How foolish you are...?

How would you like Jesus to say to you, “How foolish you are? Jesus asked the two men on the road to Emmaus this simple but interesting question. But why? The men were obviously frustrated, flabbergasted and despondent. From their discussion we can deduce easily their state of mind. They were upset with Jesus for acting as a stranger in Jerusalem. To the question, “What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?” amidst emotion laden with surprise we are told, “They stood still, with sad faces”, then one of them mustered up courage to ask him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have been happening there these last few days.” Again, Christ acting as if had no idea what they were referring to asked, “What things?” they had this answer for him: “The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the people to be powerful in everything he said and did. Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and he was crucified. And we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened. Some of the women of our group surprised us; they went at dawn to the tomb, but could not find his body. They came back saying they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is alive. Some of our group went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him,” Lk. 24:19-24.

From the above answer I have no doubts that these men were disappointed with the Jesus project. They had closed their minds to the Scriptures. They were obviously very negative and one could feel their incredulity, doubts, cynicism and apathy as they recounted their litany of woes to this stranger. Were they trying to educate the stranger about the failure of Christ or what really was the point they were making? With the type of picture painted above one could hardly see these men as missionaries. There was no conviction in their narrative except their disappointments. There was a total lack of trust in the person of Christ and these men had lost hope completely. Little wonder then why Christ took the time to speak sense into their heads. Jesus did not waste time in pointing their mistakes to them, but not before calling them fools. “How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?” Now the lectures! The bible stated that, “Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.”

When you are in doubts and confused, where do you turn to for comfort? When you are disappointed who do you turn to for consolation? We are prone to complaining and whining when things do not go our way. We close our minds to options and at times, we even turn against God and the Church. It seems to me that the bible has most of the answers to our problems if we but take the time to read and pray it, we will get the sense of direction that we so desperately need. We often blame our problems on everybody except ourselves. Truth be told, we have what it takes to pull ourselves up from whatever situation we find ourselves in. We have all the means needed to assist us do just that. We have our God who loves and cares for us and only wants us to go to him and ask for what we need, but often times we do not take these approaches; instead we behave like these men on the way to Emmaus. Remember this, no matter where we run to, Christ will always meet us on the road, and if care is not taken, he will call us foolish men and women. Foolish; because we doubt his love. Foolish; because we do not trust him enough. Foolish; because we do not read the Scriptures. No wonder St. Jerome cautions us that ignorant of the Scriptures means ignorant of Christ. May Christ not call us foolish. Amen