Homily
Sunday, April 6, 2008, Third Sunday of Easter, Year A
Assumption Grotto Parish, Detroit
The Spark which Set Their Hearts on Fire
I have had the opportunity to discuss the encounter at Emmaus on three occasions so far this Easter season. Two were homilies, in which I expounded first on the denseness of the two disciples – and of us, honestly – in assenting to the mystery of the cross; and second on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, indicated by the Mass celebrated on Easter Day by the Lord with these two humble souls (Lk 24:30). The third occasion was with the St. Anne’s sodality, in which I proposed a far more detailed and spiritual exegesis of this passage.
Today I will address an aspect of the narration of the disciples of Emmaus which gets generally little attention, given the plentiful and important themes found herein, and it is the fact that their hearts burned within them. The Gospel says, “And they said to one another, ‘Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us on the way, and opened the scriptures for us?’” (Lk 24:32).
This verse is important to us, because it helps us discern two manners of following Christ: one which is cold and dead, the other which burns with the fire of the Holy Spirit; for it is written, “God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29; Dt 4:24; cf. Ex 24:17; Is 30:27), and his angels burn with this fire, hence the name “seraphim,” and they burn with the fire of supernatural charity.
Why is it that their hearts burned within them? This is especially mysterious, as just a couple hours before, they were retreating from Jerusalem downtrodden and in despair. The key is that they entered into conversation with Christ the Lord, and that changed everything.
Before their retreat from Jerusalem to Emmaus, their returning to the old ways away from the Holy City of God, they only watched, but did not converse with the Lord. They saw him. They reduced him to their own rationalistic opinions. They did the math to see whether he added up to the Messiah, and figured that he did not. They knew about Christ but they did not know Christ.
Now on the road, everything was changed. Christ came to these poor, lost souls to save them. And when he spoke to them, some cold wall in their hearts, like ice, endured a fast thaw. When before the judged Christ to be insufficient to be the Messiah, now they allowed themselves to be judged and corrected by him. For the Lord reproached them, saying, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe…” (Lk 24:25). If they were proud, they would have said, “Hey, who are you calling fools… who do you think you are to say ‘slow of heart’ to us!” But they were humble, and they allowed themselves to be corrected, to be enlightened by another. Happy were they to discover then that this “other” was no mere man, but the one who was both God and man, the Redeemer.
Then they listened. Once they did that act of humility, they were able to listen. And what did they listen to? To the Lord, of course. It is not like those today who come out of some prayer, and, after some emotional experience, they mistake their emotions for God, and say, “The Lord said to me…” and attribute to themselves some private revelation. To listen to God, they listened to Christ; and he simply expounded on the Sacred Scriptures.
All of this brings us to very useful applications in our spiritual life. For most of us here today are not beginners, and if our hearts do not burn within us, burn with love for God, with love for the cross, with love for our neighbor for God’s sake, then we should know that we are far behind where we should be. The Lord tells us today, “O slow of heart.” So, Christian heart, speed it up! Time is passing, and with each moment you loose an opportunity to grow towards holiness.
Then what can we do, we may wonder, at this point, in order to set our hearts on flame with the love of God? The disciples of Emmaus teach us many things, but let us go home today with these three points: humility, conversation with God, and meditation on the scriptures.
Humility, in that we allow ourselves to be corrected and admonished, not only by others, but by our own consciences, and by the voice of God in our souls. Yes, Lord, I am a sinner, and I do not hide it. But I love you, I repent from my sins, and promise to try to avoid sins in the future.
After humility, the second lesson these disciples teach us were to converse with God. How many go to pray, and spend the entire time of prayer in distraction. They’re looking at the altar boys, reading the bulletin, messing with their cell phones, planning the menu for tonight’s dinner, or who knows what else. Or others stay and read, but they don’t turn from reading to conversing. You can read about God until your blue in the face, but your heart needs to converse with him in order to be set on fire. Otherwise you’ll become like the spectators who saw Jesus die, and who gossiped about it as long as the topic was an exciting one, but who never conversed with Jesus on the way.
And third, meditation on the scriptures. The Bible is the word of men, by which I mean the prophets and apostles; but it is also entirely, and to the very last iota, the word of God. Do you wish to hear God? Pray with the scriptures. Do you wish to know God? Pray with the scriptures. Do you wish your heart to be set on fire? Then humbly converse with God about the sacred scriptures.
When you do, the Holy Spirit will transform you, and then you too will know what it means to recognize the Lord at the Eucharist, at the “breaking of the bread.” (Lk 24:35).