Four of my all-time favorite movies are comedies. The first movie is Liar, Liar. It’s a story about a little boy who gets his wish that his father would stop lying to people and simply tell the truth. The second movie is Airplanes, Trains, and Automobiles, a story about an advertising executive, Neal Page, who just wants to fly home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his family. But, all he gets is misery, in the person of Del Griffith, a loud mouthed but nevertheless loveable salesman who leads Neal on a cross country, wild goose chase. The third movie is The Christmas Story, in which a fourth grader, Ralphie Parker, wishes with all of his heart that Santa Claus would bring a Red Ryder 200-shot, range model, air rifle on this Christmas day.

But, my all-time favorite comedy is the fourth, Uncle Buck. In this movie, Uncle Buck’s niece, Tia---a high school sophomore---blames her mother for everything that has gone wrong in her life since the family relocated from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the posh suburb located north of Chicago, Winnetka, Illinois.

Judging solely by all of the material comforts Tia and her family enjoy, people might mistakenly conclude that Tia should be grateful for all that her parents have provided her. But, the fact is, Tia isn't grateful; instead, she is profoundly unhappy. And the target of Tia’s unhappiness---at least, judging from the tone of Tia’s voice, her vicious and nasty behavior particularly at the dinner table, and her "know it all" arrogance---is Tia’s mom. In Tia’s mind, her mother’s complicity in the family’s move from Cincinnati justifies making her mother’s life nothing short of a living hell.

Now, while Tia may have believed that things were awful in Winnetka, all of that is nothing short of a divine blessing compared to what would happen after Tia’s grandfather suffers a heart attack and her parents have to travel to Cincinnati. Unable to find a more suitable guardian to take care of Tia and her little brother and sister, Miles and Maizy, Tia’s parents reluctantly ask Uncle Buck. For Tia, this is the Freddie Krueger nightmare scenario. Having to deal with her mother is bad enough; but, in Tia’s estimation, Uncle Buck is a complete moron, one of life’s total losers. "Even you’ve said so," Tia rants after her mother tells Tia that Uncle Buck will be babysitting the three kids.

How many times do we find ourselves---like Tia---frustrated with the way things have spun out of our control in our lives? In the midst of our unhappiness and even though we possess almost everything we want, we wonder, "If only I could just get out of here and away from it all?"

It’s so very easy to fall prey to the temptation to flee Winnetka, isn’t it, to believe that we can turn our backs on all of the problems, challenges, and burdens that constitute our daily, weekly, and yearly routine? Even the word "routine"---with its connotation of continuous boredom---compounds our unhappiness. And, as we contemplate "all that could have been…if only," every moment we spend in Winnetka only fuels the desire to flee from it all.

For some, standing there under the cloud of unhappiness and blinded by its darkness, the fantasy to flee Winnetka can become almost overwhelming.

In today’s gospel, two of Jesus’ disciples follow a similar path. Leaving everything behind in Jerusalem, the duo set out on a seven mile journey to "get away from it all," to "leave their problems behind," and to find their happiness in the destination de jour, Emmaus.

After all, the person they had placed all of their trust in, the one who had promised life and life to the full, the one who they thought would lead them into a glorious future, had been crucified. Being with Jesus had been the highlight of their lives. What he taught had made so much sense, to the point that they believed he was the Messiah. But, just as high as Jesus had raised their hopes, so low had their hopes sunk after Jesus was arrested, tried, and put to death. Seeing him hanging on the cross, looking like a side of beef in a butcher shop, the two disciples decided to head out of Jerusalem as quickly as possible. They even let someone else bury Jesus. And now, he's been dead for more than three days. 

All of this was simply too much for these two disciples to bear.

So, in a desperate effort to "get away from it all," they set out for "destination Emmaus." All they want to do is to put all of the pain and grief behind them. The distractions which Emmaus promises are "just what the doctor ordered" to cure their unhappiness. Short of that, a little "r and r" will do just fine, thank you.

Sadly, people who’ve confronted the temptation to flee Winnetka can sympathize with these two disciples who just wanted to get away from it all. Unhappy spouses seek happiness in drugs and alcohol, engage in all sorts of indecent or immoral behavior, or perhaps are abusive to people whom they claim to love. Parents dream about how happy things would be if the kids hadn’t ruined everything and, for their part, teenagers dream of escaping from their parent’s bondage. Little kids contemplate with glee the day when they won’t have to obey their parents and teachers. And, spouses fantasize about life with another different spouse or, perhaps, no spouse at all.

However, in the middle of all of their unhappiness and on the way to Emmaus, the Risen Lord appears.

Blinded and standing there under the dark clouds of their unhappiness, the two disciples don’t even recognize who is present in their midst. Instead, they’re amazed that this stranger doesn’t know anything at all about the previous week’s events. But then, this stranger interprets scripture by breaking open the meaning of scripture and he nourishes the disciples’ hope by breaking the Bread of Life with them. The instant they recognize who this stranger is, he disappears from their midst.

"Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?," the two disciples ask each other. Then, filled with delight at recognizing what their true happiness consisted of, they turned their backs on the promised happiness of Emmaus, and the two disciples return to the place of their unhappiness, Jerusalem, to proclaim the good news of the resurrection.

In Uncle Buck, Tia’s uncle sets standards for the three kids. For the rebellious teenager, Tia, these requirements meant that the happiness she had enjoyed in Cincinnati would not be found in Winnetka…at least as long as Uncle Buck is there and in charge. So, Tia decides to leave home and journey to Emmaus to forget her unhappiness by shacking up with her boyfriend, Bug. As Tia had said to her uncle earlier in the week, "You’ve ruined my life." Undeterred, though, Uncle Buck keeps pursuing Tia along the road to Emmaus until he finds her and, in the end, Tia recognizes not only what Uncle Buck had been doing for her all along but also what her mom had also been trying to do for her all along. Tia had chosen to be blinded by her desire for happiness. But, once her eyes were opened, she saw what love requires.