3rd Sunday of Easter, A April 19, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
In 2010, a remake of the movie True Grit was released. There was some general excitement about it, so I went to see it. It’s about a young girl who gets vengeance for the murder of her father and at first, I hated it. I wondered why so many people liked it. Eventually, I came across a commentary that pointed out how the main character – the girl who got vengeance – wasn’t meant to be a hero, but a cautionary tale. Sure, her “grit” and single-minded focus on vengeance meant she got the bad guy, but it cost her an arm and left her bitter and alone for the rest of her life. Once it was explained to me, my opinion practically reversed. I now highly recommend it, though I wouldn’t show it to kids.
When I was in high school, the story of Romeo & Juliet always struck me as ridiculous. I hated that people looked up to it as a love story and resented Shakespeare for giving so many people a false idea of love. Eventually, however, someone explained to me that Shakespeare wasn’t offering the story as an example of love, but of infatuation and foolishness. The whole point of Romeo and Juliet is that it’s what not to do. It’s a criticism of both feuds and the rashness of young lovers. In that light, I understood why it’s such a famous play.
As it turns out, I’m not the only one who sometimes misses the point of a story. We human beings love stories and are always creating, sharing, and listening to stories. Just because we love a story, however, just because we understand the words used to tell it… does not mean we actually understand it. Cleopas and his walking buddy in today’s Gospel are a prime example. Despite witnessing the true story of Jesus with their own eyes, Cleopas and many others didn’t get it.
Like me with Shakespeare, most people saw a sad ending – the crucifixion of Jesus – and didn’t get it. Most people hearing a story about a good man being unjustly murdered wouldn’t like it. Only, it’s not the end of the story. Cleopas even admits that there was more – some women had told him about the angels and the resurrection. But he still doesn’t get it. He’s heard the story, but he hasn’t yet learned how to interpret the story. Like my younger self, Cleopas needed someone to break down the foreshadowing, the symbolism, and the context so he could finally see the message and meaning of it all.
Fortunately, Cleopas gets the best story-teller, the best interpreter, the best teacher who has ever lived to unpack the whole thing. He even says later on that his heart was “burning within” him as he listened. Suddenly, his opinion of the story flipped so dramatically that he ran seven whole miles uphill to tell everyone how great this story actually is. Now, I’d put a little effort into getting people to see True Grit or a Shakespeare play, but run seven miles uphill? They’re good stories, but not that good. Maybe I’d go that far for Lord of the Rings, though…
Anyway, the point is that this story – the story of Jesus Christ – is a true story. In fact, it is the truest story of all, the story at the center of all human history, the center of the story of the universe. It is good news that must be constantly be told and shared. If we let it, our own personal story can become part of the greatest story ever told, part of the good news that changes opinions, changes hearts, changes lives by revealing the real meaning of the story we call “life.”
So tell it to others! Tell others how your story is part of his story and how his story can reshape theirs! To do that, however, it’s very important… really it is required for you to learn how to interpret these stories, to understand what they really say instead of always relying on your first impression and the surface-level understanding of those around you. To tell the story of the gospel correctly, you have to learn how to let the gospel – and the man at its center – interpret your own story for you. Just because you lived through it… just because you felt a certain way… just because you think you understand your own life does not mean you see it correctly.
Cleopas was part of the Gospel story. His wife was at the cross and some traditions claim he was Joseph’s brother… that makes him Jesus’ uncle. But he asks the rather ironic question of Jesus, “are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know?” I say ironic because, first of all, Jesus is just about the only person who is not a visitor. As the descendant of David, Jesus is the rightful king of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is also clearly claimed by God as his personal city, his holy dwelling place and Jesus is God. So Jesus is not a visitor.
Secondly, Jesus is the only person who actually knows what has taken place. Sure, lots of people saw the events – just like I saw True Grit and Romeo & Juliet – but most people did not know what they saw just as I did not know the meaning of those stories. They saw the multiplication of loaves and thought it was the right time to make Jesus an earthly king. They saw him heal a blind man and thought it was about regaining physical sight. They saw Jesus die and thought it was defeat.
Cleopas and all the others needed Jesus to explain the story to them to understand that it was about feeding spiritual not physical hunger; that it was about the gift of faith, not physical sight; and that his death was really about atonement for sins, about redeeming suffering, and about proving to the world that we no longer need to fear death.
And the world still needs that explanation. The internet is full of people with half-baked ideas about the story of scripture, people who miss the point and get it all backwards. So Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit, charged the apostles with the power to bind and loose, and commissioned all of us… all of us who are baptized and confirmed to tell the story and explain the story to the world until the end of time.
To do that, however, you probably need to better understand your own story. What tragedies and traumas still cause you to doubt the goodness of God? What false ideas and misinterpreted teachings still distort your grasp of the Catholic faith? When was the last time you gave time and space to Jesus to walk with you through your own journey and allowed him to reinterpret it for you? We won’t get all the answers in this life, but we can certainly learn to see with the eyes of faith instead of cynicism and pride.
Our inability to sit silently with ourselves and with God is burdening us with all kinds of false narratives about God’s love for us. He does love you and want the best for you. Any part of your story which causes you to doubt that fact must be something you’ve misunderstood. Not to blame you, but we’re all affected by this lack of understanding. So, let him walk alongside you and break open his word and your heart, to set it on fire and purify it of sin and error and fear. Seek wise spiritual guides, men and women empowered by the Holy Spirit to help you re-examine your own story in the light of faith.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget how this little story ended. It wasn’t until the breaking of the bread – code for celebrating Mass – that Cleopas and his buddy got it and finally saw how Jesus was with them the whole time. Christianity is the greatest story ever told and the truest, but it is much more than a story. It is a mystery, a reality, a sacrament. The Church, the community, the rituals… they are visible signs of an invisible reality. Only by being present to these things day after day, by holding to them in faith, by allowing them to suffuse your story with grace, by allowing yourself to be restored by grace can your eyes be opened to recognize that Jesus has always been there, hoping you’d let him show you how, if you let him retell it and reshape it, your story can end not with death, but with eternal life.