Third Sunday of Easter
On the 25th of April, the feast of St. Mark, I completed 23 years of priesthood. Neither was it a milestone nor did I spend too much time celebrating it. Through the busyness of the day, though, I often found myself consumed by thoughts of my many years as a priest. I am 51 years old and I have spent a little less than half of it as a priest. I spent 11 years in the seminary before that. So thirty-four of the fifty-one years have been in religious life. As I looked back at my life, I realized how these thirty-four years have been like today’s gospel story. The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is symbolic of my own life. Just like them my life too has been an attempt at discipleship. It has been a marvelous journey. Yet, just like the two disciples, my journey is also punctuated by doubts, fears, anxieties, sins, and failures. In spite of my failures and occasional lack of confidence in God, I have always found God by my side. Sometimes as a stranger, sometimes as a friend, sometimes as a person who challenges me, in prayer, in the scripture, in the Eucharist, and most of all when life is rough, I have found that Christ is always there.
Three things I have learnt over twenty-three years.
1. God Meets Us Where We Are. The best part of the disciples on the road to Emmaus is that Christ meets them where they were. Where were they? They were on the road to Emmaus moving away from Jerusalem. They were moving away from the center of the world — the very place where salvation was just revealed. This was not their proudest moment .They were confused, confounded, scattered and downcast. This is the exactly the place where Jesus met them. As I reflect back on the last twenty-three years, God has always met me where I was. God has never refused to meet me because I was not where God would want me to be. I remember the time I almost walked out of the seminary because of my perceived injustice done by the authorities toward another seminarian. He spoke to me through a letter my mother wrote. Christ was right there. In times when I thought that my sins were greater than God’s mercy, Christ was there. More recently, the fears, the anxieties, the uncertainties with my fathers health has been very testing. To make things worse, my brother fell down the steps and broke his legs at multiple places. He is laid up now for 3 months. That puts even more pressure on me. Yet, Christ has never been more present to me that he is now. In so many, many small and big ways, I am discovering Christ is meeting me where I am. If there is one lesson I would like you to take home - no matter where you find yourself at this moment, Christ is already there. He is where you are!
2. Real Presence. There is a paradox in today’s gospel story. The disciples did not recognize Jesus until they sat at the table for supper. However, the moment he became real, Jesus vanished from their sight. Back in Jerusalem, they recounted how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. One of the indispensable aspects of my priestly calling is the celebration of the Eucharist. Over the last twenty-three years, I have lost count of the number of times I have celebrated the Eucharist. For me, the irony of the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus continues even today. While it is not easy to believe that Christ is present in ordinary bread and wine, I simply cannot alienate the Eucharist from my life. Believe me, there are times in my life, I have contemplated another way of life. However, it is as if the Eucharist will not let me go. In the Eucharist, in the breaking of bread, in this ritual that I have celebrated countless time, in ordinary bread and wine, in the gathered community, at the very place where my rationality objects, Christ is real. Many, many Catholics take the Eucharist too lightly. The Eucharist is life, folks. For me, it is the very presence of Christ as it was for the two disciples. I am suggesting today that you let the paradox of the story and the Eucharist overwhelm you.
3. Ministry as Accompaniment. During the initial years of my priesthood, one of my main motivations was to preach the gospel. I could not wait to be in ministry because I wanted to tell people about God. Experience later taught me that my main calling was not to tell people about God, but rather, to accompany people on their own journeys. I have learnt from the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, that ministry is not about converting people, changing people, or preaching to them. Ministry is about accompanying people while being vulnerable myself. Sometimes I am called to listen, sometimes to talk, sometimes to open the scriptures, sometimes to challenge, sometimes to walk with people, sometimes to break bread with them. I am inviting you to reflect on your own discipleship as sometimes being accompanied and sometimes accompanying other disciples on the way. We are all moving in the same direction. We must all get there. The only way to get there is to accompany one another, knowing, that it is the Lord Himself who accompanies us.
This Eucharist is our time to experience the real presence of Christ as we journey through life. Where ever we are today and whoever we are, Christ meets us here.
- Fr. Satish Joseph