Lec
# 46- 3rd Sun of Easter- May 4th, 2014- Fr. Bresowar
My
brothers and sisters in Christ,
Going
to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a very good prayer habit. More people
have reported how their relationship has grown with Jesus and their discovery
of what it is that God wants for them, where to find peace and a way out of the
darkness, have often time taken place in the time spent with Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament
As
it is, Adoration has been a very key component to my own vocation, my own understanding,
as is the case with many priests. And when I get too far away from it, I
notice.
And
even though life is busy, and it’s hard sometimes to find time to go in there,
I try to make it to adoration at least once a day, even if I can only go in for
a few minutes. I strongly recommend, as does the Church obviously, that you
make it a part of you own spiritual journey. That said,
I
was in the chapel the other night and I noticed a middle-aged man sitting in a
chair, leaning over, with his face in his hands as you might do if you were
stressed out or over burdened.
The
image I saw struck me, because as I’m sitting there praying, I’m thinking, “I’ve
got this to do, this is going on…
and I need to be better at this, and this person needs me to pray for
them and all of these thing…” then I saw this man, as he set in front of Jesus,
as one who was maybe asking the question, “How much longer Lord, must I
persevere?”
Leaning
over, frustrated. Wondering… that’s what I saw.
In
actuality, I have no idea what was going through the thoughts of that man. I’m
not even sure who it was, but I did pray for him. It kind of took me out of my
own thoughts for a minute, and brought me to what was going on in his life. He
may have just been tired for all I know. But what I saw, in my own insight, was
yet another person who was on a journey, A long journey, fraught with
difficulties and disillusionments, rewards and ever changing expectations.
The
image of the man leaning over in prayer, with his face buried in his hands
reminded me that life wears on each of us, and there must have been some sort
of surrender going on to sit there in front of Jesus once again. How many times
do we have to surrender to Jesus? It seems like an every day event for many.
One
of the realities of being a priest in a parish of this size is that Fr. Mike are
able to witness so many different stages of life. Not simply our own, but also
many others.
The
wisdom we often see, of an elderly person who has been through life and at the
same time, the eagerness, yet naïve excitement of a young person who has their
whole life in front of them. The challenges yet unknown and the beginning of a
life which will ultimately lead to surrender to Jesus, as perhaps it had done
once again for that man sitting in front of the Blessed Sacrament the other
night.
We
see this youngness in today’s gospel, at least in terms of faith, of the
disciples who had left Jerusalem and were on their way back to Emmaus. A
pattern that often repeats itself so many times in our own lives, took place on
that 7-mile journey the two of them made.
It
started with blown expectations. When we are young, we have amazing
expectations of how life is suppose to work out. It was no different for the
two on the road to Emmaus. They had left home, caught up in this Jesus guy, and
were totally distraught that everything they thought was suppose to happen, had
ended because of what had happened on Good Friday. Scripture said, they had
hoped that Jesus was going to be the one who redeemed Israel, but alas, it was
already the third day since he had been crucified. So they were giving up, and
heading back to Emmaus.
Their
hopes were dashed. They left discouraged.
How
many times are we quick to give up hope when things don’t work out the way we
think they are suppose to work out? How many times has life worn us down by our
unfulfilled expectations? How many times have we not trusted Jesus and walked
away? We all have been guilty of this, and we each know many people who have
walked away and have yet to come back.
But
Jesus, just like he does for us, doesn’t just allow them to walk away.
He
instead, shows them how their expectations were flawed, and how what happened,
had to happen so that God’s plan could be complete. He redeemed Israel and the
whole world; they just didn’t understand how it was suppose to happen.
So
he comes to them, and restores what they had lost, their hope, and emboldens
them to go back to the disciples and share the good news. Far from giving up,
they are refreshed and ready to carry on.
So
it is with us, that often times we need Jesus to come to us, and most
especially in the breaking of the bread, where he feeds us with his body and
blood, to help us realize that just because our expectations of how we thought things
were suppose to work out were not met, doesn’t mean that we need to lose hope
or give up.
There
is something much greater that God is doing, even if we don’t understand it all
the time.
In
Eucharist Adoration we see Jesus as the disciples saw him, they recognized our
Lord finally in the Eucharist.
“Were
not our hearts burning within us?” they asked each other. Lots of different
emotions were manifested on that 7-mile journey. Despair and wanting to give up turned to joy and amazement as
their eyes were open at the breaking of the bread, and they set out at once to
Jerusalem to continue the journey that God had set out before them.
Disillusionment
is a part of this journey, each of us has a vocation to be disciples of Jesus
Christ, and each of us will go through the pattern, multiple times, that the
disciples on the road to Emmaus went through.
The
answer is always the same, come back to the Eucharist, kneel down before our
Lord, sometimes place our face in our hands, and in humility ask the Lord to
set our hearts on fire once again. His plan is perfect, and he wants us to
understand it and fulfill it. That’s where we find our peace.
May
God Bless us all, and give us the grace in this Eucharist to persevere, despite
the times of disillusionment, trusting that Jesus will lead us exactly to where
we need to be. May that become the same and only place where we actually want
to be. Amen.
