A year ago the Lib-Dem party decided to form a coalition government. Certainly they had a particular vision and certain expectations of the future. But last Thursday\u2019s referendum on\u00a0elections turned out to be a crushing defeat. This is a pretty good illustration of the disappointment of the two main characters in today’s gospel.<\/p>\n
They genuinely hated both the Romans and the collaborative Jewish establishment; they were impatiently waiting for a messiah to crush their enemies and re-establish an independent Israel. They had joined Jesus\u2019 company perceiving him as the Chosen One. Their belief in him was so strong that they interpreted all his words and deeds as confirmation of their expectations. But instead of a triumphant and victorious military advance on the part of their messiah, they witnessed a violent, cruel and humiliating defeat. Their political plans died on the cross and were buried with Jesus\u2019 body. These embittered and frightened disciples, their dreams shattered, left the community with which they had shared their lives. They were now travelling to a small, forgotten village. They were thinking so much on their apparent defeat that they didn’t notice someone had joined them along the way.<\/p>\n
Many people have experienced something similar in their lives; all be it on a different level. Who among us has never been disappointed, embittered or crushed because our plans, or expectations or other people had failed? It is sad but true that failure is part of life. The question is not if<\/strong> but when<\/strong>. An even more important question is what we do when we face failure. There are two main psychological reactions: escape or fight. The first one, escape, is more common. There are many ways in which a person can hide, ranging from simple things like avoiding people trough to much more serious matters like addictions, self-harm and suicide.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go back to the two disciples in the gospel. A simple question raised by their new companion triggers an eruption of resentment, grudges, disappointment and bitterness. They say to him: \u2018You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who doesn\u2019t know the things that have been happening there these last few days\u2019<\/em>. In fact it was silly to assume that in a city overcrowded with Jewish pilgrims everybody must have heard about Jesus\u2019 execution. This outburst of bitterness on the part of the disciples was their first step towards healing. Their minds were opening to understanding. Jesus in explaining the scriptures casts a completely new light on his own death. This new interpretation sparks new hope in the disciples\u2019 minds. But a final step was required. It happened at the table in Emmaus. When Jesus broke the bread suddenly they recognized him.<\/p>\n With regard to our own problems we shouldn\u2019t hesitate to tell God what and how we really feel. The greatest characters in the Bible did that: Abraham, Moses, Job and so on. \u2018The truth will set you free\u2019<\/em>. When we express our true feelings we open up and look differently at our problems, keeping them in proportion. When we experience failure, the word of God, the sacraments and our community can help us to see further and deeper. At that point we discover that Jesus is present every day of our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A year ago the Lib-Dem party decided to form a coalition government. Certainly they had a particular vision and certain expectations of the future. But last Thursday\u2019s referendum on\u00a0elections turned out to be a crushing defeat. This is a pretty good illustration of the disappointment of the two main characters in today’s gospel. They genuinely hated both the Romans and the collaborative Jewish establishment; they were impatiently waiting for a messiah to crush their enemies and re-establish an independent Israel. They had joined Jesus\u2019 company perceiving him as the Chosen One. Their belief in him was so strong that they interpreted all his words and deeds as confirmation of their expectations. But instead of a triumphant and victorious military advance on the part of their messiah, they witnessed a violent, cruel and humiliating defeat. Their political plans died on the cross and were buried with Jesus\u2019 body. These embittered and frightened disciples, their dreams shattered, left the community with which they had shared their lives. They were now travelling to a small, forgotten village. They were thinking so much on their apparent defeat that they didn’t notice someone had joined them along the way. Many people have experienced something similar in their lives; all be it on a different level. Who among us has never been disappointed, embittered or crushed because our plans, or expectations or other people had failed? It is sad but true that failure is part of life. The question is not if but when. An even more important question is what we do when we face failure. There are two main psychological reactions: escape or fight. The first one, escape, is more common. There are many ways in which a person can hide, ranging from simple things like avoiding people trough to much more serious matters like addictions, self-harm and suicide. Let\u2019s go back to the two disciples in the gospel. A simple question raised by their new companion triggers an eruption of resentment, grudges, disappointment and bitterness. They say to him: \u2018You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who doesn\u2019t know the things that have been happening there these last few days\u2019. In fact it was silly to assume that in a city overcrowded with Jewish pilgrims everybody must have heard about Jesus\u2019 execution. This outburst of bitterness on the part of the disciples was their first step towards healing. Their minds were opening to understanding. Jesus in explaining the scriptures casts a completely new light on his own death. This new interpretation sparks new hope in the disciples\u2019 minds. But a final step was required. It happened at the table in Emmaus. When Jesus broke the bread suddenly they recognized him. With regard to our own problems we shouldn\u2019t hesitate to tell God what and how we really feel. The greatest characters in the Bible did that: Abraham, Moses, Job and so on. \u2018The truth will set you free\u2019. When we express our true feelings we open up and look differently at our problems, keeping them in proportion. When we experience failure, the word of God, the sacraments and our community can help us to see further and deeper. At that point we discover that Jesus is present every day of our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","category-year-a"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tad.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}