Walking Together, Growing Together

“But we were hoping”, these words from the two disciples on the road to Emmaus are probably the saddest words in the Bible. Yet, I am confident that we are familiar with these words and have probably used them to describe ourselves before! There are the saddest words in the Bible because they express the disappointment and maybe even despair, because they have “lost their hope”. They have lost their hope, and they decided to leave the other disciple to go to Emmaus.

Feeling disappointed after not getting what we hope for must be a familiar feeling for all of us. After all, all of us, Christians are supposed to be people of hope. Our faith invites us to the have Hope, Joy and Love, and therefore, we are used to being hopeful. This is even part of our public and private prayer life! Just like the Collect Prayer today, “May your people exult for ever, O God, in renewed youthfulness of spirit, so that rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption, we may look forward in confident hope to the rejoicing day of resurrection .” Just in this short prayer, we have expressed together so many hopes, and at the same time, we must also realize that the church prayers like that because these are all the promises God has made to all of us through the different books of the Bible, from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And so many of us rely on all these promises, and we hope that we would be the ones that receive the fulfillment of these promises, hence, when we pray and what we ask for doesn’t happen the way we hoped, we have that “But we were hoping” moment, and for many of us, it leads to the moment that we are tempted to take that walk on the road of Emmaus.

Back when I was working as a teacher, there was a period that I was really frustrated at what was happening at my workplace. A catholic friend who had been working on the same project was experiencing the same setbacks, and on top of that he had to take care of three teenage boys at home. Yet, he came to work differently from me. I felt stressing, always angry and disappointed that no one else was trying to improve the situation. He came, happy and ready to go into the classrooms to teach his students. I was very curious how he was able to do this. In fact, I was envious at his ability to be unaffected at the injustice and whatever was happening at our workplace. So, I approached him and asked him what his secret to such peace was. And he told me, “I believe in a God who will makes things right in the end.” I was genuinely moved by his words… not because he said it of course, but because his words was supported by how he was able to live in peace and joy, despite all the things that was not going the way anyone would hope. His words inspired me to join the Catholic Church.

During the process of RCIA, I met many people like him, they were all dealing with some personal challenges, but they were able to leave that behind and come to church to help other people. They were joyful and loving. Yet, joining the church had other challenges but that is a story for another day. With all the love that I received from all these people, I was baptized in 2011. It was during my final weeks of preparations, during the week of the second scrutiny, I felt a call from God to serve His people. 5 years later, I joined Maryknoll as a seminarian. I was really happy that I was able to join a community to pursue my vocation.

In my mind, “I was hoping” that since God has brought me here, he would take care of me and everything would go smoothly. Oh Boy, was I wrong. During the years of formation, I faced some of the most challenging experiences in my life, some of them worst that any I had faced before. I guess I was hoping that since all the seminarians are called by God, that they would be meek and gentle like Jesus. Yet, all of us came, inspired by different aspect of our religious experiences. Hence, we held different views on liturgy and worship, different theological leanings, different perspectives about community life and what it means to be a missioner. In the end, there was a huge portion of my formation experience that was spent in arguments – arguing about how to pray, what we should do and so on… it was exhausting and hurtful. It caused me so much disturbance emotionally and spiritually. At one point, because whatever I was experiencing was not what I was hoping for, I was tempted to take the walk on the road to Emmaus, I wanted to leave the seminary. If you have a friend who is a priest, brother or sister, I am sure if you asked them, they would have similar experiences at some point of their life.

But my brothers and sisters, you are seeing me here as a priest today, partly because in all those moments of struggles, it was this “Road to Emmaus” gospel account that helped me.

What happened in the Gospel today reminds us that God is always with us, but sometimes, our eyes are prevented from recognizing him. I think it is because when we only focus on the negative things in our lives, our awareness of God’s grace becomes weaker. Just like when I was troubled at work, I could see that there are other good things and people in my life.

That is why the Gospel acclamation today, “Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us; make our hearts burn while you speak to us” is so important.

When we hope, when we pray for all the promises of God in the Bible, we need to invite Jesus to join us, to help us understand the Scriptures, to help us bring together the entirety of the message of salvation.

Yes! The Bible contains all the promises God made from the beginning of time. Yes! The Bible also recorded many of the miracles God has done for His people. But my brothers and sisters, it also recorded how humankind abused the freedom that God has given them, causing chaos in the world.

What the Bible really records is how somehow humans fail, causing the world to be in disorder, and how God, again and again, returns to make things right again. So the Bible records all the good and the bad, the pain and the suffering, the joy and the celebrations, and in order to fully benefit from the Word of God, we must embrace the Bible in its entirety. When we are about to do this, when we allow Jesus to speak to us through the Scripture on our Road to Emmaus, then our hearts will burn with passion and in hope,

then we will be able to walk out of darkness,

face all the challenges in our lives,

and be a shining Light of Christ to the people around us.

Then we will have the courage, like Peter and the apostles, to preach fearlessly to help others, even if there is danger lurking nearby.

When we fully embrace the Word of God, then we would be like King David in the first Reading and say,

I saw the Lord ever before me,

with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;

my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,

because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,

nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.

You have made known to me the paths of life;

you will fill me with joy in your presence.

My brothers and sisters, our strength to overcome the many challenges in our lives comes from remember both the miracles and promises, and also that our God was willing to suffer for us, to endure his passion, to be nailed on a cross and die for us. Thus, in life, we must accept that there are moments that we will struggle, but we cannot stay there, we cannot only focus on the negative experiences. We also have to be sensitive to the grace that is occurring in our lives. The “Jesus” who walks close to us on the Road to Emmaus.

So, we must remember, the center of our life of faith is God, not the parish priest, not any religious figures, nor our friends at church. Yes, sometimes these people inspire us to be better people, but when they don’t, don’t walk away from the trouble, don’t walk away from the church. Instead, come to church, come and receive the Body of Christ, so that Christ and be part of us, to sanctify us, so that we can be more like Him, so that we can walk along others who are disappointed, others who are hurt, others who feel hopeless because “they were hoping” for something they didn’t get. And together, we can recognize Jesus in the breaking of the bread, together we will heal, together we will grow from the challenges in our lives.

My brothers and sisters, believing and following Jesus doesn’t mean we will have a perfect life… what it means is that in an imperfect world, caused by the sins of the world, God is always with us, and God will make things right in the end. And if we can hold on to this belief, that we will be ready to take on the world and continue God mission to make present the Kingdom of God on earth!