Today’s Gospel reads like an amateur game of telephone. We hear from Luke what he heard from who-knows-who heard from someone else who heard from the apostles (or their acquaintances) what Cleopas heard from Jesus about what the prophets said after Jesus heard about his own death and (rumored) resurrection third-hand from Cleopas. With a provenance as convoluted as that last sentence, the stories we hear umpteenth-hand this week are as miraculous in their (re)telling as in their content. More miraculous still is our ability to believe what we have been told.

Sometimes, however, the news we hear belies belief. If I told you a year ago yesterday that Notre Dame would burn to the ground tomorrow, how would you respond? Would you (like me) stare at CNN for hours as the fires raged, unable to believe your eyes? What would you have said if, 107 years ago yesterday, I told you that the unsinkable Titanic would sink the next day? Would you have waited for the headlines? I would have.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus finds two disciples who cannot believe what they have heard. He calls them foolish, slow of heart, and ignorant. He cites the Scriptures as His authority and sets their hearts alight. In a time of upheaval and confusion, when fake news and vitriol poison the common wells of trust and information, when there is so much we don’t know and even less we know for certain, Jesus points us to the Bible to find clarity in reason and inspiration in prayer. Perhaps as importantly, however, the Gospel shows us how we must rely on others to hear and spread the good news. We can’t shut out the possibility that something miraculous has happened, but nor can we mindlessly accept everything we hear (PSA – fish tank cleaner is NOT the recommended treatment for COVID19). We need to listen, we need to discern, and then we need to tell the world.