Jesus, whose energy helped people feel alive, is dead. He has been murdered, under horrible circumstances, crucifixion. With that violence, the haters from both Rome and Jerusalem think they have destroyed any future challenges from Jesus’ disciples. Two such disciples are so dispirited they are leaving the gathering of community members in Jerusalem behind. They are going away, perhaps fleeing what is behind while being unsure of what it ahead. Along the way have an encounter that centers them in the Now.
The encounter the disciples have is with a stranger. It is a stranger sympathetic to their distress. They express to the stranger a lament over the cruelty done to Jesus and their own dashed hopes. The pair are trying to figure out what has become of all their plans. They had such great ones, for themselves and their friends. There is no making sense of it. The success of the haters and the failures of their own strategies weigh on their thoughts. Both the success and the failure have them focused on the past and disbelieving of the future. The stranger gathers together their past focus and their future concerns. He does so by centering them in the Now. He invites them to live in the Present, to live as Presence, “while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized” Christ. To be caught up in distractions is to prevent our recognition of Presence in the Now. It is, as Eckhart Tolle says, insane – “Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.” It is insane because it means we have lost touch with ourselves. We have lost touch with the self that radiates divine energy, spiritual power. “Be true to life by being true to your inner purpose. As you become present and thereby totally in what you do, your actions become charged with spiritual power.” Everything around us, every person, our own beautiful self, awakens to the freshness and power of each moment when we live in the Presence of Now
“Mist in the morning moves slowly across the cool water… It reflects the light of the lonely world through which it passes… Only briefly does he touch the occasional soul he encounters leaving cool moist kisses on smooth tender cheeks … Yes, each caress, each kindness… but they don’t see him. They don’t feel his presence as he slowly slips past… He leaves a part of himself on each thing that he touches, each blade of grass, every grain of sand, the sweet scented petals … everything he is, without expectation, he gives, yet, no one sees him. But a moment of mystery … he watches life as it awakens before him.” (All I Am – James Inman)
Prayer: Holy Spirit, let each breath I take center me in Now
Question: What usually distracts me from living in the Now?
April 30, 2017 Gospel Luke 24:13-35 3rd Sunday of Easter