Homily – Third Sunday of Easter (A)

Ann was running late for school during the week and accepted the offer of her father to drive her.  Before departure she and her sister got into an argument about who would be sitting in the front seat.  Time was running out and the argument was unresolved as the engine started.  It was all too much for Ann who turned around, went back inside and took herself back to bed!  (Then began another argument – but that is another story).  Ann turned and walked away.

When was the last time you walked away from a difficult situation?  When did you find yourself packing up the bags and heading north?  This seems to be what has happened to the two characters in Luke’s Gospel today.  Two disciples have packed up their things and are heading away from Jerusalem.  In the gospel narrative Jerusalem has become the place of the cross, the place of the crucifixion, the place where everything went horribly wrong.  The disciples had decided it would now be better to walk away.  They had hoped that their following of Jesus would have turned out better.  But their worst nightmare had come true.  He had been arrested, tortured and crucified.  They could no longer afford to hang around.  No.  The time had come to pack up the bags and leave.

Their runaway plan was going well until they met up with the stranger who began to interpret these recent happenings in light of the Scripture and until he sat with them at table and broke bread with them.  Then the penny dropped.  Jerusalem – the place of the cross was the place where the biblical word now found its interpretive key.  Jerusalem – the place of the cross was the place where the meaning of the Passover meal was revealed.  Jerusalem – the place of the cross was the place where death could no longer hold human life to ransom.  And here were they walking away from Jerusalem.  They got up from the table and began the journey back to Jerusalem immediately.  The stranger vanished from their midst, their hearts burning within them.

From what Jerusalem are we walking away?  From what Jerusalem do we shirk, shrink, shrug or surrender?  In our own lives, is it the Jerusalem of age or illness? Is it the Jerusalem of addiction or affliction?  In our community is it the Jerusalem of injustice and the fear of speaking out that leads to silence, compliance, acceptance or isolation?  In our world is it the Jerusalem of the enormity of global issues that leads to resignation or inaction and stagnation.  We all have, will or are facing Jerusalem.  We will be confronted one day.  It is the place where we smell death, fear it and flee.  It is paradoxically the place where the Lord is to be found.  It is where the Scriptural words ‘be not afraid’ and the Eucharistic words ‘this is my body, take and eat’ are located.  It is the place of our salvation if only we would turn and face it.

Let’s pray that this week when we are tempted to turn and flee that we check ourselves and ask is this the Jerusalem to which I am called to turn and face today or am I running from my own salvation.