Homily for Easter Wednesday

Today’s Gospel passage describes two of Jesus’ disciples walking away from Jerusalem on that first Easter night because the city now had negative memories for them. It was there that Jesus, to whom they had given their lives, was crucified. It was the city that took from them both Jesus and the hopes they had invested in Him. They wanted out, but Jesus had wanted them to remain there.

Although they didn’t realize it yet, Jerusalem was also the city where Jesus was raised from the dead and it would be the place where He would pour out His Holy Spirit upon the disciples. It was the city from which His message would begin to be spread to all the world.

In our Gospel passage, Jesus walked with the two disciples to help them see that there was more to Jerusalem than they realized. In our own lives, it is often the case that the places we flee, whether a physical place or place deep in our souls, when we see them as dreary and dark, are the very places where the seeds of new life grow, and where God is mysteriously but powerfully at work in the darkness.+