Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday: A cycle
















The Church uses many different readings on Easter. The Vigil Mass has seven readings from the Old Testament, or Hebrew Scriptures. It uses St. Paul's famous letter to the Romans--"Christ raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over Him:" as well as St. Matthew's account of the angel at the empty tomb, "go quickly and tell his disciples, He has been raised from the dead." In the afternoon Mass we will have St. Luke's 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. We will not find our Lord among the dead. His appearances among the living are what 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 words 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.

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 of the Lord's Passion

Today's reading of the Passion of our Lord is the highlight of the Church year. This year we heard St. Matthew's account of the Passion. Next year we will hear St. Mark's account and the year after we will have St. Luke'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 which we have just heard 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 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. Matthew begins his account of the Passion at the Last Supper. There 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.


Reading 1. Isaiah 50: 4-7
Reading II. Philippians 2: 6-11
Gospel. Matthew 26: 14--27: 66 (the Passion).

The Samaritan Woman

Annibale Carracci: Christ and the Woman at the Well

3rd Sunday of Lent: A cycle

On this third Sunday in our Lenten season the readings all deal with the subject of faith. Even the responsorial Psalm says, "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts." This saying is always associated with the famous incident at Massah and Meribah where the Israelites "grumbled" against Moses and the Lord.

In today's reading although the people have escaped from their captivity in Egypt, they are stranded in the desert and dying of thirst. They complain to Moses:

Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst
with our children and our livestock?

Because of their thirst the people lost their faith in Moses and even in God. They wondered, "Is the Lord in our midst or not?"

In today's gospel account the Samaritan woman fails to see the Lord in her midst even when she comes face to face with Him. In the first two Sundays in Lent the Church presents us with big, dramatic events in the life of Christ--the Temptation in the Desert and the Transfiguration. But today and next week we will encounter two ordinary people like ourselves. This week's story is about a woman going to draw water from a well. Next week's story will be about a blind beggar.

We all should be aware of the social background of today's gospel from St. John. The Samaritans were descendants of Jews who had intermarried with non-Jewish settlers hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. They were regarded by the Jews as traitors and idolaters because they had added some of the foreign beliefs and practices to their Judaism. In addition, it was rare, even scandalous, for a Rabbi to speak to a strange woman in public.

So we can understand the woman's response to Jesus when He asked her for a drink of water. "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" Our Lord replies that if she only understood who was facing her, she would be asking Him for living water. Why can't she believe? So many others when they encounter our Lord seem to instantly believe. Is it because He is a Jew? Is it because He is a man? Is it because He is not what she expects the Messiah to be like? Or maybe, she's like us and just doesn't expect that at this time and this place she can at last find Goodness and Happiness.

Today's excerpt from St. Paul's letter to the Romans is his most famous statement about faith. .

Since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand...

I won't try to add any more words to the millions of words that have been written about "justification by faith." I will only say that St. Paul as a result of his own conversion was sure that all of us, whether we know it or not, have been given the gift of faith by virtue of our Lord's great act of love on the Cross. Faith is not something that we get by reading books, or by praying, or by hearing some persuasive speaker. It is a gift that has been given by God. Indeed, it is only because we have faith that we are able to hope and love in the midst of all the suffering and sorrow in the world.

However, we can deny or lose this great gift of the Spirit of God and when we do, hope and love will disappear from our lives. We can say like the Israelites in the desert, "Is the Lord in our midst or not?"

We don't have to look far to find this attitude in our own time. Whenever some natural disaster occurs, there are always those who ask why God could have allowed it to happen. Some will even go so far as to blame God as if He were responsible. It's even more faith shattering when the disaster strikes close to home in the suffering or death of a loved one.
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I know of a young man who ridiculed his mother's religious faith because of the suffering that her mother, his grandmother, had to endure at the end of her life. "Where was your God when Nana was suffering?" The answer to his question was staring him in the face. His mother had taken care of her mother every day and stayed with her throughout her suffering. She was one of those rare individuals who absolutely refused to place her mother in a nursing home. The young man also must have known that his mother, a Catholic, had also spent countless hours consoling a Jewish friend who had lost a young child. Why couldn't the young man see the Lord in his midst in the faith of his own mother?

Just like our Lord she gave of herself for her mother, her friend, and for her son. As St. Paul said,

But God proves his love for us,
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.


Reading 1. Exodus 17: 3-7
Reading II. Romans 5:1-2, 5-8
Gospel. John 4: 5-42 (the Samaritan woman).

Transfiguration of Christ

Raphael: Transfiguration


2nd Sunday of Lent: A cycle


This year we are in the A cycle of readings which have been employed by the Church ever since the Second Vatican council. In this cycle the first reading for each of the Sundays in Lent marks one of the highlights of the history of the nation of Israel. Last Sunday we had the familiar story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. This Sunday we have the calling of Abraham. Next Sunday, it will be Moses and after that the calling of David.

No one in the history of Israel was more revered by our Lord than Abraham. The highest compliment Jesus can give to someone is to call him a "true son of Abraham." It was Abraham's faith, his willingness to follow the Lord's direction no matter what the cost or sacrifice, that set him apart. In today's reading the Lord tells Abraham to set out into the unknown on a great adventure.

Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk
and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

His mission will be not only to make Israel a great nation, but also to be a "blessing" to "all the communities of the earth."

This reading reminds us of St. Matthew's account today of the Transfiguration of the Lord. Traditionally, the gospel for the first Sunday is Lent is the story of the temptation of our Lord in the desert. In the same way, the Church has always reserved the second Sunday in Lent for the account of the Transfiguration.
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Jesus is far along in His mission when the Transfiguration occurs. He has given the Sermon on the Mount, healed the sick, driven out devils, and raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. In the previous chapter of his gospel Matthew had related how Jesus had fed the multitude with five loaves and two fishes. After this incredible miracle, He asks the disciples, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" Peter answers, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Our Lord commends Peter and says, "thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. But then He reveals the mission of the Christ:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that He must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things...and be put to death, and on the third day rise again.

Characteristically, Peter cannot accept this shocking news and our Lord rebukes him--"get behind me Satan"

Immediately after this prophecy of our Lord's suffering and death, Matthew goes to the scene of the Transfiguration where we get a glimpse of the Resurrection. "Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother. and led them up a high mountain by themselves," just as He would later do in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the mountain,

he was transfigured before them,
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.

Matthew tells us that two other great figures from the history of Israel appeared to Jesus and conversed with Him. In his account St. Luke tells us that Jesus was speaking with them of the "exodus" that He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. The word "exodus" is full of meaning. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery to the promised land--Jesus was about to do the same for us. Older translations say that Jesus was speaking of "his death, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem."

Finally, a cloud envelops them and they hear a voice just as they did at the Baptism of the Lord saying, "This is my beloved Son; ...listen to Him." The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus are linked to the covenant that the Lord made with Abraham and his spiritual descendants. We are the true sons and daughters of Abraham when we hear the Word of the Lord and believe.

Today's second reading is from St. Paul's letter to his disciple, Timothy. Paul is telling Timothy to "bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God." During Lent we should put ourselves in Timothy's place. Paul's words are meant for all of us. .

Right before the Transfiguration, after Jesus had spoken of his crucifixion, He told the disciples and us that we must also bear our cross.

If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For he who would save his life will lose it; but he who loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but ruin or lose himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory..."

This is why our little sacrifices during the forty days of Lent are so meaningful. They are a reminder that it is impossible to stand firm in the Lord without sacrifice of some kind.

Reading 1. Genesis 12: 1-4a
Reading II. 2 Timothy 1:8b-10
Gospel. Matthew 17: 1-9 (Transfiguration)