Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a special podcast series simply entitled, Be Not Afraid, God's Word in

Uncertain Times. And we'll try to post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures,

so that we can listen in on what God is trying to say to us in these days.

The line that jumps out at me today in the gospel as I prayed with it,

a reminder of how the church speaks about the scriptures

and something really concrete for us to consider doing today.

Those are the three things that hit me this morning as I was praying and reflecting on the

word of God that is our food today. So first, the line that jumps out at me. So the gospel today,

if you haven't read it yet, is from Luke chapter 24. It's the story of the two disciples on Easter

Sunday walking away from Jerusalem, even though they've heard that some women went to the tomb,

found it empty, and talked about encountering Jesus risen from the dead. You would have thought

that would have been enough for them to run towards the tomb and to find out what was happening,

but they didn't do that. They were walking away from Jerusalem. And as they're on their way to Amas, Jesus

walks up with them, who is hidden from their gaze. They can't, they don't see, they don't

recognize that it's Jesus. This is always the case in the resurrection accounts. The Lord

veils their eyes, if you will, from recognizing him at first, and he begins to

probe them. So these two travelers are downcast and discouraged. Pretty easy to relate to right now

for many of us in this time that we're living in. And he begins to explore as to why. And they reveal,

well, because they thought Jesus was going to be the fulfillment of all that they were looking for in the Messiah to rescue Israel from the tyranny of the Romans and whatnot.

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