“Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” How can I get a burning heart? Christians in general and Catholics in particular can be head people. We learn our creeds and catechisms. We read the Bible. We listen to sermons. It all feeds our need to know, to understand, to make sense of things. We don’t do enough to nourish our hearts. There is a scene in the novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok where the son complains to his scholarly father that the Hasidic Jews don’t have a proper understanding of the Bible. Yes, the father answers, but we can’t dance like they can. As embodied creatures we need to feed both our heads and our hearts. Jesus helped Mr. and Mrs. Cleopas to undertand but he also touched their hearts. Faith was not a nice idea but a matter of life and death. It was their burning hearts that moved them to share the message that they had received from the Risen Lord.
APRIL32024
By Church Staff
