Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

We go through life with many opportunities and decisions to make. We must decide whether to take this job or that, ask that person on a date or even to marry. We are bombarded with even more smaller decisions each day and as we encounter others we are given the opportunity to choose to greet those we meet at the coffee shop, to go out of our way to be polite or friendly. Many times we are given the opportunity to help others. Maybe it is spare change, a kind word of encouragement. Maybe like me you have had the opportunity to stop in the middle of your hectic world of work and take the time to listen to someone who needs someone to talk to right when you have way too much to do.

These may be occasions when we are invited to reach out to help or encourage or engage others in what we believe is to their benefit, when in reality they were placed in our path to help us.

Taking the time to speak to a loved one who calls or even taking a moment to help someone at the home improvement center you see struggling with a project you just finished, might seem like a very small and maybe even distracting thing to do. After all, even a call during the day while we are busy derails our concentration, resets our flow, distracts us from whats important at that moment. If we have taken the time to go to shop at Home Depot or Lowe’s we have our own task at hand, right?

This spring most of us are focused on getting flowers in the ground or cleaning up the yard. To stop and share what we learned about paint and sandpaper is not really on our agenda. And we all have so few hours in our day don’t we?

But if we take the chance. If we stop and answer the call or slow down and pause to greet the perplexed “do it yourselfer” we may find it was exactly what we needed.

I am certain people are placed in our path for a reason. If we pass on the engagement. If we decide we are too busy we are saying “no” to another person but don’t really gain anything but a few more minutes.

But if we say yes. If we invite them to engage us…we might find that we needed that break in our flow and day to see the bigger picture, the real picture, the truth.

Work is a necessary thing for most of us and we had better pay attention to it and do our best so we can provide for ourselves and families but we are not made to only work. We are busy people and most of us like to be busy, we feel value and useful in the tasks and accomplishments. But we are not made to only seek goals and achievements. To focus only on our wants and needs.

As children of God we are first to seek God and love him and then reach out to others.

And that usually happens in the middle of the busyness of life when we least expect it.

The disciples certainly did not expect to run into Jesus the Risen Lord on the road. We may not expect to run into the one person who can help us see the truth either in aisle 24. Our world and purpose is bigger than being busy or the work we do. It never was.

Jesus comes to us in the poor, in the sick, in the imprisoned for when we aid these folks we are told we are helping Jesus. But he also comes to us in the sister who needs to talk, the check out girl who needs a voice of reason, the guy at the table next to us at the coffee shop who is sitting there seeking a job.

We don’t have to hit the streets to reach out and find Jesus Christ, we can find him at work, at the market and even at the home improvement store. For when we connect with others and show charity, generosity of our time, and patience by sharing our knowledge with others … we are engaging Jesus Christ and we will find our hearts lighter, our hope renewed and a little bit more peace.

We all have choices each day to make. What is important. What is our focus. Libraries and warehouses are full of self help books on how to be better at time management, prioritization and getting things done.

But the book we need to listen to first, is the Gospel, which today tells us to invite a stranger into your life today, if only for a few minutes to share a few words. It will be good for the soul and leave you a bit more refreshed and ready to tackle all that work you have to get done. Maybe, our hearts will feel a little bit more on fire with love to as a result.