JESUS WALKING WITH ME

The following is the text of the homily that I preached this week at the funeral mass for my godmother, 93 year-old Sister Jean Holtz, S.S.J. The Gospel reading was Luke 24: 13-35, the story of the risen Jesus' appearing to two disciples who are returning home disappointed on Easter morning. 

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Besides being first cousins, Sister Jean and I shared a special relationship, you see, she was my godmother. I’ve always liked to think that this meant that I got an extra mention in her prayers. And so it’s a special honor for me to celebrate this mass of Resurrection for my special cousin and my godmother.

In Sister Jean’s room, it seems there was a picture of Jesus and two companions, one on either side; they’re walking together on the road to Emmaus on the first Easter morning -- the gospel story we just heard a moment ago. When I heard about that picture that was hanging in Sr. Jean’s room I immediately thought of an old Negro spiritual, "I want Jesus to Walk With Me." No one knows who wrote this haunting song, neither the words nor the music; but we can be sure that it was born in the heart of  some nameless slave in the squalid cruelty of the slave quarters of a cotton or tobacco farm. 

 I want Jesus to walk with me. 

All along my pilgrim journey

Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.

In my trials, Lord walk with me.

When the shades of life are falling

Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.

This is surely a sad song about life as a long, lonely and painful journey; but here’s the good news: Behind the words of this song lies the very story we heard in this morning’s gospel: a tale of unimaginable beauty and joy -- the story of Easter! 

The key is to concentrate on the figure in the center of the picture. Who is this mysterious person on the Emmaus Road? He’s evidently not very easy to recognize -- his disciples don’t recognize him even as he walks with them. We can’t really blame them: After all, the man they had thought was the Messiah, had been crucified, had died, and been buried. They weren’t expecting to meet this Jesus ever again.

Emmaus Road - Rouault

You remember that he has to remind them as they walk along: “was it not necessary that the Christ enter into his suffering in order to enter into his glory?“ They have no idea that Good Friday is only the first chapter in the most glorious story in the history of the world, the Easter Story. But Jesus walks with them for those seven miles, unfolding for them the passages in the Scriptures that prophesy a suffering Messiah.

Then, as you remember, night begins to fall, and the two disciples invite Jesus to come and stay with them. When they sit down to share a meal, Jesus takes the bread, says the words of blessing over it, and breaks the loaf and gives it to them. With that, Saint Luke tells us, their eyes are opened and they recognize him for who he truly is: the risen victorious Savior!

Sister Jean certainly had a sense of walking with Jesus. She even taught others how to do that. For some years she was actively involved in the ministry of contemplative prayer and meditation, helping others to walk more closely with Jesus on the road. You could tell by the way she lived her life that she was living the story of the Emmaus Road. Her eyes had been opened to the presence of the risen, victorious Christ walking beside her. There’s a beautiful lesson for each of us in her story: This same Jesus who walked with Sister Jean for so many years is walking along life’s road with you and with me -- a road that is sometimes painful and difficult.

But there’s more to the lesson of the Emmaus story. You believe God answers prayers, right? Well, what do you think happens when someone prays “In my trials, Lord walk with me?” How does the Lord manage to answer that person’s prayer? You know exactly how God manages this: the Lord of Emmaus Road turns to you and asks,

“Listen, I need you to take my place on the road, and walk with this particular person. What she needs right now is my love --  your love. She needs to feel that somebody cares about her.”

If you listen attentively, you can hear the Lord of the Emmaus Road turning to you all the time. I heard his voice recently say to me: “Could you walk with this student’s mom for me? She’s a single parent and she just needs to be reassured that she’s doing a good job with her son.  Just walk with her for a few minutes. I’ll give you the words to say.” Jesus’ request always comes down to the same thing: love people!

Finally, let's look at the last lines of the hymn: “When the shades of life are falling, Lord, I want Jesus to walk with me.”  As the years went by, and Sr. Jean passed her 90th year, she surely must have  begun to look at that picture on her wall differently:  She must have begun to make her own the request of that disciple in the story: “Stay with me Lord, for the day is nearly over, and night is coming on.”

We know that the Risen Lord who had been walking with her for her whole life was certainly walking with Jean as the sun went down, “When the shades of life are falling, I want Jesus to walk with me.” Her example over the last difficult months of her journey is a final and fitting gift to all of us: She lived the lesson of the Emmaus Road: Namely, that if you walk through life with Jesus as your traveling companion, then the inexorable march of advancing years, the weakness, the pain, the illnesses and even death itself  take on a deep and beautiful meaning: Your eyes are opened and you see all of these diminishments as part of the beautiful Easter story.

Of course we grieve for our sister, our friend, our godmother. This is the time for tears -- make no mistake about that. Didn’t Jesus once tell us, “Blest are those who mourn?”  But let us also hear Sister Jean echo for us this morning some other words of Jesus, ones he spoke to those sad friends as he walked along with them on their journey:

“Do you not know that it is necessary for all of us to undergo suffering in order to enter into glory?”

“Do you not know that through your sharing in my cross you will one day rise to eternal life?”

“Do you not know that through my rising from the dead all of you will one day be reunited with Sister Jean, and with all those you have loved and who have loved you? And with all the faithful ones who have walked the road before you?”

So, as we continue walking our road to Emmaus  saddened by the death of our beloved Sister Jean, let us continue our celebration of the Eucharist, and be filled with joy of the risen Lord when we, like those fortunate two disciples, recognize the Risen Jesus in the breaking of the bread.

This original wooden plaque (11"x 15") was carved as a scale model for a large work to be hung behind the altar of St. Joseph Church, East York, PA. For photos of the finished work click here. 

The Story of the Road to Emmaus (Luke 13-35)

Now that very day two of them were going to a village seven miles* from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?” They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days. And he replied to them, “What sort of things?” They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him. But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place.Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.” 

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?”

So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.