The Gospel for today is always عمانو موريو ‘Amano Moryo —“stay with us Lord, for evening draws on.” It is the Road to Emmaus, when Jesus joins two discouraged disciples on the way, and opens their minds through the scriptures, so that their hearts burn within them.         On Holy Saturday of the Light, the one day of the year when God is absent, when there is no Divine Liturgy and no Holy Communion, I noticed a man from the neighborhood, walked past our empty church (that is, the altar stripped and the tabernacle empty). He stopped and bowed as he glanced toward the wide portal at the top of the steps. I’ve seen so many passers-by glance up with a glimmer of hope and recognition as they pass by. So many make a furtive sign of the cross in the midst of this not so busy Victory Pkwy thoroughfare Word of the week as they pass.     ...We are all wayfarers on that dusty road, and when we see an open church, especially an open Catholic church, our hearts burn a little as we recognize Jesus with us. May God permit that we are able to keep those doors open on Victory Parkway, and church doors all over the city open, so that fellow travelers may yet make the sign of the cross as they pass by the way.         The world is tilting. It’s been tilting since Adam and Eve defied God by trying to do it “my way.” But perhaps now the tilt is even more severe as western culture denies the very existence of God. Only Christ can right this imbalance, and we are witnesses of the world’s only hope. 
   By entering this church this evening or this morning in a dear Cincinnati that is becoming more secular every day. Everybody knows you are a witness to God’s sovereignty. Do you know it? The last words of today’s gospel must convict us: “ Then the two told what had happened on the way...”  The world will not regain its balance by a better application of A.I., technology or government or academic degrees. These things are all helpful, but in the end humanity cannot solve its most fundamental problem, which is sin and death. We are destroying ourselves, and only God can save us. An increasing number of people do not want to hear that we depend on anyone but ourselves. The illusion of the autonomous self is gaining ground. Most imagine that they can be like gods, fully self-determinative. We are all witnesses that we need help, that we so need God.  The core of our witness is right here, at the Divine Liturgy. 
   Be faithful to the Divine Liturgy (the Mass), and become more a Eucharistic people who can think clearly and speak clearly about God. Commit yourselves to Eucharistic adoration, especially our 1st Fridays parish 12-9 holy hours, because there is no help, and no other name, by which we are to be saved but that of Jesus Christ.     
                                       You and I are witnesses of these things.