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.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
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?”
~ Luke 13-35
Science and secular society often fault faith and religion for having failed to solve the problems of human misery and suffering, of violence and poverty, even for having caused these things often in history. But even now, with the amazing advances made by science and technology, human misery,suffering, poverty and violence still seem intractable. The Christian message to me is NOT that Christ came to take away pain and suffering, or poverty and violence BUT that we recognize the transformative powers of these human experiences: pain and suffering transforming us into persons of courage, integrity and strength, poverty and violence transforming us into more caring and loving persons, and death transforming our temporal life into life everlasting, where indeed there will be no more tears.
~ March 29, 2012