Dreams overcome

They had dreams of a better life, of security and freedom, and they believed they had found the way those dreams would be fulfilled.

And then it was all destroyed and taken away.

That has been the experience of too many people recently, who had grasped the dream of homeownership only to have it crumble into the nightmare of foreclosure.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 24:13-35), we see two people talk openly about dreams that they had had for a better life: a life of security and freedom within a free Israel. They had believed that Jesus of Nazareth would be the one who would fulfill those dreams. But when he was arrested and crucified, their dreams collapsed into dust.

And then Jesus came back to them and interpreted for them all the things that they had known but had not understood.

These disciples would not see their old dreams fulfilled.

Their dreams would be overcome by the reality of the risen Christ: more glorious than any dream.

In our own lives, whether our lives are like walking in a dream or being trapped in a nightmare, we must always look to Christ: who will not only help us make sense of the good and the bad that happens to us but who will transform the lives of his faithful ones into a glorious happiness beyond the reach of dreams.