June 13, 2019

He is here

“Don’t worry about me. I’m not worrying at all, and I’m putting everything in God’s hands.” Zélie to her daughter, Pauline, June 29, 1877, CF 211

Let us continue our reflection

Our lives are marked by ‘joys and hopes, but also griefs and anxieties,’ wrote Pope Paul VI in « Gaudium et spes » the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World from the Second Vatican Council. It is the same experience of the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the death of Jesus, the one in whom they had put their hopes. They too say, « He is here … ». We could add: « where we did not expect it … » because He precedes us on the way.

Luke’s Gospel says, « 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 Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? »

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.

As they approached the village to 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, and 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?”

To go further and put into practice

May it be the disciples of Emmaus, Louis and Zélie Martin, Thérèse, couples who take time to reflect on the integration between their life and their faith, to show us what it means to “make ourselves available to God.”

Do we take the time to be with God, either by reading Sacred Scripture, participating in the Eucharist, or by personal or family prayer? Do we especially recite the prayers of thanksgiving and praise that perhaps too often are the least used of our devotions? Do we contemplate all the goodness, the beauty that surrounds us? Do we give our time to others, free of charge?

Are our schedules too busy for God? Or can we say, « I spend so much time » to see, « He is here and I am there with Him. »

Let us hear the words from the book of Job: « Listen to this, Job! Stand and consider the marvels of God! » Jb.37: 14

Let us pray: with Pope Paul VI

Lord, I believe: I wish to believe in Thee.

Lord, let my faith be full and unreserved, and let it penetrate my thought, my way of judging Divine things and human things.

Lord, let my faith be joyful and give peace and gladness to my spirit, and dispose it for prayer with God and conversation with men, so that the inner bliss of its fortunate possession may shine forth in sacred and secular conversation.

Lord, let my faith be humble and not presume to be based on the experience of my thought and of my feeling; but let it surrender to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and not have any better guarantee than in docility to Tradition and to the authority of the magisterium of the Holy Church.

Amen.

Guy Fournier, Deacon
Administrator of the Shrine of Louis et Zélie in Alençon

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