{"id":9462,"date":"2020-04-25T15:11:31","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T22:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=9462"},"modified":"2020-04-25T15:11:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T22:11:31","slug":"road-to-emmaus-road-back-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/?p=9462","title":{"rendered":"Road to Emmaus, Road Back to God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>3<sup>rd<\/sup> Sunday of Easter<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>April 26, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Luke 24:13-35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two disciples went back home to\nEmmaus. One of them was Cleopas, and his companion probably was his wife.\nPerhaps they got afraid of the Roman and Jewish authorities who might go after\nthem after they killed Jesus, the leader. Or maybe, they just got their hope\nand expectation shattered when Jesus, their expected Messiah, was crucified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cleopas and his wife were doing what\nwe usually do in times of sadness and troubles. They told stories and tried to\nmake sense of what had happened. Yet, the thing did not go right. Their\ndialogue did not make them better. Instead, they became so depressed, and they\neven failed to recognize Jesus, who was very close. Indeed, we need someone to\nshare our stories, but when this person is not prepared, despite his goodwill,\nour stories can go from bad to worse. We need to remember that the first\ndialogue in the Bible took place in the garden of Eden between Eve and the\nserpent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, Jesus intervened at the\nright moment. Jesus brought in the missing piece. Jesus offered the word of\nGod. The couple was so blessed because they experienced the first-ever Bible\nstudy, and it was Jesus Himself who guided them. Yet, Jesus made it clear that\nthey knew their scriptures, but they were lack of faith. When we read the Bible\nwithout faith, it is nothing more than a lovely and inspiring novel or an\nancient and mysterious text. Only with faith, we encounter God who is telling\nHis stories. No wonder Jesus said to them that the scriptures are about Him\nbecause Jesus is the same God who was present in the creation, who led the\nHebrew peoples in their exodus, and who sent prophets to guide the Israelites\nin the promised land. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cleopas and his wife remind us of the first couple who also failed to have faith in God, Adam, and Eve. After the first dialogue with Satan that led them to doom, they deserved nothing but death. Yet, God did not allow death to overcome them immediately, but instead, He made them leather cloth as a sign of His protection, as well as the sign of the first blood sacrifice. When they left the beautiful garden as a consequence of their choice, it was also the last time we heard about what happened inside the garden. Why? God was no longer in the garden. He was following Adam and Eve. God did not wish they wondered even farther but guided them back to paradise. As God journeyed with Adam and Eve, he also walked with Cleopas and his wife, as they make their way to the new Eden. In the end of their journey, they recognized Jesus when He took bread, blessed, broke and shared it. These were the eucharistic gestures. They entered the new Paradise, the celebration of the Eucharist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our stories in life, even in the\nmost destressing moment like now, make sense when God enters into the pictures\nwith His stories. The journey to Emmaus sheds a brighter light on the purpose\nof the Holy Mass. In the Mass, we always begin with the reading of the\nscriptures because we are invited to see our little stories in God\u2019s greatest\nstories. When we find the meaning of our lives in God, that is the time we\ndiscover Jesus alive and fresh in the breaking of the bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3rd Sunday of Easter<br \/>\nApril 26, 2020<br \/>\nLuke 24:13-35<\/p>\n<p>The two disciples went back home to Emmaus. One of them was Cleopas, and his companion probably was his wife. Perhaps they got afraid of the Roman and Jewish authorities who might go after them after they killed Jesus, the leader. Or maybe, they just got their hope and expectation shattered when Jesus, their expected Messiah, was crucified<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-9462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9463,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462\/revisions\/9463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}