THRID SUNDAY EASTER

THOUGHT An attitude of gratitude is the memory of the heart.

Third Sunday of Easter Luke 24:13-35 7:30 2008

The two disciples dragged themselves down the short road to Emmaus. But it seemed like the journey of the rest of their lives.
The sun above was eclipsed by the gloom of their disappointment. They stumbled over the broken syllables of their crippling despondency.
Then a stranger joined them with the fresh energy of one who could hurdle any obstacle on the way.After the two disciples opened their hearts to this stranger, he opened the book of their memory and with the colorful words of the prophets, he painted a complete portrait of the Messiah from the crimson of his suffering to the golden glory of his resurrection.
But it was during the breaking of the bread that the two disciples understood that the one who had walked along with them was in fact the Way.
It wasn’t until after the bread had been broken and shared that the two disciples realized that their hearts had been set on fire by the divine arsonist.
Just as the two disciples found the security of their faith renewed in the breaking of the bread, so too, you come to Eucharist to be reinforced in the security of your faith.
Not the security, for example, of an anchor that keeps you fastened in the same place, immobilized, going nowhere. Rather it is the security of a well-honed athlete who knows that the victory of the race is hers.
Kathleen Fischer in her book, Reclaiming the Connections, says, “In process spirituality perfection is modeled on a love that takes risks. It is a spirituality that is a challenge to adventure rather than a satisfaction with security or complacency.”
Sometimes, for example, you may go through the gospel story with a scissors and glue pot until you have pasted together a spirituality that is nothing but a certificate of security. The fact is that the only security in life is to learn to live with life’s insecurities.
Yet we all crave security. Sometimes seeking security is like wanting artificial limbs so you won’t feel pain. Sometimes you’re forced to undergo insecurity like the humorous story of the elderly woman. The story goes that a man left the snow covered streets of Chicago for a short vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel he
decided to send his wife a quick email. Unable to find the scrap of paper
on which he written her email address, he did his best to type it from
memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed
instead to an elderly preacher’s wife, whose husband had just passed away
the day before. When the grieving widow checked her email, she took one
look at the monitor, let out a scream and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the
screen: “Dearest wife, just got checked in. Everything prepared for your
arrival tomorrow.” Your loving husband.
P.S. Sure is hot down here......
More often than not the security of your faith depends on your willingness to sacrifice yourself for the benefit of others.
Joan Puls in her book Compassion, say, “In our Eucharistic celebration, bread broken and wine poured out are symbols of the demands for our sacrifices.
If your Eucharistic celebration is to be authentic, you cannot, for example, come here to church and then go back into a home where there is vicious wrangling, vituperative altercations, steaming contempt, constant fault finding criticisms or the poison of the silent treatment.
If you truly recognize Jesus in your Eucharist, as the two disciples did in the breaking of the bread, you, as the Body of Christ, will, for example, bring peace where there is anger, compassion where there is suffering, forgiveness where there is injury, hope where there is despair, justice where there is indifference and love where there is loneliness.
The famous inspirational speaker, Leo Buscaglia who died in 1998, said, “It’s not enough to have lived. You must live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what you have for the betterment of others, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.
There is another humorous story about security.
A man and his wife are awakened at 3 o'clock in the morning by the incessant ringing of their front door bell. The man who is obsessed with security takes a baseball bat with him as he goes to the front door and opens it. Standing there was a drunkenstranger, asking for a push."Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3 o'clock in the morning!" He slams the door and returns to bed."Who was that?" asked his wife."Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers."Did you help him?" she asks."No, I did not, it is 3 o'clock in the morning so I told him to get going and slammed the door in his face.”“Well,” his wife said, “that wasn’t a very Christian thing to do.”
“With all the insecurity in households today, I wasn’t going to take any chances,” her husband retorted.
“It still wasn’t the Christian thing to do,” his wife persisted.
Now the man was starting to feel guilty. So he went back and opened the front door.
He couldn’t see the drunk, so he yelled, “Are you still out there?”
“Yeah,” came the response.
“Do you still need a push?” the man shouted.
“Yeah,” came the answer.
“Well,” the man shouted, “where are you?’
“Over here on the swing.”

Ask Jesus your Eucharistic friend to empower you with his body and blood to act out your Eucharist by laying down your life for others as Jesus did by putting the needs of others ahead of your own needs.
Thought: bread broken is the symbol of your sacrifices.