Today’s reflection focuses on another resurrection account found in the Gospel of Luke 24:13-35: the encounter between Jesus and two of his disciples who were traveling to Damascus. I invite you to look it up and read it if you are not already familiar with it. Although there are many interesting aspects to this story, I want to focus on what the disciples experienced and its relevance for us. At first they did not even recognize Jesus, their guru, but their hearts and souls were stirred. They exclaimed, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us?” They knew they were in the presence of grace, light, and divinity. They asked Jesus if he would stay with them, and his identity was revealed in the breaking of the bread.
What does this mean for us? Do we pay attention to what makes our hearts burn with faith, hope, and the fire of love? Or do we attend to those things that dull our awareness, confuse our minds, agitate our spirits, and make us less than we could be? Once we sense the presence of a spiritual or transcendent reality, do our lifestyles serve to stabilize this heightened awareness? Know this: when our hearts are burning within us, we are experiencing God’s presence, and within this presence is the very same divine energy that raised Jesus’ body from the dead. The more we pay attention to this blissful, burning, and bountiful presence, the more of the divine spark within us is resurrected — not just in some future heaven, but here and now.
Master Jesus,
Not only do I invite you
To come to me,
But I will watch for you
And treasure the moments
When my heart and soul burn.
