Today we hear one of the appearance stories from Luke’s Gospel. It starts when two disciples arrive where the apostles and other followers of Jesus are gathered. On hearing that the Lord has appeared to Peter, not to be outdone, the two disciples recount how Jesus has just appeared to them too, while they walked toward the town of Emmaus. Into this exciting newscast Jesus suddenly appears. Though filled with joy, those gathered were “amazed,” that is, not really willing to believe their eyes. Jesus responds in two ways. First he “proves” he’s not a ghost by showing them his wounded hands and feet, and eating a piece of fish they have; their eyes see. Next he “opened their minds” to understand from their own Hebrew Scriptures that he is the Christ. Their minds see. So we get still another lesson about faith: It is both an emotional, body response, and also an intellectual one. Perhaps sounding like a cheerleader here, I’ve always been impressed with the many facets of Catholicism. It has heart things — a rich devotional life. It has majesty and drama and symbol-infused high liturgies. It has body things — the material elements of the sacraments, including the touch of Eucharist and anointing. It has food for the mind in our theology and scriptural teachings. It has eye candy of music and art and architecture. These many facets are important because faith is not a “one size fits all” thing. People come in many different shapes, and depending on the person, various of these faith facets will be prized more than others, will be more nourishing of their personal faith. What aspects of Catholic faith life most nourish you? People you know? Are you looking for a little more of one facet than another? Tell the Risen Lord about that!
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia; photo by Lynn Greyling