Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Today we celebrate the third Sunday of Easter. The opening Prayer May your people exalt forever, O God, in renewed youthfulness of spirit, so that rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption, we may look forward in confident hope to the rejoicing of the Day of Resurrection through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.
Amen. A reading from the Acts of the apostles, second chapter, 14th verse, and the 22nd through the 33rd verse. Then Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice and proclaimed, you who are Jews indeed, all of you staying in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and listen to my words. You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This man delivered up by the set plan and knowledge of God you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it. For David says of him, I saw the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exalted. My flesh too will dwell in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence.
My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day. But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he abandoned to the nether world, nor did his flesh see corruption, God raised this Jesus of this we are all witnesses exalted at the right hand of God. He received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured him forth. As you see and as you hear the word of the Lord, Lord, you will show us the path of life. Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, my Lord, are youe, O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup?
You it is, who hold fast my lot. Lord, you will show us the path of life. I bless the Lord who counsels me. Even in the night my heart exhorts me. I set the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. Lord, you, will show us the path of life.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices. My body too abides in confidence, because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. Lord, you, will show us the path of life. You will show me the path of life according the joy in your presence, the delights at your right hand. Forever, Lord, you will show us the path of life. A reading from 1 Peter 1:7 21 Beloved, if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you are were ransomed from the feudal conduct handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless, unblemished lamb.
He was known before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the final time for you who through him, believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and your hope are in God, the Word of the Lord. Hallelujah. Verse Lord Jesus, open the Scriptures to us, make our hearts burn while you speak to us. Alleluia the Gospel is taken from St. Luke 24:13 35 verse that very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them, what are you discussing as you walk along? They stopped looking downcast. One of them named Clophas said to him in reply, are you the only visitor at Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days? And he replied to them, what sort of things? They said to him, the things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word, but before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel.
Besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women for our group, however, have astounded us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and they did not find his body. They came back and replied that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive. Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described. But him they did not see.
And he said to them, 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? Then, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them what referred to him in all scriptures. As they approached the village in which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.
So he went in to stay with them. And it happened that while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem, where they found, gathered together the 11 and those with them who were saying, the Lord has truly been raised. He has appeared to Simon.
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. The Gospel of the Lord. Take the next few moments as we listen to this music to ponder the images and the thoughts that come to you as you listen to these readings. So many of the gospels that we’re reading now, our post resurrection stories, and so much about that, is that the people who had gone through something as mysterious and life changing, in a sense, they went through that experience and just had to ponder it and wonder about it. And the issue seems always to be, do you really believe that he rose from the dead? If you believe that, then you’ll believe everything he said.
But I’m not sure that’s exactly the way it works. I think the thing that is most attractive about the fact that God came and spoke with us is not the fact that that happened, but what he was revealing, what he was Saying to you and to me. And what we have to do is not so much decide on whether or not we are going to receive the mysterious ways in which God called us to live in him in this life. We’re not so much as to base it on whether or not he rose from the dead. But do we want this? Do you want to share?
Does your ego want to share with God the very thing that is in you, that gives you a sense that you’re in charge of your life? We like to be in charge of our life. That’s what Adam and Eve wanted to do. And when you look at that carefully, you say, well, what is it that you can tell me? What is it that you can give me as an indication that I should surrender my will to your will? And it’s pretty amazing what he is promising in that first reading.
We go back to something that was famous in terms of King David having a premonition that there would be some moment in history when human beings would be enlightened in such a way that they would have a different outlook on the world with all of its problems and darkness. He’s saying something about this king, this new king, that when we listen to him, when we listen to his words, we’re not any longer disturbed, we’re confident. He says, we dwell in hope because we know somehow the path of life. That’s so interesting to me, that image, the path of life is God really giving us through this extraordinary story of the Old and New Testament, that God finally is ready to share with you and me the mystery of who we are and why we’re here. And he said, I want you to allow me to partner with you to enable that to happen. And in the process of it, in the doing of it, even though there will be things that disturb you, even though there are things that look hopeless, even though that there seems to be no direction to anything you can be given.
God promises something that enables you to endure all of that with a light in you that is different than the world normally could ever produce. It can’t produce it. Human nature isn’t enough. Perhaps that’s the most important thing to remember about the whole story of God in us. That he’s saying, I made you in such a way, gave you a world that is in such a way that you can’t do that alone. It will destroy you.
It will lead you into violence and destruction. But if you open yourself up to my partnership, if you understand that Jesus came into the world not just to give you a savior, that you can call upon and say, jesus, help me this and Jesus help me that. Heal this Jesus, heal that Jesus. Jesus gave us the best description and understanding of his Father Jesus gift to the world. Was he revealed who God is, not who Jesus is. Jesus is the model of who we can become.
He is the one filled so much with divinity that he lives out this life and he lives it following the path of life, one might say. Well, it didn’t turn out very well for him. I mean, he ended up not having the success that he wanted. His life was cut short. He was humiliated, went through a death that was absolutely horrific in terms of not only the pain, but the humiliation. He didn’t want to do it, but he said that most important thing in the garden.
He said, you know, Father, I don’t want to do it this way, but if this is the way it’s written, if this is my path of life, I’ll do it. I’ll give into it without demanding that I experience constantly something that is life giving and wonderful and I’m peaceful all the time. No, it means that ultimately in the struggle you will find a space, a place where you can dwell and it’s with God. And God is hope and God is life. And being in that place is so different than being in a world that now we hear of every. It’s everything going on in the world that is destructive.
The news is nothing about how people have destroyed other people. You listen to that all the time and you begin to feel that there is no hope. But then you need to turn to the mystery that we’re celebrating through Easter. In this period of time. As we move toward Jesus ascension into heaven, we want to focus on the message. And the message is something so hope filled, but it has to be chosen.
I mean, you can’t say maybe it’s right and maybe this is going to work, or maybe I’ll give in to this or maybe I shouldn’t fight that. You know, if you try to do it on your own, you’re never going to do. Needs a reflective life with the presence of the God that dwells in you. Without that, the periods of darkness, the periods of hopelessness that come and go are going to take over. But if you keep going back to the simplest, most basic promise, God created you, gave you life that lasts forever. He wants you to engage in this path that you’re on here in the fullest way possible, which means you are open to receiving what is going on, dealing with it, struggling with it, trying to make it better.
But at the same time, knowing that you’re not doing this on your own. And then when you’re open to his presence in you, you will find ways in which you are doing things that change the world and you don’t even know it. That’s the hope. In the midst of all the struggle and the pain and the discord and the separation and the isolation of human nature, something is working. Something is moving us. Something is bringing us life.
It’s not so much that we believe that Jesus the man rose from the dead. Yes, he did. And that makes him very, very important. But the resurrection thing is something that happens to you when he pours himself into you. You rise. We’re celebrating our resurrection.
That’s the secret. That’s the plan of God. Trust it. Because without it, we can’t find the life that God created for us. Amen. Foreign Closing Prayer Father, you’ve given us a power your your presence in us to go beyond the limitations of our mind and enter into the world of the heart that is filled with hope, open to mystery and longing to engage in something meaningful not only for ourselves, but for the world.
We thank you for this great gift and we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey.
Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute studios. Copyright to the 2020.