“You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.”
Psalm 16:11
Today’s second reading from Peter 1:17-21 includes a line that states: “conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb.” Truly, our life in this world is a journey filled with ups and downs. Yet, the one constant in our life is Christ’s abiding presence that nurtures us along our way.
Cleopas and the other disciple journeying to Emmaus were graced with the presence of a stranger who made their hearts burn when he recounted how the scriptures were fulfilled that predicted the necessary sufferings the Messiah would endure to enter into his glory. When the stranger did the fourfold action of taking, blessing, breaking and giving the bread to them, they recognized the Eucharistic implications of this action and him whose death they were mourning. Immediately, they changed their course and headed back to Jerusalem to share their great joy with the disciples.
In the First Reading from Acts 2:14,22-33, Peter has embarked on the perilous journey of confronting those who oppose his proclamation that Jesus is the Christ. He sees Psalm 16 as being fulfilled in Christ whose soul was not abandoned to the netherworld but was raised from the dead. We know how Peter’s journey would end; he would cling to the hope that God indeed would show him the path to life, even when it meant losing his life in order to gain life eternal. Where are you in your journey with Christ? Where is he leading you? Do you trust that no matter the circumstances you face, he will show you the path to life?