We explore the meditation on Sunday's gospel story of the road to Emmaus, focusing on the phrase We had hoped and what it means when our hopes are crushed. We discuss how the stranger (Jesus) doesn't argue with the disciples' despair but instead walks with them, listens, and opens the scriptures to show that suffering and hope are not opposites. We reflect on how Christ reveals himself in the breaking of bread at table, not in private experience, and how this encounter sends the disciples back to Jerusalem burning with a hope they can't keep to themselves. We discover that the resurrection doesn't skip grief—it walks right into it and transforms us from we had hoped to we are beginning to hope again.