THE ROAD TO EMMAUS

Remember the story: Two men, Cleopas and his buddy, were out for a long walk. That was just what they needed at that moment in their lives. The man they believed was the Messiah had been arrested and crucified. All their hopes and dreams had been smashed to smithereens and they did not know what to do next. They had to get away to take some time to think things over, to talk about what happened, to see if they, somehow in some way, could make any sense out of it.

They knew it would do them no good to hang around Jerusalem in that upper room where everyone was still at sixes and sevens, just as distraught and upset and confused as they were. They needed to get away from all that commotion and whatever else was going on to see if they could process all of this. Then they met Jesus, and the processing began to take place.

These two men were very fortunate, blessed, even, and for two reasons. First of all, they took time to get away. Would that every time any one of us needed time to get away to do some serious thinking and reflecting, time to make sense out of what makes no sense, that that time and place would be available. Most of the time it is not. Even worse, when given that time and place, that space in our lives, we often do not take it. And then when the situation seems to go from bad to worse, we wonder what in the world has happened and what we are going to do next.

The second reason why these men were blessed is that the one who could make sense out of what had happened just happened upon the scene. Would that would happen to us every time we find ourselves in a similar situation, a situation where we need to make sense out of what has happened or is now happening. Would that someone would come into our lives to help us make order out of chaos. Sometimes that person does, but not always, as we know from experience.

Bad things, crazy things, nonsensical events happen to everyone. There is no escape. Good people get hurt. The best-laid plans go awry. The sure thing is a failure. Even if we could have prevented what happened from happening, it is now too late. Now all we can do is deal with the results. We have no choice in the matter. Well, of course we do. We can always delay and sometimes we do and when we do, we know the results: things go from bad to worse.

What we also know is that somehow in some way there will be that space, that opening, through which God’s grace can get in and help us move on. That grace comes in many ways and in many shapes and forms and often almost out of the clear blue sky, if you will. That’s the way God usually works. That is how it worked for those two men on their way to Emmaus. That’s how it works for us. What we have to do is look for that space and then grab it when it appears, like now, today.

Perhaps, just perhaps, given this pandemic, we now have been given space that we have long needed to take a serious look at our personal lives. How will we use it?