Dear Friends,
Forwarding the Sunday Reflections given by Fr. Jude Botelho.
Love & Prayers
Jennifer
----- Original Message -----
From: Jude Botelho
To: Jude (Freeserve)
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 5:44 AM
Subject: Sunday Reflections
10-4-02
Dear Friend,
All of us have had moments of frustration and disillusionment
in our lives. These are moments when we felt like giving up and quitting. The
disciples on the way to Emmaus were packing up and taking off. What is our
reaction to our disillusionments? I would like to reflect on this theme with
you. Wishing you an 'Emmaus' weekend! -Fr. Jude
Sunday Reflections: 3rd Sunday of Easter April 14th. 2002
Making sense of it all!
Readings: Acts 2: 14; 22-28; 1 Peter 1: 17-21
Gospel: Luke 24: 13-35
.
The ongoing theme of the Easter season is the peace that the risen Lord brings
into the lives of those who believed in him. The present day battles in the
Holy land, the scandals in the Church, the increase in crime all over the
world, the ever-present threats of terrorism and war could tend to depress us.
May His Word this Sunday renew hope in our lives!
In the first reading we hear Peter preaching the first Christian sermon of the
five recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. He gave it fearlessly on that first
Pentecost and it contains in a nutshell what we are called to believe. It is
centred on the idea that if we are loyal to the Lord, he will see us through,
even though we may not see him physically. Peter proclaimed Jesus in the words
of the sixteenth Psalm, which he saw as having foretold Jesus' passion, death
and resurrection.
Peter's preaching and witness is a wonderful testimony to the resurrection of
the Lord because of the awesome transformation that was wrought in Peter
himself. This impulsive, bumbling, vacillating frightened shaky man chosen to
be the leader of the Apostles is completely transformed by the Spirit of the
risen Lord which now has taken possession of him. Peter is now courageous,
fearless, single-minded, loyal and ready to suffer for the Master. What the
Lord did for Peter he continues to do for all believers who are transformed
and changed into fearless evangelisers in the measure that they let the Lord
take over their lives.
The Gospel has one of the most beautiful stories of the post resurrection
appearances of the risen Lord, the journey of the disciples to Emmaus. There
are several insights that we can apply to our lives from this moving incident
that is noted only in the Gospel of Luke. First of all we can note that the
incident described tells us that the disciples to whom Jesus appeared were not
the leaders but ordinary disciples, in fact we know only one by name Cleophas.
The town mentioned, Emmaus was not well-known and till today there is a
discussion about which of the possible six sites could be the Emmaus. Perhaps
the point being made is the fact that Jesus can appear to any one whom he
chooses to reveal himself to. His appearances were not restricted to the
leaders but to unknown, ordinary followers as well. The fact that Emmaus was
not popular also tells us that God reveals himself not only in popular holy
places, like Lourdes. Fatima, Garabandal, Medjugorie but can reveal himself to
us in the most insignificant of places, our hometown! Thirdly, the fact that
Jesus joined them on the road is a forceful reminder that God comes to us
along the journey of life, not necessarily in the temple or Church alone but
often along the least expected paths that we travel along in life.
Secondly, we are reminded that when Jesus joined them along the road they were
not aware of who this stranger was though they let him join in the
conversation. Jesus enquired: " What are you discussing about ? That was
enough for them to pour out what was uppermost in their thoughts at the
moment. "You must be the only stranger in Jerusalem, who does not know the
things that have taken place there these days." They shared all their
disappointments, their disillusionment, their shattered hopes and dreams about
Jesus and the coming of the Messiah. What is happening between them and Jesus
is a perfect model of prayer, with Jesus' help they are able to open up their
hearts and place all before Jesus. Jesus in turn patiently listens to them and
starts explaining and situating the recent events in the context of what had
been written in the scriptures about Jesus. Yet they were slow to understand
and accept all that Jesus said. They would have preferred to have things work
out differently. They could not accept his passion and death and they refused
to accept the resurrection though they had heard reports about it. In fact
their way of coping with their disappointment was to withdraw from the company
of the apostles and run away from Jerusalem. Their reaction is not very
different from our own. We want things to go the way we want plan them or
expect them to be, we cannot accept that God may be at work even when things
don't go our way. We are often tempted to withdraw and be by ourselves or run
away in order to wallow in our grief or depression rather than find strength
in community.
Not being part of a fellowship, part of the church is always a mistake. It is
a mistake of people who say, "I don't have to go to church. I can worship God
in my own way." A wise old priest, when some one told him that, and it was a
winter's day and he had a fire going, was to get up and take out a glowing
piece of coal and put it on the hearth.. In a very short time the coal went
out. For the coal to maintain itself it needed the fellowship of the other
coals.
Next, we are told that as they came near to Emmaus Jesus walked ahead as if he
was going on but they urged him to stay saying, "Stay with us, because it is
almost evening and the day is now nearly done." They extended hospitality to
Jesus and welcomed him to share their bread and board and their welcoming
gesture was richly rewarded. They encountered Jesus. Do we realize that in
being hospitable and welcoming to strangers we could be welcoming Christ?
"What you did to the least."
The man with no shoes
In the winter of 1990, I was asked to appear on a television talk show in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada. At the end of our first day of taping I was on my
way back to my plush hotel, when I saw something I'd never seen before. Lying
on the sidewalk against a building in four inches of snow was a man sleeping
with only a cardboard blanket to keep him from being completely exposed to the
freezing cold. What really broke my heart was when I realized that he wore no
shoes or socks. I thought to stop and help him but was not quite sure what to
do. As the traffic light turned green, it seemed life was demanding that I
move along. So I did and I promptly forgot about the man on the street.
Several days later, prior to the morning taping, I was having coffee and
Danish in the green room at the station. All of the "important" people had
left the room and it was just me and the janitor remaining. I had seen him
quietly go about his business every day while I was there, and he never said a
word except "Good morning" or "Can I get anything for you, sir?" He always had
a smile to give to everyone. When I asked him how he was feeling today, he
told me that he'd been having to ride his bike to work in the snow and that
he'd been feeling rather sorry for himself. . .that is, until he saw a man
sleeping down on the corner of Yonge Street and Bloor with just a piece of
cardboard for covering from the cold and no shoes.
I almost choked on my Danish as I heard him go on to relate how he was so
moved with compassion for the man that he went around the corner to a store
and bought the man a pair of socks and shoes. As I heard his story, I saw in
my mind a poster that used to be in an old friend's bedroom when I was a
teenager. It was a picture of a child handing someone a flower and the caption
read: "The smallest deed always exceeds the grandest of intentions."- Fr.
Sudac
Further, the Gospel tells us that the disciples offered their bread to Jesus
who accepted it blessed it broke it and gave it back to them and it was then
that they recognized Jesus. The moment they recognized Jesus he disappeared
from their sight. Any meal, every meal can be a sacred moment, when we
genuinely share ourselves with others. God wants to enter our lives and
commune with us. When we break bread together, when we share what we have and
what we are, God is revealed to us! We are called to be companions along the
Way! The word 'Companion' comes from the words 'cum' and 'panis' namely 'one
whom I share bread with'. The moment they recognized Jesus because of their
faith they no more needed to have Jesus physically with them. "Blessed are
they who do not see and yet believe.."
The last part of the episode tells us that immediately after Jesus disappeared
they got up from table and journeyed back to Jerusalem to share the good news
of Jesus' appearance and as they journeyed they recalled their earlier journey
with Jesus, which they were now able to see in a different light. " Were not
our eyes opened? Were not our hearts burning?" Incidentally, this reminds us
that the scriptures should go hand in hand with the Eucharist. We understand
life and scripture makes sense when we have shared our bread with others and
received the bread broken for us.
Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee said in an interview in the magazine
The Critic: "If younger people are having an identity problem as Catholics, I
tell them to do two things: Go to Mass every Sunday and work in a soup
kitchen. If one does those two things over a period of time, then something
will happen to give one a truly Catholic identity. The altar and the
marketplace-these two must be related to each other; when they are, one works
better, and prays better."
May we know Him in the breaking of our lives and in the sharing of bread!
Fr. Jude Botelho
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
****************************************************************
This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list.
To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To subscribe to this mailing list, visit
http://www.jesusyouth.org/joynet
For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
****************************************************************
