As I will be traveling over the next 10 days my contributions may be intermittent

Apologies and thanks. David Harold Barry

A change of heart

A friend of mine pulled himself out of an alcohol induced downward spiral and is now helping others to overcome addiction based self-destructing compulsions. It is awesome to witness and opens a window on a dream that others whose addictions are to power and the unreflecting pursuit of wealth would do the same. Yet a change of heart, history tells us, is rare. Once a person becomes accustomed to a way of life that compromises his or her integrity it is a hard struggle to draw back.

The Easter narratives tell us of two individuals who literally turned back. They gave up on the whole “Jesus effect” and set off for Emmaus, presumably returning home. They reckoned without Jesus himself who also set out to find them and probe them with questions. They did not know the person walking beside them was Jesus no more that countless people know the origins of the questions that probe their own consciences.

But they listened, and as the journey progressed they felt their “hearts burning” within. This was the prelude to recognising who their companion was and a literal turnaround of their fortunes. Also in the Easter narratives we hear several times of Peter “standing up” and addressing people in a “loud voice”. They listened and “were cut to the heart” and asked, “What are we to do?”

The Easter season is a time of listening and allowing the message to enter deep into us. How hard it is to listen! Not with the ears but with the heart. How hard it is to stop and deeply reflect on the direction of my life! I am so used to do things “my way.” I am kind of set in the way I react and respond. It is almost a reflex. People can predict what I am going to say. It is almost a formality asking my opinion. They know already what my answer will be.

But what if I dug deeper? What, if I came in touch with a reality greater than the little world I have created for myself? What if I allowed myself to change! Pope Francis openly admits that he was set on a certain way, until he met the poor of Buenos Aires. They profoundly changed him. Or rather he allowed them to change him. He did not resist the voice that said, ‘Turn around and go back to Jerusalem.’ He did it and became the man the world reveres.   

4 May 2014                 Third Sunday of Easter A

Acts 2:14, 22-28         1 Pet 1:17-21              Luke 24:13-35