3rd Sun EASTER
Jesus said to the two discioles from Emmaus, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?” Luke 24:13-35
Two disciples of Jesus couldn’t understand why Jesus died. Like the apostles, they had pinned all their hopes in Him as the Messiah but then the Romans killed Him upon the insistence of the Jewish mob. That ended everything. They had to go back home since there was nothing more to expect. Jesus was dead.
Fortunately, everything didn’t end there as they thought. Jesus rose as He promised He would. Now Jesus was accompanying them to enlighten their confused minds about what really was happening. At first they still couldn’t recognize Jesus because of their frustration. But slowly as Jesus explained the recent events through the scriptures they began to see. And especially when Jesus gave them His body in the Eucharist their eyes were finally opened. They had to go back to the rest and they did.
Walking with people to guide them as Jesus did with the two disciples from Emmaus was what the last Synod on Youth (2018) talked about. In fact, synod really meant that. Pope Francis explained this in Christus Vivit (2019) saying that “Youth ministry has to be synodal; it should involve a ‘journeying together’ that values ‘the charisms that the Spirit bestows in accordance with the vocation and role of each of the Church’s members, through a process of co-responsibility.’ ” CV#206.
People especially the young need guidance. And walking with them in dialogue is the best way to do so because it is what Jesus did. Pope Francis commented that “many concrete proposals emerged for renewing youth ministry and freeing it from approaches that are no longer effective because they are incapable of entering into dialogue with contemporary youth culture.” CV#208.
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