Easter 2018

                                    Easter Sunday

                                    

The Church uses many different readings on Easter. The Vigil Mass has seven readings from the Old Testament; St. Paul's famous letter to the Romans--"Christ raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him;" and St. Mark's account of the empty tomb. In the afternoon Mass we will have the account of the risen Lord's appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

This morning's Mass, however, begins with a reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Peter is preaching. Remember how prominently Peter appeared in the readings during Holy Week. Last Sunday he told Jesus that he would follow Him to prison, even to death. But our Lord predicted that Peter would deny Him three times before the cock crows. Peter's subsequent denial is one of the few things reported in all four gospels.

Today it's a different Peter. He gives as good an account of the life and work of Jesus as you will find anywhere. Then he bears witness to His Resurrection,

            This man God raised on the third day and granted

            that He be visible...to us,...

            who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.

Finally, he makes the claim "that everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins through His name."

However, it's easy to imagine that Peter might have felt differently after the death of Jesus. He didn't know how the story was going to come out. What was there to believe? As St. John says in today's gospel, "they did not yet understand the Scripture that He had to rise from the dead." Not only had his Lord been brutally tortured and killed, but Peter had also turned his back on Jesus. He especially could have no hope of a resurrection or new day.  Wouldn't Peter think that his own sin, his own lack of faith, could never be forgiven?

Then Mary Magdalene comes rushing in on the first Easter Sunday morning to tell them that the tomb is empty. Fearing that the Lord's body had been stolen Peter and John race to the tomb only to find the burial cloths neatly rolled up with no evidence of foul play. St. John tells us that "he saw and believed." St. Luke tells us that Peter was "amazed." 

Is this why we're all here today on this Easter Sunday morning? Are we all here today to peer inside the empty tomb? The empty tomb itself means nothing. As St. Mark said last night, "He has been raised; he is not here." It's His appearances that matter. Over the next fifty days we'll hear about all of His appearances. He'll appear to Mary Magdalene in the garden; to the disciples on the road to Emmaus; to the Apostles in the upper room; to doubting Thomas; to the fishermen in Galilee; and to countless other witnesses. Finally, His Holy Spirit will come upon them at Pentecost..

As we listen to these witnesses we'll have to examine our own belief. After all, St. Paul said that "if Christ is not risen, our faith is in vain." In other word, if Christ is not risen, there will be no resurrection for us. However, maybe some of us feel like we're in the same position as Peter. Maybe doubts have crept in, maybe we're too secure, maybe something has caused us to deny our Lord and turn our backs on Him.

The only way to rekindle our faith is to act differently. We have to realize that like the Apostles we are called to be witnesses of the Risen Christ. St. Paul calls us the "yeast" that leavens the dough. In our own little way each of us is called to bring Christ to each other. Last week during the reading of the Passion, our Lord said to Peter;

            Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded

            to sift all of you like wheat,

            but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail;

            and once you have turned back,

            you must strengthen your brothers.

The little Albanian nun who became Mother Teresa did not wait for someone else to pick up that little deserted child in the street and bathe his sores. She saw the Risen Christ in him and in all the others she helped. Did the young Polish priest who became John Paul II ever imagine when he took his first vows that he would bring the Risen Christ to more people than all the previous Popes put together?

The word "Easter" comes from a Germanic goddess of spring. Latin peoples use the word pasqua from the Jewish pasch or Passover. When the Germanic peoples were converted the Church wisely associated the word for Springtime with the feast of the Risen Lord. All around us new life is springing from the dead of winter. And so, as St. Paul says,

            let us celebrate the feast,

            not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness,

            but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

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Reading 1.Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Reading II. Colossians 3: 1-4 or 

1 Corinthians 5: 6b-8

Gospel. John 20: 1-9 (Easter).

Palm Sunday 2018

                                    Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

                                    

Giotto: Entrance into Jerusalem
Scrovegni chapel, Padua

Today's  reading of the Passion of our Lord is the highlight of the Church year. This year we hear St. Mark's account of the Passion. Next year we will hear St. Luke's account and the year after we will have St. Matthew's account. Of course, on Good Friday we always have the Passion according to St. John. Although each of the Evangelists approaches the life of Christ in a different way, they draw very close to each other when it comes to the Passion.

The narrative of the Passion seems like a great drama with a cast of characters we can all identify with. If we could be in the drama, what role would we play? Would we be like the disciples who fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane? Or would we be part of the crowd who mocked and taunted Jesus only a short time after cheering Him and waiving palm branches.

Maybe we would like a more important role. We could be the woman who anointed Our Lord with precious oil. We could be Pontius Pilate who condemned Jesus, or Peter who denied Him, or even Judas who betrayed Him. Still, it is clear from today's readings that we are supposed to play the part of Jesus, Himself. The Church has always recognized that in His Passion and Death our Lord gave us an example, which we must follow. Many times during His time on Earth Jesus said, "Follow Me." Many times He urged us to take up our cross and follow Him.

Today's readings show that it is through the practice of humility and self sacrifice that we come to follow the Lord.  At the Last Supper Jesus told the disciples that He would give up His body and blood for us all, and that they should share in this sacrifice. When He asks us at every Mass to eat His Body and drink His Blood, he is also asking us to share in His sacrifice on Calvary.

Today's first reading is about humility and self-sacrifice.

            I gave my back to those who beat me,

            my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;

            my face I did not shield

            from buffets and spitting.

St. Paul in the letter to the Philippians says that Jesus "humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

This is the point of all of our little sacrifices during Lent. Everything that we gave up or did was to remind ourselves that we do not live just for ourselves.  Humility means giving up our own pride and ambition for the sake of others. Didn't our Lord say that we must deny ourselves in order to save ourselves? That we must lose our life in order to find it?

Our Lord was a great teacher but the Passion shows us that He taught by example.

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Reading 1. Isaiah 50: 4-7

Reading II. Philippians 2: 6-11

Gospel. Mark 14: 1—15:47 (the Passion).

The Grain of Wheat

                                    5th Sunday of Lent

                              

Today’s first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah refers to a new covenant between the Lord and his people. We are all familiar with the Old Covenant. It was written on stone tablets and we still refer to it as the Ten Commandments. You know, you shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not bear false witness, or you shall not covet your neighbor’s goods to name just a few.  

Writing 600 years before the time of Christ, the Prophet pointed out that the people had repeatedly broken or ignored the agreement they had made. However, they will get another chance but this time the covenant will not be written on stone but on our very hearts. Heart is, of course, a symbol or metaphor for our souls, or our whole being, to put it in modern terms.

The way of the Lord will be in us as if it was part of our genetic makeup.

I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts… No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the Lord. All, from the least to the greatest, shall know me…

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It will form our conscience and no one can say that they can’t distinguish right from wrong. We can, however, refuse to listen to our hearts or darken them to the point where we think we can get away with anything. Today’s responsorial psalm asks,

 Create a clean heart in me, O God.

So, what is the nature of this new covenant? It is clear from the teachings of Jesus that it is built upon the old covenant but goes much further. Its commands no longer apply to members of your own family, tribe, or nation. Moreover, the understanding of the commandments goes much deeper. Not only are we to love our neighbor as ourself but also to love our enemies. A clean heart will tell us that anger is not far from killing, or that lustful thoughts are not that different from adultery.

We know that when the Jews of the time of Christ heard Jesus expound on the nature of the new covenant, and on their blindness to its real teaching, they reacted bitterly. We shouldn’t look back and blame them, however, because most of us today find it as difficult to see or hear the message. We don’t like to talk about the seven deadly sins anymore but that doesn’t mean they have gone away in our enlightened age. Is our world free of pride, lust, gluttony, avarice, anger, envy, and sloth? 

In today’s gospel St. John gives us the reason why Jesus had to die on the Cross. It’s as it his enlightened teaching and parables were not enough to convince. Even the healings and incredible miracles were not enough to convince people then and now. He came to sacrifice himself to save us from ourselves by showing us that the sacrificing of our own selves was the way to true happiness.

"Amen, amen, I say to you,

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,

It remains just a grain of wheat,

But if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it,

And whoever hates his life in this world

Will preserve it for eternal life."

I’m not saying that we have to die on a cross like the poor martyrs still being persecuted in many parts of the world today. But a clean heart will tell us that we have to give up selfishness and self-centeredness even if it only means being more considerate of the person right next to us. It is not just the vocation of priests and nuns to give up their own desires and ambitions for the sake of others; it is the vocation of each one of us.

Paradoxically, Jesus tells us that only when we do so, will we truly find our own self. In today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews we see that the suffering of Jesus on the Cross culminated in his Resurrection. Our own little sacrifices during Lent should remind us of all the sacrifices that we have been called to make in our lives. As we approach Holy Week, we should reflect on the real possibility that we have been carrying the Cross along with Jesus on our own journey through life.

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Reading 1. Jeremiah 31: 31-34

Reading II. Hebrews 5: 7-9

Gospel. John 12: 20-33 (a grain of wheat)