A sower went out to sow....

When I was younger, I did not know how to handle problems well. I often ran away from them. Often did I also try to solve my problems geographically. I thought that changing addresses would take my problems away. But I was wrong. After several years in the ministry, I learned that the first step to solve the problem is to face it, not to flee from it. Running away from problems makes the problems run after me.

The two disciples in the gospel turned their backs on Jerusalem to face Emmaus, an unknown place, not even marked in the ancient maps of Israel. Jerusalem signified their crisis; Emmaus, their hopelessness. It was in Jerusalem where they saw the promised Messiah arrested, tortured, murdered. Even after having been buried, Jesus seemed to be not left in peace because His body was nowhere to be found. They had left everything to follow Jesus, even perhaps against the advice of their loved ones, but everything seemed to have ended in humiliating defeat. What would their loved ones say? What future beckoned them? Was there a tomorrow?

So the only recourse was Emmaus. Emmaus was more than a place.

It was a situation wherein the two disciples unwittingly wanted to confine themselves – a situation of hopelessness and misery, endless regrets, of not being able to move on because today’s depression blurred the reality of tomorrow’s consolation. The two could not see beyond that day. They failed to recognize Jesus. They were focused on their misery and regrets and not on the ways of the Lord.

We know the journey that these two disciples made. We have made it several times. Their story is our story. Their journey is ours, too.

But as in their case, Jesus walks with us and waits for us to recognize Him. If only we would stop and listen to Him, invite Him and break bread with Him, we, too, would turn our backs on Emmaus and face our Jerusalem. Like these two disciples we would feel that just when the world seems to be so cold to us, our hearts are actually burning.

Remember: Just as it was in Jerusalem where Jesus died, so it was in Jerusalem that Jesus rose to life again