"We were hoping he would be the one..."  In many ways, it is an all to familiar reality in people's lives.  We put our hope in the new relationship, the new semester, the new math teacher in the class we can never pass, the new... whatever.  Ah, at last, here is the one person, thing, upon whom I can trust. Who won't disappoint, who won't shortchange me, who won't let me down.  They will life and faith as life and faith are meant to be lived.  They will give me the hope and courage and inspiration I need to walk my journey of faith.  And then we discover that they have feet of clay, and they disappoint us and we are left holding our broken hopes and dreams in lifeless fingers.  Do you know that refrain in your own life?

It is all too true for the disciples along the road to Emmaus.  And even though the one they had put their hope in was Jesus - they were to be disappointed. Not so much in Jesus himself, but in the image they had of him and how he must be/should act.  It was obvious that they didn't quite get it.  They were walking away from Jerusalem, away from the news that Easter morning.  Thinking: What a waste of a life - the crucifixion.  What a waste, all that they had learned from him.  What a waste, all the energy they had put into the relationship.  Yet, they had all the facts.  All the necessary knowledge to draw a conclusion - the suffering, the death, the empty tomb,  - but this did not fit their deepest hopes.  "We were hoping he'd be the political leader who'd set us free..."  And sometimes that hoping says more about who we are and what we want than it says about the other.  What we hope for speaks volumes about us, with our without the person/thing we hope in.  "We were hoping..."

For many people in the catholic community of St. Louis these last days, the refrain could almost be the same.  A priest whom they'd respected and known and loved was arrested.  A man of God whom they had hoped to be one they could rely on admitted criminal sinfulness.  And like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the hopes they had in him were dashed.  I find myself among them.  Walking in great sadness.  Thinking the story is over.   Thinking, what a tragic waste of a life and a priesthood.  Wondering if there was something which I could have done differently.  Praying and hoping for the same Lord who joined the disciples along the road would join me in my walk of faith.  "We were hoping he would be the one..."

For others - it has been a tough week for different reasons.  One of the women at Maria Droste house, a recovery home run by the Good Shepherd sisters where I am chaplain relapsed.  Another suicide bomber throws more killings into the hopes for Colin Powell's peace mission.  Heck, taxes are due tomorrow...  We were hoping...

The Emmaus story picks up on the lives of every man, woman and child.  It is all about the questions which we bring to the table.  "We were hoping ...  for what?  Answers to questions, Where is God? Does my life count?  Can I depend on anyone? After the betrayal, what can I expect?  How come God does not seem near in this... fill in the blank.

Watch, though, the Christ's response to the two who had lost hope.  He does three things.  One, he listens.  He allows them to tell their tale of woe - to pour out the frustrations and sorrows and disappointments.  Two, he helps them to re-interpret the data - gives them another way of looking at it.  He interpreted for them every passage that had to do with him.  Three, he stays with them at their request - walking as much of the journey as they need him to walk - until they see, until the hearts burn with new insight and understanding. And in a meal moment, an ordinary experience of life, they come to place their hopes in God as God is, not as they would have him be.

When hope is betrayed, when life does not turn out as we want or think or desire, I pray for the Emmaus experience, and I choose the path which is modeled there.  1) In prayer and in conversations with friends, let me pour out my sorrows - let another listen and hear the pain.   2) Ask for the grace of another way of seeing the data, and insight into what of myself I gave away that I shouldn't  - advice about who I am and how I am to live.  3) To allow Jesus and the friend I've confided in to stay with me - so that in an Emmaus moment, I may recognize Christ in the breaking of the bread...

What do you do when your hopes are dashed?  Where do we turn?  May it be in the one who reveals himself to us at this meal - the one we recognize in the breaking of the bread..