Reflection for Third Sunday after Easter 2023 – It’s a total eclipse of the heart
The writer Annie Dillard writes of her experience of a total solar eclipse in 1979:
“From all the hills came screams. A piece of the sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams…Abruptly it was dark night…In the black sky was a ring of light…It was an old wedding band in the sky, or a morsel of bone. There were stars. It was all over”1
When people were interviewed on Thursday after experiencing the total eclipse in Western Australia, there were screams recorded and the excitement, fascination and awe was palpable in those gathered to watch.
Annie Dillard writes further of leaving after the eclipse and breakfasting in a local diner where other eclipse-watchers were present and almost shouting and saying “Did you see….? Did you see….? The experience too fantastic to quash the urge to share with others afterwards.
32They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ 33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem (Luke 24:32-33a)
We hear of the experience of the couple on the road to Emmaus in our gospel reading this Sunday. And I imagine the couple reacting as though they have seen a total eclipse – this time the realisation that they have just spent several hours in the presence of the risen Christ. Chatting on the road, listening to an explanation of the meaning of the scriptures, inviting Christ to share and meal and then, wham! The breaking of the bread and their eyes finally open!
And like the eclipse-watchers, unable to keep the experience to themselves - as they return immediately (at night) to Jerusalem to speak to the other disciples.
A total eclipse of their hearts, indeed (apologies Bonnie Tyler)!
I give thanks for the disciples and their experience – and may we all be blessed by even a sliver of that experience in our own faith journeys!
Blessings
Ceri
