What would you ask Christ if you were walking with him as a disciple? So do it, because it’s yours with you.
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Let’s go to Emmaus. Let’s go on foot. Just as the two disciples of Jesus mourned there. We will be able to smell the air of a cooling day like them. And we also smell ideals.
Indeed, ideals smell, they are not tools for instilling feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Sometimes, unfortunately, someone uses them in this way towards us, and sometimes we use them in this way towards ourselves. But the real deal does not sink into the ground. It directs the view higher, helps me to realize that something can be even better and fuller and that God sees a potential in my life that I can’t even grasp right now.
There is probably very little that is currently ideal in life. Maybe so, but don’t be disgusted by the path ahead of you. Allow yourself to accept the truth as it is. It is the first, necessary step toward the ideal.
With a heavy step, the disciples of Emmaus move away from Jerusalem, the city of God. Symbolically, they move away from the Lord, but not because they are bad, but because of what they have experienced. We know that sin distances us from the Lord, but many other facts can discourage us from spiritual life: a tragic event, trauma, the insidiousness of people, a painful experience, and disappointed hope. What did these disciples not survive? Like true friends, they confide in each other what they are going through. It’s a good idea to discuss some simple topics, to remember how we used to collect stickers when we were little. However, are the contents of my conversations only everyday banalities, or do I know how to go deep into relationships? do I have friends No, I don’t mean people who attend the same class or go to the same job, to the same church.
I mean, if there are relationships in my life where I can talk about what moves me. Am I able to share the depth, or am I merely exchanging information with the people around me? If not, what is behind it?
Yes, it is true that none of us is a Redeemer, even the most intimate conversation may not be the solution to life’s challenges, but without real relationships, we are only feeding the illusion of faith. Am I living the truth that we need each other, or is my heart closed and feeding my self-sufficiency, perhaps disguised as something religious, such as that only God is enough for me? Do I have relationships that I can call friendship in Christ, ones that are open to someone greater than us?
“Life is not what we imagine it to be, and that’s a good thing.”
The Emmaus disciples who walk before us are men who followed Jesus. They had expectations and they were not fulfilled. What if what I expected from life did not come true? How many persons and relationships do not meet my ideal image of them? Life isn’t what we imagine it to be, and that’s okay.
It is a sign that we live in a reality that is much bigger than us. Can I accept the fact that Christ can come to me where I am, to my disgust, that he can reach me on my way away from Jerusalem, or do I condition the meeting with him on my idealism? Do I accept and love people as they are, or do I close myself off from them because they don’t meet my idea of them?
What Cleophas says to Christ can cause a slight smile: “You are probably the only stranger who does not know what happened!” If only Cleophas understood at this moment that he is saying this to the very one who knows very well what happened! Do I realize that my impressions do not necessarily correspond to reality? Do I believe that Christ is right in the middle of what is happening, even if I do not feel his presence, and it seems to me that he is a stranger to what I am experiencing?
Cleophas is attentive and precise in his perception of events, he skilfully summarizes what happened with Jesus. However, the meaning escapes him because he cannot connect the events. Only Christ will clarify the connections and give meaning to the Scriptures. Do I see my life as one big story, can I tell it before the Lord, accept all periods and episodes, or do I deny some of them out of shame and guilt?
How am I doing with Lectio divina? Am I able to take the Scripture in my hands and let it address me, let Christ explain to me the meaning of my life experience, my life? If I can read what the Lord tells me through the stories of the Gospels, I will also be able to read my life in this way.
The disciples travelled with Christ to their destination. He doesn’t pressure them, they take the initiative and suggest that he stay with them. I’m human, I don’t need to be forced into any relationship. Not even those who would very much desire a relationship with me. This is also true of Christ.
What does my prayer life look like? Do I pray because I perceive prayer as something dictated from above, imposed from the outside, or is it my free decision that I need and want to spend time with God? It’s not about how much time I devote to prayer, but how faithful I am to this time. Am I faithful to the decision to spend time with God every day? Can I accept the fact that such a decision, a decision made for Christ, cannot be delegated and that others cannot be forced to do it?
The disciples of Emmaus wanted to offer shelter to their fellow pilgrim, and they expressed it clearly and comprehensibly. Can I communicate what I want, and how I see things, or do I leave them unsaid and tire myself of not being understood? Do I have fictional dialogues, replaying past ones to constantly analyse what I should have said?
I feed on conjecture and in relationships I operate on the connection “I thought that…” or I am a communicator, I dare to speak and ask questions and I work with what people really think, not what I think they think?
What would you ask Christ if you were walking with him as a disciple? So do it, because it’s yours with you.
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