April 24, 2025

Yesterday while working in the garden and praying a bit, I heard that with Pope Francis’s passing, there is a crack in the armor, a small opening for the world to hear his gentle message of compassion and caring about others and of working for the common good of humanity.  This is like the Leonard Cohen song, “There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”  The message was that this is a time to lean into that opening, which is the opportunity for people to hear the messages of the Gospel to love and care for others, especially the poorest and most vulnerable among us.  Through prayer and through speaking up now to give voice to these message, the energy of this opening in the armor of the world can be multiplied to the benefit of all.  Amen.

Luke 24:35-48

In today’s reading, after appearing to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, he then suddenly appears and stands in the midst of the disciples who are behind closed doors. He shows them his hands and feet, to show that he is not a ghost but flesh and blood. He asks for some food, and eats some fish in front of them.

He is here to explain to them that “everything that was written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”  He opened their minds to the Scriptures, and explained that they are witnesses to these momentous events in which the Messiah suffered, died, rose from the dead on the third day, and “repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning with Jerusalem.”  He helped them understand what happened, and what their role is in it as witnesses.

God can be found in these liminal spaces, between life and death, and in the period between Jesus’ human body, glorified body, and ascension to the Father.  It confounds our conceptual minds; it is the crack that lets the light in.