As we continue through the readings for Easter we will be given glimpses of encounters with the risen Jesus. This is good news for us, as the risen Jesus of the Gospels is the same Jesus who we have the opportunity to encounter each day.

In today’s Gospel, Mary does not return with Peter and John as they head back home after having observed the empty tomb. Mary stayed by the side of the tomb and wept. Mary then peered into the tomb and witnessed two angels. As she turned back she saw who she believed to be the gardener. She questioned the man as to the whereabouts of Jesus. Mary sought a rational reason for where the dead body had gone. When the man did not immediately answer, she must have turned away again, because Jesus said to her, “Mary” (Jn 20:16)!

Upon hearing her name, Mary Magdalene recognized Jesus.

Peter and John left the empty tomb. We do not know why. Maybe they wanted to confirm to the other disciples that Mary was correct about the empty tomb? Mary could have gone back also, but something impelled her to stay. It could have been the sorrow that brought her to tears, it could have been her dedication and faithfulness to Jesus to find him, to anoint him as she had come to do that first early Easter morning, it could have been that she did not know what to do next, or there was a sense beyond her understanding that compelled her to stay. Shortly thereafter, Jesus came to her, she recognized him not at first, but when he called her by name. When she called him “Rabbouni”, Jesus asked her to, “Stop holding on to me”.

What was Mary holding on to? Though mistaking him for the gardener at first she came to recognize that he had indeed come back to life. But in calling Jesus Rabbouni, teacher or master, Mary was going back to the relationship she had with him before. Jesus was transfigured, he was different than he was before. Jesus actualized the perfection of his humanity, while still retaining the fullness of his divinity. Though the fullness of his mission would not be complete until he returned back to the Father at his Ascension.

There was not only a newness to the appearance of the resurrected Jesus, but his relationship with his followers would also be transformed. He was not coming back to avenge those who betrayed him. When Jesus charged Mary to return, she was to convey the message he gave her to his “brothers”. He no longer was calling them his disciples but his brothers. As Jesus would return to the Father, he would unleash the power of that divine communion of love unto his new brothers and sisters who believed in him through the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are heirs to the same promise that Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, shared with the Twelve. Jesus has become the firstborn of the new creation and through our baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we participate in his death and resurrection as well, so to share in Jesus’ life and love that he shares with his Father. We too are his brothers and sisters, we too are being configured and transformed into the Body of Christ. Through our conforming to his Body, we too are being perfected, divinized, such that our image and likeness to God are being restored. This is why we have a cause for joy and celebration. This is why, like Mary, we are called to, “Go and announce the Good News of the Resurrection” in our everyday lives! Alleluia!!!

Painting: accessed online, but unfortunately, not able to find the artist’s name.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were bewildered from their encounter with the angel and the empty tomb. As they ran to get the news to the disciples, they were also dealing with mixed emotions, feeling both “fearful yet overjoyed,” (Mt 28:8) when in the midst of their travel they were greeted by Jesus. Jesus assured them and then sent them to, “tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Mt 28:10). Off the pair went to share the message that Jesus had risen!

At the same time, some of the guards who witnessed the event at the tomb took a different way and headed into the city to meet with the chief priests. They relayed the incident about the earthquake and the angel appearing to them and the two women. After deliberating, the chief priests and the elders paid the guards a large sum to perpetuate the tale that his disciples took Jesus away.

Who would be believed, the two women or the guards? Apparently both! Mary Magdalene and the other Mary fulfilled their first apostolic role and passed on Jesus’ message to his disciples for them to meet him in Galilee. Galilee was where the public ministry of Jesus began. They would all go back to the beginning. The tale spread by the guards would also be believed, because by the time of the writing of the Gospel of Matthew, the community, to which he wrote, were aware that, “this story has circulated among the Jews to the present day” (Mt 28:15).

Did Jesus really rise again from the dead as the angel, Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary claim or was this an elaborate plot by the disciples of Jesus to stage his resurrection, as the guards portrayed? How we answer these questions ought to make a difference in our lives. If we say yes, that we believe in Jesus and that he rose again, do we live our lives any differently than those who say they don’t believe?

We, as followers of Jesus who rose again, are to be like the angel and each Mary. We are to be an Alleluia people, allowing the risen Christ to proclaim through us to those facing death the promise of hope and life; to those living in the darkness of sin and addiction the inviting light of a new direction; to those who are weak and indifferent our presence and accompaniment. Each day, during this Easter Season, may we become less so that the risen Jesus, who is our Way, our Truth, and our Life, becomes more.

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Photo credit: Il Ragazo from http://www.cathopic.com

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 13, 2020

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting” (1 Cor 15:55)? Jesus has conquered death and given us new life in him! Alleluia. These are words of hope and truth for me as I celebrate my first Easter without JoAnn, believing she is now with the angels and the saints, celebrating with and praying for us.

Thank you to those of you who have joined me on the spiritual steppingstones journey and Caring Bridge this past year. I appreciate all your prayers, caring, and support. Be assured of my daily prayers for your intentions – whether you have let me know you have sent prayers or have been reading along or not!

Let us continue to keep each other in prayer during this unprecedented time of pandemic. May we continue to pray for healing and protection for all, for those who are most vulnerable, as well as for those who are caring for us, doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, and those in service-related fields. May we remember those who have died, are dying or will lose their lives because of this virus and pray that they may rise with Jesus.

Happy Easter from my family to yours!

Photo: After the Easter Vigil last year – thank you Giovanna for taking the picture!

Mary of Magdala comes to the tomb during the wee hours of the morning while it is still dark and finds the stone rolled away. She runs to Peter and John to share with them the news, that: “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him” (Jn 20:2). Peter and John retrace the steps of Mary, running to find the tomb empty as well. All three are stunned because “they did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead” (Jn 20:9).

How can we blame them? Do we fully understand the reality and fact that Jesus has risen from the dead? There is conjecture today that Jesus did not really die, but woke up three days later, aching all over from the excruciating effects of the crucifixion. Others say that the accounts of the resurrection were mass hallucinations, or that the Gospel accounts of Jesus rising from the dead are a mere myth. These propositions do not stand up to the fact that Jesus, fully God and fully man died, entered death, and conquered it. In so doing he entered into a new life, a new reality. Jesus, in becoming the firstborn of the dead, was transfigured from our three-dimensional reality that we all know and experience, such that he now resonates at a higher pitch, in a higher dimensional reality. Jesus is the firstborn of a new creation!

All of human history changed in that tomb because of this new fact of the resurrection of Jesus. How this has happened is indeed a mystery, but in our seeking understanding, we will fall short and be frustrated if we only approach the mystery of God in the same way that we tackle a problem to be solved. The Apostles and disciples of Jesus struggled to find meaning and understanding about how Jesus crucified was now gone from the tomb. They came to understand the Mystery of the Resurrection, the same way that they would the mystery that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. This happened when they encountered Jesus again. The Mystery of the Resurrection is not a problem to be solved, but a person to encounter, a relationship to embrace, as it was for the Apostles and is so for each of us.

Faith seeking understanding is grounded in having an encounter with a person, Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Pope Francis writes: “The joy of the Gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness” (Francis, 9).

Easter Sunday is the day where this joy first truly became possible, yet this Easter, the greater majority of Catholics are not able to celebrate the Mass in person side by side in pews overflowing with people. They are not able to dip their fingers into the baptismal or holy water font. Not being able to do this simple act that we may have taken for granted for years might give us a chance to reflect on why we were ever doing it in the first place? We did so to recall our baptism when we entered into the death and new life of Jesus, to renew the vows of our baptism.

Each day may we renew our commitment to open our hearts and minds to Jesus who is the Christ, who has truly risen – Alleluia, Alleluia!!!

We are an alleluia people, meaning that even in our trials, loneliness, confusion, suffering, sin, and state of quarantine, we are a people endowed with hope. We have not only been loved into existence, but we have also been loved into the promise of eternity, where suffering and death are no more! A promise I believe even more strongly in this Easter, for it is my first in twenty-three years without JoAnn. I believe though that she is now celebrating along with Mary and the saints. She is now where we will one day be rejoicing with her because Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed, the death he conquered, and the resurrection we celebrate today! Alleluia!

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Photo: Christ the Redeemer statue – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Francis. Evangelii Gaudium, Joy of the Gospel, Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us Press, 2013.

Link for Mass readings for Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020

I am straying a bit from my normal daily reflection of the Gospel reading of the day. I have been most recently sending these reflections out the night before to be read during the morning, or anytime anyone cares to read them. I thank those of you who choose to take the time to do so.

The readings for Saturday are the Easter Vigil readings, thus the glorious Easter readings of which we will have a joyous fifty days to bask in them. What I would like to do for this Saturday’s readings is ponder an incident that is not often mentioned too much before the Resurrection accounts that we will begin Sunday. To do so, I will borrow from the last lines of the readings from Good Friday.

“Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by” (Jn 19:41-42).

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus courageously took the body of Jesus and placed him in the tomb. Both of these men were followers of Jesus in secret as John earlier stated about Joseph and Nicodemus we know met with Jesus under the cover of night (cf  Jn 3:1-20). Word of being seen preparing and caring for the body of the one condemned as a blasphemer would certainly get back to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council, who had found Jesus guilty.

These two men were in a position to remain underground, after all, this one who proclaimed that he was the Son of God died on the cross. What kind of messiah could he really be? They could have just walked away like Cleopas and the other disciple heading toward Damascus, away from Jerusalem. Yet, Joseph and Nicodemus were both in a position to do something and they did. They came from the shadows and respected the body of the man who received them on their terms in secret. No longer giving into what held them back, they saw something in the death of Jesus that moved them such that they could no longer remain on the sidelines.

This Holy Saturday, as we remember Jesus in the tomb, let it not just be another Saturday. Let us spend some time in quiet reflection, pondering how we too are like Joseph and Nicodemus, how we too feel a draw to the light of Jesus, but we hold back and only reach out under the cover of night or in secret.

Let us imagine ourselves going up to Joseph and Nicodemus and sitting with them after they have left Jesus in the tomb and strike up a conversation asking them what changed. How did they come from a place of secret inquiry to public witness when the cost was so high to each of them. As we listen to their answer, may we then allow ourselves to be guided by them to be able to admit why we hold back, why we don’t give more of our lives in service of Jesus through one another, why don’t we love without counting the cost? What can we leave at the tomb so to be better disciples of Jesus this Easter Season?

Painting: The Entombment of Christ – Caravaggio, 1603-1604

Jesus was betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, tried, scourged, and beaten. Jesus carried his cross, was crucified, and with his words, “It is finished” (Jn 19:30), Jesus died. The gift of a crucifix is that it is an icon of the moment of the death of Jesus. Having a crucifix is not a morbid fascination with death, nor a rejection of his resurrection. The crucifix is not a magic talisman, but a sacramental, that helps us to remember the reality of what the Son of God, who became one with us, did. Jesus embraced humanity all the way even unto his death, giving his life for us that we might have the opportunity to be born again, to be one with him, to be deified, and live with him forever. Without the crucifixion, there would have been no resurrection.

On this Good Friday, let us spend time in venerating Jesus on the Cross, meditating before a crucifix, before this expression of the most intimate act of Love ever expressed in human history. This icon expresses the wonderful bestowal of the grace of God upon humanity, in that it reminds us that we have a God who has experienced and understands betrayal, loss, suffering, pain, anguish, and even death. Jesus is relevant to our lives because he meets us in the chaos and suffering of our lives.

In making time to be still and look upon the cross upon which he died, seeing his body slumped and lifeless, we can call to mind the times we have been betrayed, the struggles, trials, pains, sorrows, and losses that we have or are enduring right now. Through any of the above, with each conflict or experience of injustice, we can be comforted in knowing that Jesus understands because he has experienced them all.

Making time to gaze upon the crucifix in times of fear, anxiety, temptation or indecision, can give us the strength and courage to endure or go through what lies before us. Jesus with his arms outstretched represents for us his eternal welcome, that he loves us more than we can ever mess up, that he does not define us by our sin or worst mistakes, and that he loves us more than we can ever imagine.

When we resist running from our trials, our suffering, and our pain, and instead face them, we will find that Jesus is waiting for us with his arms outstretched and wide open, just as he did on the Cross. Jesus meets us in the depths of the whirlwind of our deepest hurts, struggles, and confusion, as well as when and where we need him most.

Being with JoAnn during her final month was like watching a crucifixion. She continued to lose weight, yet never lost her beauty or her grace, because she radiated love for me, our children, and any of those who helped to care for her in her final days. What sustained me was her love, my willingness to be there for her instead of focus on myself, and Jesus holding each of us up and drawing us closer together.

This is why we venerate Jesus on the cross today, this is why today is Good Friday, so we remember that death does not have the final word, for Jesus conquered death. This is why we can say with St. Paul, “Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting” (1 Cor 15:55). Jesus did not leave us as orphans when he died on the Cross. Jesus conquered death for us and became the firstborn of the new creation. We are not alone. Jesus is present with us in whatever we may be dealing with, now, always, and forever.

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Photo: JoAnn and I in LA outside the USC Keck Cancer center taking another step on our way of the Cross last June.

Link for the Mass readings for Good Friday, April 10, 2020

One of the key focal points of the last supper narrative in the Gospel of John is Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Washing feet was certainly a custom in the ancient Near East, for either people walked barefoot or wore sandals. In either event, people’s feet became quite sore and dirty getting from here to there. Washing of the feet was a hospitable way to welcome guests into one’s home, though this action was the most menial of tasks and often performed by slaves or servants.

After washing his disciples’ feet and sitting down, Jesus said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you? You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am. If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:13-14). Jesus is sharing with those who will carry on his message and ministry that they are not to feel so high and mighty in their being called to follow him. The Apostles, those who are sent by Jesus, are to look at their ministry as seeking how best to serve others, not seeking to be served themselves.

Traditionally, this evening at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, select members of the parish would have come to have a foot washed by the priests, following the model set by Jesus washing his disciples’ feet. This would remind all of us, as members of the Church that we are all an integral part of the Body of Christ. This year because of the quarantine, there will be no washing of the feet. Yet the actions of Jesus that have been and will be proclaimed in the Gospel still ring as true as any bell. We are at our best when we are willing to serve one another, support one another, and lift one another up. This is to be true when all is well and rosy, in addition to when conflict and challenges arise in the messiness of our daily lives.

Pope Francis, in his homily this past Sunday, April 5, highlighted this same point: “Dear brothers and sisters, what can we do in comparison with God, who served us even to the point of being betrayed and abandoned? We can refuse to betray him for whom we were created, and not abandon what really matters in our lives. We were put in this world to love him and our neighbors. Everything else passes away, only this remains. The tragedy we are experiencing summons us to take seriously the things that are serious, and not to be caught up in those that matter less; to rediscover that life is of no use if not used to serve others. For life is measured by love.”

We best exemplify Jesus’ washing of the feet when we resist the allure and temptation of pride because our life is not about us. We are not the center of the universe. We need to walk away from the table presenting a buffet of the false substitutes for God: pleasure, wealth, fame and power. We are not to curve in upon ourselves, even during this time of social distancing. Jesus has not abandoned us and he never tires of loving, forgiving, and serving us. We are called to do the same to love and serve one another.

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Pope Francis delivering his Palm Sunday homily last Sunday, April 5. – Photo credit Reuters

Link for the Mass readings for Holy Thursday, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, April 9, 2020

As Jesus and his companions shared the Passover, Jesus offered this morsel, “One of you will betray me” (Mt 26:21). I am sure that this bitter herb shifted the mood of the meal. Each apostle asked if they were the one to betray him. There is no recorded response, though the assumption is that Jesus says no to each, except for one.

A unique feature about this exchange was that each of the disciples in asking Jesus if they would betray him prefaced their request by calling him, Lord. In doing so, they acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah. When Judas addressed Jesus he called him Rabbi. He did not acknowledge Jesus as his Lord. Could this be a tell regarding why Judas was willing to turn Jesus over because he did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah, that he too believed Jesus to be a blasphemer?

Jesus’ response to Judas was an affirmation of truth: “You have said so” (Mt 26:25).

Jesus offered this affirmative response two other times, confirming each time the truth presented to him by Caiaphas that he was the Messiah and then later with Pilate when he asked Jesus if he was the king of the Jews. In answering in the affirmative to Judas, was Jesus giving him the opportunity to look at himself in the mirror? Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, he did not have to make this point known. Judas could have remained silent, yet he asked, as did the others who went before him. Could he have been contemplating shifting his prior determination of betrayal? Was Jesus inviting Judas to acknowledge what he had agreed to do, confess, change course, and ask for forgiveness?

Judas chose his course of action to betray Jesus, and unfortunately, even with Jesus’ intervention, Judas was not able or willing to stop what he had started. Judas fulfilled his agreement with the chief priests to turn him over. Often we set a similar course of action and even when Jesus makes an attempt to intercede on our behalf, we do not slow down enough to hear, that is one of the dangers of not making time regularly to be still, to pray for God’s discernment.

God speaks to us in the silence of our heart but too often we are focused on other things to be able to hear. We can allow fear, anxiety, pride, prejudice, or anger to be our guide. We can be too blind to see or too determined to do it our own way, regardless of the consequences. Our interpretation of our experience may be that the momentum is already too strong to turn around. That it is too late to change course.

We need to know in the depth of our being, that it is never too late to change course, to make amends, to repent, and to turn back to God. The first step is being willing to be still or aware enough to hear or see his guidance. The second step is to be willing to look in the mirror and see what Jesus presents to us, accept what we see, and then seek his forgiveness. Yet, sometimes we feel we are digging ourselves into a hole that we can’t escape from. The answer is that we need to just stop digging, put the shovel down. Jesus will meet us in the deepest of the holes we have dug and lift us out.

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Photo: A still point, hiking in Torrey Pines, CA 2014 visit

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, April 8, 2020

The Gospel reading for today from John is painful on two fronts. First, Jesus said to Judas, “What you are going to do, do quickly” (Jn 13:27). Did their eyes meet at that moment, was there an unspoken appeal from Jesus to Judas, or had that already been settled in Jesus’ full surrender in the Garden of Gethsemane? Judas aligned himself with Satan and set his course, and removed himself from Jesus and his companions and it was night.

The second front appears at the end of today’s reading. Despite Peter’s apparent full endorsement of Jesus and promise to even lay his life down for him, Jesus predicted that “the cock will not crow until” Peter will deny him “three times” (Jn 13:38). The momentum of utter betrayal builds. Judas will agree to turn Jesus over for thirty pieces of silver. He will betray the Son of God, yet in so doing, Judas will play his part in salvation history.

Judas will set in motion Jesus’ arrest that will culminate in his crucifixion. Peter will come to deny Jesus three times as Jesus predicted. I cannot think of any experience worse than the pain of betrayal. Yet, how is it that we betray Jesus each day? Remember what he taught us, “What you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me” (Mt 25:45). Who and how have we betrayed Jesus in our lives? This is an important question to ask, and what is even more important is that we not only answer it honestly but seek forgiveness and resist the temptation of isolating ourselves in our sin and pride.

Judas separated himself, cut himself off from Jesus and his companions. He came to realize his sin, though he did not seek forgiveness, but isolated himself further and in his despair took his life. Peter, also regretted his sin, his cowardice, he wept when he heard the cock crow, but he also trusted, and later affirmed his love for Jesus three times, atoning for his three denials and was forgiven.

This Holy Week we can choose to walk the path of Judas or Peter. With each humble step may we come to see how our spirits are often willing but our bodies are weak, that we have been wounded by others and acted in kind, so falling short of who God has called us to be in what we have done and what we have failed to do.

Through our awareness of our unworthiness though, may we resist isolating and beating ourselves up, but instead recognize that Jesus has not come for those who are worthy, but for those who are willing to be forgiven and to be healed. In this way, we can learn from Peter, that we have betrayed Jesus also, but he is willing to forgive us too so that we will become wounded healers as well!

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Painting: Denial of St Peter by Caravaggio, 1610

Link for the Mass reading for Tuesday, April 7, 2020

“Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil” (Jn 12:3). This is indeed some gift that Mary shares with Jesus, though Judas’ critical response showed that he missed the point of her offering, which went well beyond the material cost of the perfume. Mary even exceeded the gesture of hospitality by going beyond washing Jesus’ feet and anointing them as well. This act of caring could have been a bestowal of appreciation and gratefulness toward Jesus who brought Lazarus, her brother, back to life, but it was even more than that.

Jesus’ correction of Judas, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial” (Jn 12:7), we may intuit to be the best source for interpreting Mary’s act. Mary comprehended better than any of the Apostles that Jesus’ death was imminent. Mary’s washing the feet of Jesus, anointing them, and drying them with her hair was a gift of love, of giving herself in service to the Son of God. This exchange mirrors the communion between God the Father, God the Son, and the love shared between them, God the Holy Spirit. Mary follows the will of the Father and plays her part in salvation history.

We do not know how Mary came to possess this precious oil, but what we do know is much more important. She did not grasp or cling to the oil, she did not count the cost and just pour out a little bit. When she felt moved to pour the costly nard and anoint the feet of Jesus she freely poured all the perfume out in an act of love to serve the need of Jesus by anointing him for his death and burial. Even Peter, James, and John would not able to stay awake in the garden with Jesus in his time of need.

What is something that we may hold as precious that God may be calling us to give up, to let go of, not just for the sake of doing so, but in service to Jesus? The path to holiness and sanctity, is coming to a place in our lives in which we can let go of that which we are attached to, so to hear clearly the will of God, know what is required of us, and give freely in love and service without counting the cost, to be as St. Mother Teresa has said, just a pencil in God’s hand.

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Painting: Mary anointing the feet of Jesus

Link for the Mass reading for Monday, April 6, 2020