ARE WE MISSING OUT ON THE BEST LIFE CAN OFFER US?

“Two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
Jesus himself drew near and asked them,
‘What are you discussing as you walk along?’
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them replied. ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?’
Jesus replied, ‘What sort of things?’
They said to him, ‘The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene.
We were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.

“Some women from our group were at the tomb
and did not find his body; they reported
seeing angels who announced that he was alive.

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?’

“Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
Jesus interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

“Jesus stayed with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” Luke 24:13-35

Why did the disciples miss so much of what was happening around them? Not only do they miss recognizing Jesus accompanying them on that very first Easter Sunday, but it appears that they nowhere near fully comprehended what he had been trying to teach them in all the days and years they had been listening to his teachings. What makes us humans content with so little of the reality that we grasp when God offers us so much and we miss seeing what is right before us in our everyday situations?

Here is an example. Yesterday I spent the whole day (8 AM – 9 PM) in a hospital outpatient waiting room with my brother, as he was awaiting eye surgery. All day long we, patients and designated drivers, sat as strangers, waiting, hoping. By 6 PM there were no patients and only three drivers left. By 8 PM, only two of us. I was the last one to leave and the only listening to and fully hearing of each other’s messages came from between me and a man in the last twenty minutes of his hours-long wait for his wife. How similar to the men on the Road to Emmaus. How true to what Catholic author Flannery O’Connor said, “God is constantly offering graces to us – and most often we refuse them.” How much of our lives are spent like the men of the Emmaus Road and the people in that waiting room! How many graces are we refusing right now? How many graces will we refuse in the next hours, the next day?

And what is making us do this over and over again, day after day, year after year? Is it that we are too content and comfortable? Are we too busy juggling what we want or have to do? Is it that we are afraid to walk into the unknown? The causes are probably as varied and numerous as the number of people who came into that waiting room. Each of us has to supply their own personal answers. What are yours? What is making you miss the graces God is offering you day after day, year after year? Are you going to let this continue? And what, if anything, are you going to do about it?

Here are some thoughts to ponder.

SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES

Something to consider is how we see God and how we “think” God relates to us.*
Prior to the Second Vatican Council in the 1960’s, most people thought of God as a wise but stern Father, tracking and holding us accountable for our every sin and misstep, a judgmental parent. Post Vatican II many of us switched to thinking of God as a loving and forgiving Father who overlooks our lack of discipline and the hurt and mistreatment that inflicts on others. A side effect of that outlook can be putting God and one’s own and other people’s God-relationships on the back burner in favor of more current needs.

Is God a blend of love and justice? Are you and I meant to be a blend of love and justice? Are we meant to use God-offered graces to build the world into the beautiful and healthy place that God knows we can make of it and hopes we will? (See Psalm 85 below.)

LET’S WORK ON ACCEPTING EVERYDAY GRACES FROM NOW TO PENTECOST

So here we are, two weeks since Easter 2023 and five weeks until Pentecost. Will we continue missing chances to connect with Jesus, with our deeper selves? Can we open ourselves to see and welcome the graces God will offer us to connect more intimately with God, to stand together with each other, to let “love and truth meet, to let justice and peace kiss”? (Psalm 85)

A Challenge:  Let’s make a wholehearted effort to live each moment from now to Pentecost looking for the graces God is offering us, letting ” love and truth meet,” helping “justice and peace to kiss.” and livi

Sister Loretta

PSALM 85

Near indeed is his salvation for those who fear him;
glory will dwell in our land.
Love and truth will meet;
justice and peace will kiss.
Truth will spring from the earth;
justice will look down from heaven.
Yes, the LORD will grant his bounty;
our land will yield its produce.
Justice will march before him,
and make a way for his footsteps. Psalm 85: 10-14

* But who is God really? Is God what we think God is? Neither of these views may be any more than what we perceive God to be.