courage or strength to walk through the valley of tears. This is what St Peter told the crippled man, “‘Look at us”. And we read that the crippled man “turned to them expectantly, hoping to get something from them, but Peter said, ‘I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!’” So we must turn to Jesus the Risen Lord if we were to walk tall and straight again.

But where is the Risen Lord to be found? It is significant that the gospel says that when the disciples, “drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on; but they pressed him to stay with them. ‘It is nearly evening’ they said ‘and the day is almost over.’” Evening again reminds us of darkness and evil. So when we reach the dark moments in our lives, what must we do? We must welcome Jesus to stay with us. How? Through the breaking of bread, for we are told that while Jesus was with them at table, “he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; but he had vanished from their sight.” Hence, it is evident that the Risen Lord is found in the breaking of bread which takes two forms, namely, the Word of God and the Eucharist.

Firstly, it is in the Word of God that the Risen Lord will speak to us. It is in the scriptures that we will see the face of the Risen Lord. In the scriptures, God will speak to us and make clear the confusion in our lives. In the scriptures, God will help us to understand the place of our sufferings, which is to be seen in the perspective of God’s plan. No suffering is suffered in vain. When we give ourselves to the Lord in obedience to His holy will, He will manifest His glorious power over our limitations. He has done this for Jesus and He will do it for us again! That is why we must turn to the scriptures so that Jesus can speak to us and offer us words of encouragement, wisdom and hope.

But most of all, the Risen Lord is to be found in a very special, real and sacramental manner in the Eucharist. The celebration of the Eucharist of course is a memorial of His passion, death and resurrection. Already at the Last Supper, Jesus anticipated His death and resurrection and His continued presence with us whenever we “do this in memory” of Him. So in the Eucharist, Jesus comes to us in a very real way, for in remembering His passion and love for us, we also remember how sin and death were conquered by His resurrection from the dead. The Eucharist therefore is a source of strength for us in our passion and a source of hope for us in living from the future.

Isn’t this the experience of those who read the Word of God prayerfully, slowly and meditatively? Isn’t this the experience of those who celebrate the Eucharist daily with devotion and fervor? In giving ourselves to the Word and in the Eucharist, our experience is no less than that of the disciples of Emmaus when “they said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’” We know that Jesus is truly risen indeed when we experience the love, warmth and presence of Jesus in our hearts. Yes, only in the Word and in the Eucharist, can we see Jesus, for the disciples too had their eyes opened and saw Jesus at the breaking of the bread.

When our hearts are warmed with the love of God, we too become joyful and liberated people. So like them, instead of withdrawing from Jerusalem, we will return to wherever we are to announce the Good News that Jesus is truly risen indeed. Yes, the evangelist writes, “They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, ‘Yes, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’”

Yes, if the going is tough and if we find ourselves helpless, then we must turn to Jesus and look to Him for our salvation and liberation. Just as He strengthened the crippled man’s feet, He will put us upright as well. Jesus never fails. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead means that God will triumph,regardless of the apparent failures in our lives and the scandals of history. Let us give our lives to Jesus, including all our disappointments and failures, so that He can turn them around and give us hope and courage to live from the certainty of triumph.

Written by The Most Rev Msgr William Goh
Archbishop of Singapore