To feel your heart burning within you again
April 19, 2026 – Third Sunday of Easter
Readings: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16, R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.;
1 Peter 1:17-21; Gospel – Luke 24: 13-35
The story of the two disciples is our story. We all had a moment in our life journey when we saw meaning and purpose, even a call to mission that made us take a path we have chosen and are on now. And like the two disciples, most of us had our ups and downs. Moments when we were tempted to despair, thinking all we had dedicated our lives to was for naught.
This is the beauty of this story: the journey of joy, near despair, renewed hope, and devotion to mission.
Taking the path of the call
The first “chapter” is the discovery of our call or mission that we receive with joy. It made us “leave behind” things and take the path of the call.
Mine, I heard in my first year of teaching, in 1980. In one conversation with a student, listening to his pain and longing for healing and adult guidance, I told myself, “I can do this for the rest of my life.”
It led me not just to teaching, but eventually to being a Jesuit and a priest. Not in my original plan, but the “yes” to teaching led me to these vocations.
I spent some of my happiest years as a Jesuit. Formation was not a walk in the park, but it was a grace-filled journey twice; I thought it might not have been for me. But God steadied me with the help of my spiritual director.
I got ordained 33 years ago last Friday, on April 17. And I was blessed to spend the first seven happiest years of my life as a Jesuit priest, first during studies, then as principal.
Then I was reassigned to fundraising. Again, not in my original plan, but I discerned and saw it was important to our work in the university, and as a Jesuit, obedience was a central grace. I poured myself into it with gusto and great energy, but God had other plans. What my team and I had envisioned did not fully materialize as we had hoped and dreamed.
In one annual eight-day retreat in Spokane, Washington State, where I was studying for my doctorate, I was made to remember my journey from aged—believe it or not—five or six years old. From the second day of my retreat to the eighth, it was a graced remembering.
Rediscovering my vocation and first love
The fruit of it all was rediscovering my vocation, my first love, and the quality of my relationship with God. He was always present in my life—the twists and turns, the joys and sorrows. His presence was always providential. His providence was always loving.
It was a moment of rediscovery of the Lord “at the breaking of bread.” It was the retreat that made my heart burn within me again.
Like the town disciples on the road to Emmaus, it made me leave Emmaus and return to Jerusalem, my first love—teaching, mentoring, forming the youth. This started my two-year journey of discernment, and in the final stages, my spiritual director, the late Fr. Benny Calpotura, S.J., told me on the morning of May 7, 2005, “Go! The movements are very clear. God wants you to do this.”
I asked to leave the Jesuits and the Ateneo to return to the path I started on 25 years earlier—the education, mentoring, and formation of the youth through the formation of teachers, mentors, and formators who will love them into excellence—a life of meaning and mission, of hope and service.
“God wants you to do this.” This has been my moment of “the breaking of bread” when I recognized the Lord again and continue to recognize him in my journey. It is a moment that always makes my “heart burn within me again.”
On living out your mission
The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus is our story. Read it reflectively. Contemplate it and walk with the Lord in your moments of sadness—even during the temptation to despair. Allow the journey to help you remember, even the disappointments, the mistakes, and the pain. Do not be afraid.
Remembering this will lead you to the breaking of bread, and there, you will recognize the Lord who was, is, and will always be—present and guiding you lovingly.
At that moment, feel your heart burning within you again, and it will set you off once more to live out your mission with love and a greatness of soul.
