"Were not our hearts burning inside us..."
The death of Pope John Paul II was a great loss for the Catholic church. We thank the Lord for the gift of his person not only to the Church but also to the world. Without his personal charisma and his extraordinary penchant for mission and the stress of holiness of life, we would be without a light to guide us in this beginning of the new millenium where everything is still dark and unknown.
The loss of John Paul II was not a total loss. He left to us a spiritual legacy which we will always remember. Even if he is physically not present with us anymore, the spirit that lives in his writings and in the memories of all peoples who know him shall continue to be present and alive in us.
Isn't the death of John Paul II similar to the death of Christ in today's gospel? Two disciples who experienced seeing the death of Christ were so dejected, so discouraged, and so disheartened that they left Jerusalem and went on their way to Emmaus. Along the way to Emmaus, they met Jesus, although they did not recognize Him. Jesus was upset that these two disciples of His did not understand all that He taught and what the scriptures foretold about His rising from the dead. And so He opened up their eyes by quoting from the Scriptures and from the breaking of the bread. The disciples were heartened once more and within them their hearts burned with inspiration from the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Life - the Spirit of Christ Himself who rose from the dead. It was this rekindling, so to speak, that sparked within them to not to continue on to Emmaus but to return to Jerusalem - back to the place where they experienced the death of Christ in order to tell the others that they have seen Jesus and that He is alive.
This gospel passage is a poignant reminder to all of us who have experienced some disheartening news, or who have felt a great loss of a loved one, or something that was so tragic that we want to leave the place where we experienced the loss. Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we were so discouraged that we would not want to do with anything of that past again. However, when we experience the Lord in our lives and feel His presence in our life again, the rekindling of our original inspiration to serve Him returns. We feel a new surge of life. We feel a new inspiration to strive to follow Him again in the manner taught to us by the Church. Instead of going to the direction we are headed - which is a direction of loss, grief, death, disappointment, dejection, discouragement, disheartedness, and maybe even depression, we head back to were we came from: from the original inspiration to seek life and God Himself as peace, unity and love in all His fullness. The direction of the two disciples to Emmaus was negative. Jesus does not want any one of his sheep to get lost and so He appeared to them and told them what should be. They thus, redirected their direction, and went back to a positive way - believing in Christ and in the fact and reality that He is the resurrection and the life.
At certain times of our life, we may be directed towards something negative or morose or destructive because we of a great loss or tragedy in life. But when we suddenly by the gift of God's grace find Christ alive in our mind and heart again, we feel the fullness of life pulsating in our being again. Christ lives in us once more through His Spirit. Once we do, all we need to do is to continue nourishing ourselves with the gift of His Spirit through the sacraments - especially the Eucharist and the sacrament of reconciliation and penance. By these two sacraments, we shall "always be redirected back to Jerusalem and not go to Emmaus." And when we indeed go back to Jerusalem, "our hearts will be burning within us with the fire of God's love".
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