This short reading from today's Gospel, from Jn 6:16-21, baffled me at first:

In the evening the disciples went down to the shore of the lake and got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the lake. It was getting dark by now and Jesus had still not rejoined them. The wind was strong, and the sea was getting rough. They had rowed three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming towards the boat. This frightened them, but he said, ‘It is I. Do not be afraid.’ They were for taking him into the boat, but in no time it reached the shore at the place they were making for.

But I learned something from meditating upon it for a while. Like the disciples then, I get anxious about where I think I should be and when. Perhaps with some amusement, Christ demonstrates that he is never late for appointments!

He does not call from afar

Two of the disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village called Emmaus, .. Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognising him. He said to them, ‘What matters are you discussing as you walk along?’ .. Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, .. Then he said to them, ‘You foolish men! So slow to believe the full message of the prophets! .. ’ Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them .. Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them. And their eyes were opened and they recognised him; but he had vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?’ They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, ‘Yes, it is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.’ Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognised him at the breaking of bread.

Luke 24:13-35

He walks alongside us, prodding us to speak to him in prayer, to listen to him there, and in a particular way in the Bible. He goes further: he, the Word made flesh, feeds us in his very substance in the Eucharist, the sacrament where all of the Easter Triduum, from the upper room to the Cross, to the empty tomb -- is so pithily made present to us in Holy Communion.

Called to Life

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Can we speak of "ends" for God? Only if we misunderstand who he is. As Fr. Robert Barron explains in episode 3 of the Catholicism series (preview here via the Seeing and Believing blog), God is not a being, as if he could be counted, he is not the highest as if he could be compared or measured. He relates St. Anselm teaching that God is whom "a greater cannot be thought." Therefore, the notion of ends do not apply! The Resurrection highlights this so profoundly to beings such as ourselves who typically view death with anxiety: life overcomes death! The Psalmist (Ps 117) sings "I shall not die" -- how could someone from that primitive age have thought this? -- and "I shall live and recount his deeds!" What an attitude to take, rejoicing so much in life in thanksgiving!

I should most certainly make that my attitude! What room is there for anxiety or gloom, if even death is swallowed up?