Homily – 3rd Sunday of Easter, A – Fr Jeremiah Browne (#southafrica #Botswana #eswatini #Swaziland)
Some years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book with a striking title: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. That title has stayed with me because it touches a question that doesn’t go away. Why do decent people suffer loss, disappointment, grief, injustice, and confusion? Why do hopes collapse? Why do prayers sometimes seem to meet silence?
Those questions find an echo in today’s Gospel (Luke 24:13–35). The two disciples on the road to Emmaus are walking away from Jerusalem carrying the pain of broken dreams. They had hoped that things might be different, that Jesus would be the one to set Israel free. They had given him their trust, their time, their hearts, and then, the one in whom they had placed so much hope was condemned, crucified, and buried.
They were left not only grieving his death but struggling to make sense of everything they thought they knew about God, about promise, and about the future.
Maybe there have been times in our lives when something similar happened: when life unfolded in ways we didn’t choose, when what we prayed for didn’t happen, when doors closed that we were sure God had opened, and when the future we imagined suddenly gave way to confusion and loss. In moments like that, it’s hard not to ask: ‘why’, ‘why me?’
In times like that faith can begin to feel less like certainty and more like holding on in the dark. We may still believe, but our belief is bruised. We may still pray, but our prayer can feel dry or heavy. We may still keep going, but with a heaviness in the heart. That is what makes this Gospel so real. The disciples on the road to Emmaus are not unbelievers. They are wounded believers, trying to make sense of a story that has not turned out as they expected.
That’s where the risen Jesus meets them. Notice how he comes alongside them, not with condemnation, not with impatience, but with his presence – similar to last Sunday’s story when he entered the upper room. He walks with them before they recognise him. He listens before he speaks. He allows them to tell their story, to name their disappointment, to voice their confusion. That’s important for us to remember.
Sometimes we imagine that faith means having no questions, no doubts, no struggle. But the Emmaus story tells us something different. The risen Lord is not frightened by our questions. He is willing to meet us on the road, in the middle of the mess, while our hearts are still trying to catch up.
It is by opening the scriptures that Jesus helps the disciples to come to a deeper understanding of who God is and how God was at work even when the outcome looked like failure. The cross was not the end of the story. What seemed like defeat was not defeat at all. What looked like silence was not absence. What looked like death was the beginning of new life.
In truth, that in-between space – the space between promise and fulfilment, between heartbreak and understanding, between what has happened and what God is still bringing to birth – is not an easy place to be. It is often the place where faith feels less like confidence and more like endurance, less like seeing clearly and more like choosing, day by day, to hang in there, to keep walking with God, even when we don’t know why.
Today, as we give thanks for the 160th anniversary of St Augustine’s Cathedral, this Gospel speaks with particular strength. For 160 years this cathedral has been a place where generations have brought joy and sorrow, gratitude and grief, hope and disappointment.
People have prayed here through wars, losses, uncertainty, family burdens and personal struggles.
They have also rejoiced here in baptisms, marriages, ordinations and moments of grace. This cathedral has endured not because life has been easy, but because Christ has remained faithful. As the Emmaus story ends, we hear that the disciples recognise Jesus in the breaking of the bread. Their eyes are opened not on the road, but at the table.
That’s no accident. Again and again, the Lord makes himself known in the Eucharist. Here, as then, he takes, blesses, breaks and gives. Here he strengthens us and sends us, just as the disciples at Emmaus were moved to go and tell others of their encounter. That is the fruit of encountering the risen Christ.
So today, as we celebrate 160 years of St Augustine’s Cathedral, we do more than give thanks for the past. We accept a responsibility for the future. The Christ who has met generations in this place now sends us out, just as he sent the disciples from Emmaus.
This cathedral must never become only a monument to memory; it must remain a living centre of faith, hope and mission. If we have recognised Christ here in the breaking of the bread, then we must make him known beyond these walls – in the way we welcome, in the way we serve, in the way we forgive and carry hope into a wounded world. The risen Lord does not meet us only to comfort us. He meets us to send us.
And so, this morning, as we gather here, we take a moment to ask ourselves: How does my encounter Christ change the way I live? Am I willing to go out of here, to give witness to the risen Lord, the one that the world desperately needs to encounter. Let us pray for the grace, and courage to open our hearts to what Christ offers, and to be willing to share with the world what Christ has given.
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Please consider praying a decade of the rosary on a daily basis for the evangelising Mission of the Church and the Pope’s intentions.
The Pope’s prayer intention for April is for priests in crisis
Let us pray for priests going through moments of crisis in their vocation, that they may find the accompaniment they need and that communities may support them with understanding and prayer.
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Blessed Pauline Jaricot, Pray for us. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
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