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May we be instruments of joy!

“But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (Jn 16:22). Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for his horrific death by offering hope that he will see them again. That he will see them again is not a typo. We can read about the exchanges between Jesus and his risen disciples. Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdalene at the tomb, he appeared to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus, and he appeared to the ten and then the eleven with Thomas. Jesus sought out those he commissioned to proclaim his Gospel message after his resurrection, just as he had done during his ministry before his crucifixion.

When Jesus did appear to them again, at the moment of recognition, there was wonder and great joy! It is hard for us to even imagine these early resurrection accounts. The disciples witnessed his brutal death, lived in fear because of the very real possibility of their own persecution and similar death, and then, they encountered the risen Jesus. St Paul would also shortly thereafter encounter Jesus on a different road, the one to Damascus en route to continue his persecution of the followers of Jesus. All of their hearts rejoiced and it was this joy that they proclaimed with boldness. The Apostles, like Jesus, led with joy and love to embark on their evangelical missions. They lived a difficult and challenging life that for many ended in their own brutal deaths, yet their joy carried them through their suffering, death, and into eternity.

Life is hard, even in the best of circumstances. There is evil present in this world, not of God’s creation, because all that he has created is good. Through the enemy’s corruption of the good that God has created, bad things happen to good people, and good people do bad things. Suffering, disease, violence, natural disasters, division, corruption, hatred, and dehumanization abound. It can be easy to succumb to the overwhelming tide of negativity and assume a mindset of cynicism, detachment, denial, defensiveness, and/or indifference. Yet this is not the response Jesus modeled nor has infused his followers through the ages with.

Our response to the evil and darkness of this world is to be bearers of the joy of Jesus! We are to be as lights shining in the darkness, providing hope for those in despair, accompanying those in their struggles, and being willing to receive help when we ourselves are in need. We cannot do any of this alone and on our own but it can be done in participation with Jesus and each other. The Apostles, disciples, and saints, who have gone before us, have shown us that it is possible to be beacons of hope in very dark places.

Pope Francis reminds us about our mission in The Joy of the Gospel (276): “However dark things are, goodness always re-emerges and spreads. Each day in our world beauty is born anew, it rises transformed through the storms of history. Values always tend to reappear under new guises, and human beings have arisen time after time from situations that seemed doomed. Such is the power of the resurrection, and all who evangelize are instruments of that power.”

With each breath, we are invited to trust that Jesus is with us, closer than we are to ourselves, filling us with his love and joy. No one can take this joy away from us, except us, if we are unwilling to share it. Let us choose to allow the light and the joy of the Holy Spirit’s love to radiate through us, no matter how small or insignificant an act of kindness it may seem. When we do so, the darkness in our realm of influence will begin to fade away.

Photo: With my brothers in our final days of seminary. Please pray for us that we may continue to live, speak, and spread the joy of the Gospel!

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, May 30, 2025

Knowing Jesus helps us to experience our grief and our grief will become joy!

Jesus continues his farewell discourse and appears to be speaking in riddles: “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me” (Jn 16:16). We who know what is coming for Jesus understand what Jesus is talking about, but for the disciples, not so much. Jesus will be crucified and rise again from the dead. Jesus then goes on to explain further that: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy” (Jn 16:20). Jesus is speaking about the same two points of reference, his Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Yet, his “explanation”, would not help to clarify for his disciples. This clarification would only come when the Comforter comes, when the Holy Spirit, sent by Jesus would come to reveal to them the truth of Jesus after they experienced his resurrection, time with them, and then ascension. First, they would all have to endure with Jesus his passion, suffering, and death on the cross.

The most brutal sign of oppression during the reign of the Roman Empire was the cross. It was a weapon of terror, torture, an extreme case of punitive justice or capital punishment, and in actuality state-sanctioned terrorism. The person would be stripped of all their clothing, would be nailed by the wrists, or palms, and wrists tied, nailed by the feet, and then lifted up for public display. Then would begin their humiliation, dehumanization, and long agonizing death; a sign for anyone to think twice about challenging the authority of Rome.

The disciples wept and mourned, their hopes dashed, they were stunned, ashamed, and demoralized, while others rejoiced as Jesus and the two others beside him were lifted up. The centurions flaunted their authority and prowess. Others gathered around and jeered at who they believed to be another false prophet dying on Golgotha, the hill of the skull, where so many had gone before. Where other hopes and dreams had been crushed under Roman dominance and oppression.

Jesus was sometimes described as being hung on a tree in some letters of the New Testament because writing the word, cross, was still too raw and vivid in people’s minds. This is also why there are no depictions of Jesus on the cross before the year 200 AD, and the earliest known believed to be the Alexamenos graffito was a mocking not complementary etching of Jesus on the cross. Yet, this was not the final chapter. The grief of the Apostles would turn to joy when Jesus conquered death and rose again. The cross, this symbol of torture, would become a sign of victory over death and the grave.

Yet, one centurion got it right: “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mk 15:39)! For many Christians today, the Crucifix and Cross are no longer a sign of oppression and fear but are displayed as a sign of the triumph and victory that Jesus has won for us. They are not magic talismans, but they are sacramental signs, concrete objects that are tangible, that we can see, wear, and hold on to. Not because of some macabre fascination with death but for the purpose of reminding us that we have a God who understands our humanity because he lived life as we do. He suffered with us in our suffering and experienced pain as we do.

Jesus cried as we cry, he laughed as we laugh, and he enjoyed table fellowship with friends as well as those on the peripheries. Jesus faced rejection, misunderstanding, trials, and tribulations, he overcame conflict and rejection, he died as we will die, yet his death was not the end. Jesus conquered death, so that through our participation in his life and resurrection we have the opportunity to rise again in Christ as well.

We are still in the Easter Season, and are drawing closer to celebrating the Solemnity of the Ascension when Jesus returns to the Father. It may seem odd, but meditating upon a crucifix is a good practice not just In Lent but anytime, even in Easter, because we are reminded of what Jesus went through and what he overcame. When we are going through a particularly rough patch, we can hold the crucifix, feel the wood, allow our gaze to fall upon the face and wounded body of our Lord. When we allow him, Jesus will embrace us with his arms outstretched to ease our suffering and pain, and also help us to overcome as he did.

Jesus is and continues to be present with us, closer even than the crucifix we hold or look upon. Even if we do not feel Jesus present, he is! Even when we pray daily and feel nothing is happening, Jesus is close, closer to us than we are to ourselves. The apostles experienced the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, their time together after the resurrection and up to his ascension, and then his leaving them again. It was not until the Holy Spirit was sent to them though that they truly got it, and saw the truth of who Jesus is. Then looking back they were able to connect the dots. Their grief became joy, and so can our’s.

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Photo: We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 29, 2025

The one who has come down from heaven, has come to share the love of God with us.

Jesus continued to teach Nicodemus and with these words, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man” (Jn 3:13). Jesus expressed the truth about who he is, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He called himself the Son of Man back in the first chapter when he described how angels will be ascending and descending on him, how in his very person, he opens up heaven for humanity (John 1:51). Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of man. From all eternity and for all eternity the Son is begotten not made. The Son has always existed with the Father and at the appropriate time, the Father sent his Son to be one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity.

We have been loved into existence, along with all of creation, by the outpouring of the love shared between God the Father and God the Son, who is God the Holy Spirit. The Son came to invite us back to restore our relationship with his Father, to show us where we have strayed, so that we may correct the course of our journey and return back to who we have been created to be. We have been created to be in communion, in an intimate relationship with God and one another.

Jesus, the Son of God became incarnate, took on flesh, and entered into our human condition that we would be deified, transformed into the very likeness of God by our participation in the life of Christ. This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus that we are to be born from above because through our baptism we are born again as  daughters and sons of God the Father. The one who has come down from heaven has, as St Irenaeus wrote, “opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.”

It is important to make time each day to savor the truth that we have been loved into existence. As we do so, we will realize that our lives are gifts from God and we have been created to receive God’s love and love others in return. During these present, uncertain times, we are given an opportunity to be more aware of what is important to us as well as Who and where our true stability lies. It is in times like these that we are given a chance to appreciate and grow closer to God, our family and friends, as well as begin to be more aware of those who are in dire need around us.

The gift of all life is precious. May we resist taking this precious gift for granted, and love others today in our own special and unique way. Jesus has loved us from the beginning, more than we can ever imagine and more than we can ever mess up! Just as the sun shines on the good and bad alike, so God loves each one of us with a love that is beyond all our understanding. The flow of our lives as disciples is to receive and share the love of God.

Painting: “Jesus Christ with Open Arms Art Print, Radiant Light” from Etsy

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Mary saw, believed, and shared.

Today’s reading from the Gospel of Mark, 16:9-16, is commonly called, “The Longer Ending.” Most ancient manuscripts of Mark end at 16:8. Whether this Gospel ended there or the original ending was lost is not definitively known. Many biblical scholars also recognize in these verses a different writing style, so attribute this longer ending to a different author. This ending recounts that Mary Magdalene and two disciples, presumably the same on the road to Emmaus as recorded in Luke, met the risen Jesus. When both Mary and the this pair share their experiences with the eleven, they are not believed, and then, “later, as the eleven were at table, he [Jesus] appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart”

How many times had Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for being hard of heart? Now he is saying the same to the eleven for not believing the accounts of Mary and the two disciples. We do not have a reason for their unbelief and maybe that is well and good because that gives us the opportunity to ponder for ourselves when has someone brought us a message from Jesus and we responded to them with hard hearts and were unbelieving? Are there certain people we would not believe no matter what good news they had to share with us?

Mary a woman and a woman that has had seven demons exorcized from her would not have been considered a credible witness in the ancient near East. And yet, Jesus chose her to appear to first and to bring the message of his resurrection to the Apostles. And that such an “unreliable” source, Mary’s witness, has been retained in all four gospels has something to also say – Mary encountered Jesus, believed, and shared what she saw and experienced.

Jesus does not belabor the point. His rebuke helped them to see that as his followers their hearts needed to be open to him working through others, as he told John when someone was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, “whoever is not against us is for us” (cf. Mk 9:40). He was also preparing them for those who would believe their testimonies.

Christianity is not a secret sect, it is a universal call and proclamation to be shared with all. We are celebrating this Easter Octave, as we continue to do so each year, the fullness of the Paschal Mystery. The reality that the Son of God became incarnate, entered into our human condition, lived, suffered, and died, conquered death, and rose again, for all of humanity and creation.

This was no mere resuscitation. Jesus conquered death and became the firstborn of the new creation and he invites us to participate in his reign of the kingdom of heaven. He invites us to share in his divinity. This is the Good News he wanted his eleven to proclaim when he said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).

Will we believe the apostolic claim that was first shared by Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles, and has been passed on generation and generation. Will we, like those who have gone before us, hear and believe and share our experiences.  Jesus is calling us to do the same, as brothers and sisters, working in solidarity, not for a select few in our pew, but for all in our realm of influence. We are to build relationships by bringing the light, joy, and love of Jesus to each individual that we meet, person to person. Let us also be open to God working through others and receive his message from them as well! Alleluia!!!

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Photo: Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross with Jesus. Stained glass behind the altar here at Holy Cross.

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, April 26, 2025

Jesus “opened their minds to understand the scriptures.”

Just as Jesus came among Cleopas and the other disciple on their road to Emmaus, Jesus does so again as the pair was recounting their encounter with the risen Jesus. What Jesus does differently in this interaction is that he clarifies that he is not a ghost, that he is not a mere spirit. Jesus said to those gathered around him, “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have” (Lk 24:39). He then requested some fish and he ate and talked with his disciples as he had done during their time together before his crucifixion and resurrection.

We have heard about the resurrection of Jesus, maybe for years, but it is important not to get complacent with the amazing miracle that this is. Also, we need to resist the temptation to diminish in any way the significance of the transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus was and continues to be a hypostatic union, meaning Jesus is one divine person subsisting in two natures, the human and divine.

The humanity of Jesus through his resurrection was fully actualized and transcended the limitations of the three-dimensional realm that he had experienced in his humanity before. This is how he could disappear after making himself known in the breaking of the bread and how he just came through a locked door to interact with his disciples.

The relevance of the bodily resurrection of Jesus for us is that he, in dying and conquering death, is now the reality of who we will one day be. We will be fully actualized as God has created us to be. The good news is that we do not have to wait to go to heaven for this process to begin! The path of becoming fulfilled and whole begins in this life, now, as we accept Jesus as our Lord, Savior, and Redeemer. Jesus in his encounter with his disciples from today’s reading from Luke continues the message he began at the beginning of his ministry, which is one of repentance and forgiveness.

When we were baptized we were born again as an integral part of the new creation given to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through this grace, our humanity has been redeemed. Each day we are to live in humility, calling to mind our sins and repenting daily. As we do so, Jesus will forgive us, and as we receive his mercy and forgiveness we will not only be more and more conformed to him, we are to offer the same to others. Jesus suffered and died for each and every one of us, and he also seeks to live through us. Jesus is the foundation and source of our lives and he is our means to salvation. Jesus has come to show us that we are not in competition with God, but that his Father, our Father, seeks to be in solidarity with us.

One of the best ways to grow in our relationship with God is to rest and renew in God’s word. We are blessed that the Church gives us daily readings that we can read, meditate, and pray with each day. We can also certainly work through one of the Gospels or any book of the Bible at our own pace. God has a word to communicate with each of us when we make the time to be still, breathe, read, and pray.

Jesus opened up the minds of Clopas, his companion, and the Apostles. Jesus will help us to understand the Scriptures and reveal himself to us as well when we are willing to slow down long enough and are committed to doing so daily. Even when we feel tired, let us resist scrolling through social media or surfing channels, which actually don’t help us but overstimulate our nervous system and can get us hyped up on dopamine. I invite you to instead rest and abide in God’s word which will help our minds to come to rest, renew, and help us to discern better how to resist frittering away the precious time that God gives us each day.

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Photo: Let us take a the hands of our risen Lord and allow him to lead us.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, April 24, 2025

May we allow Jesus to set our hearts aflame as we meditate and pray with Scripture.

Despair was creeping in on the pair. The hope of Jesus being the Messiah, the promised one who came to redeem and deliver his people Israel had died a brutal death. Even though Jesus sought to prepare his followers for this reality, they could not conceive or believe that the promised Messiah could die.

Cleopas and his companion are in mourning as they walk along the road to Emmaus. They have left Jerusalem and are commiserating among themselves about their dashed hopes. They were so sure that Jesus was who he said he was, now what were they to do? Even though they had heard about the empty tomb from the women, they did not believe and left Jerusalem. Jesus met them where they were and wove his way into the conversation and their journey.

When the time for them to part arrived, Jesus motioned to them that he was going to continue on. The pair of disciples urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over” (Lk 24:29). Jesus did just that and he revealed himself to them “in the breaking of the bread”(Lk 24:35).

The account of the road to Emmaus has significant relevance for our own spiritual journeys. How many times have we had an inaccurate understanding of Jesus in such a way that we felt let down? Have we domesticated Jesus, or limited who he is, seeing only one aspect of his totality, attempted to shape or conform him into our image and likeness? Have we prayed for something and then that petition or intention was not fulfilled in the way we had hoped? Have we sought Jesus and felt that he wasn’t there for us in our time of struggle or during those times that we felt that we needed guidance?

Jesus is the Son of God and we are not. He meets us as we are, accepts us as we are, walks with us even when we are walking in the wrong direction, but he also calls us to repent and be transformed. He invites us to stretch out beyond our comfort zones, to let go of our safety nets and take off our training wheels. Jesus invites us to nothing less than being transfigured by entering into the participation of Trinitarian Love. This begins when we resist withdrawing into and curving in upon ourselves, and instead are willing to be loved and to be expanded outward beyond ourselves and so to love in return.

We would do well to spend some time each day reading, praying, meditating and contemplating the wonderful daily readings of the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospels. In doing so, may our hearts and minds also be set aflame, like Cleopas and his companion. Once this pair encountered the risen Jesus, they corrected their course immediately and returned to the community of Jerusalem.

As we put into practice what we hear and receive, we too will begin to: see Jesus more active in the midst of our everyday activities, recognize him in our daily events and even in the interruptions, be more inspired to share the sacrificial love we have received from Jesus, and come to realize that Jesus is among us, closer to us than we are to ourselves. We just need to invite him to walk with us. Even when we are heading the wrong way, just like Cleopas and the other disciple did on the road to Emmaus. When we invite Jesus into our lives God will happen and we will come to believe. Alleluia!!!

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Painting: Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, April 23, 2025

“Mary!” – “Rabbouni!”

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 his word proclaimed, the Eucharist, and one another.

Today’s Gospel account from John picks up where Sunday’s account left off. Peter and John have come to the tomb and left. Mary did not return with them after they observed the empty tomb. Mary stayed by the side of the tomb and wept. She then peered into the tomb and witnessed two angels. As she turned back she saw who she believed to be the gardener. Why a gardener? Because the tomb was in a garden. Maybe a hint of Jesus going back to the beginning and restoring what God had planned from the beginning, before the Fall.

Mary questioned the “gardener” as to the whereabouts of Jesus. She was still holding onto the loss and grief of his death and the reason why she most likely came to the tomb in the first place which was to anoint him. To find his body now gone, just added salt to the already wide open wound. When he did not immediately answer, Mary must have turned away, because: Jesus said to her, “Mary” (Jn 20:16)!

Just as a sheep recognizes the voice of its shepherd, upon hearing her name, Mary Magdalene recognized Jesus.

Peter and John left the empty tomb. We do not know why. Maybe they wanted to share with and confirm to the other disciples that Mary was correct about the empty tomb. Mary could have gone back also, but something moved 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 held her in place. 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 had remained fully divine when he became human, and now having taken another major step to complete his Father’s work through his death and resurrection, he assumed the perfection of his humanity. 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 did not return to avenge those who betrayed him. Jesus charged Mary to go to his “brothers”. He no longer called them disciples but his brothers. Once Jesus returned to the Father at his Ascension, he unleashed the power of the divine communion of the love shared between him and his Father, who is the Holy Spirit which his new brothers and sisters received at Pentecost.

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. We too are his brothers and sisters, we too are being configured and transformed into the Body of Christ, and we too are being perfected and divinized, because Jesus shares with each of us the relationship he shares with his Father. This is why we have cause for joy and celebration this Easter Season. This is why, like Mary, we are called to, “Go and announce the Good News of the Resurrection” in our everyday lives! Alleluia!!!

Painting: Are we willing to seek Jesus with the same love as Mary did?

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Who will we believe?

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, who follow 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 the Way, the Truth, and the Life, becomes more.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 21, 2025

Jesus has risen from the tomb, Alleluia!!!

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, and this joy is needed now more than ever. For in each age there has been darkness in the world. Sin, suffering, and death continue to be present in people’s experiences. Yet, because of this day, we celebrate Jesus’ victory over death. We celebrate the truth that the light has overcome the darkness, that death does not have the final answer, Jesus does. We can place our hope in Jesus that no matter what challenges we are experiencing he will guide and accompany us.

We are an alleluia people, meaning that no matter what ails or troubles us, we are a people endowed with hope. We have not only been loved into existence, but we have also been loved in such a way that the promise of eternity is real, where suffering and death are no more! A promise I believe in even more strongly on this Easter. This is not only my fifth Easter without JoAnn but this year, I have also been blessed to have helped and accompanied some forty brothers and sisters in Christ along their journey home to God since becoming a priest.

I continue to hope that JoAnn and they are all now celebrating along with Jesus, Mary, and the saints. I hope they are now where we, hope that we all will one day be, because Jesus has opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed, the death he conquered, and the resurrection we celebrate today! Alleluia!

May God bless each of you and fill you with his joy! Happy Easter!!!

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Photo: Resurrection of Jesus, stain glass window here at Holy Cross.

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

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, April 20, 2025

Mary Magdelene remained, did not run, and encountered Jesus.

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and then reported what he told her (John 20:18).

Mary is the Apostle to the Apostles! Though before she announces this proclamation, the foundation of our faith that Jesus has risen, we find Mary weeping outside the tomb. She is crushed by the death of her teacher and his body appeared to have been taken away. Peter and John, following Mary’s initial lead, ran to the tomb, saw it empty, and “then the disciples returned home” (Jn 20:10).

Mary stayed, she remained still, experiencing her doubt and growing despair.

How many times have our hopes been obliterated, what pain have we or do we endure, what horrors do we continue to witness in our lives, throughout our communities, country, and the world? When Jesus first speaks to Mary, she does not recognize his voice, thinking him to be the gardener. Are we like Mary, that we are so weighed down by our sorrow that we are unable to recognize Jesus in our midst?

Mary’s courage gives us a gift. She was willing to weep, to experience and not run from her sorrow, and deep down held on to hope. Even after seeing the tomb empty, even after Peter and John had left, she still looked in the tomb again. Despite a growing doubt and despair, even after encountering two angels, she did not leave the empty tomb. She remained and Jesus came to her. Mary then recognized the risen Jesus when he called her by name!

May we also not lose the ability to weep and to also hold on to hope. Both are part of our humanity. To lose our capacity to weep is to risk the slide into the temptation of indifference to our own pain and the agony of others. Hope is one of the foundational stones of our faith. Jesus is present in the midst of our pain, suffering, and sin. When we are willing to be still and experience our emotions, resist the temptation to run away from them, or cover them up with many other diversions, while at the same time embracing hope, we too will encounter Jesus.

Jesus is willing to come as close to us as he did with Mary in our trials and/or sorrows, even in the agony we experience at the loss of our loved ones. While at the same time, Jesus is also present in our joys and successes, as he is with the full range of our emotions. After we encounter Jesus, like Mary, may we go boldly forth with joy, to proclaim what he tells us! May we share the stories of our encounters with Jesus so to be a living Bible to others. Our stories shared may be the only Bible someone else ever reads.

Mary of Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles, pray for us!!!

Photo: Praying with Mary, behind the altar at Holy Cross, Vero Beach.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 22, 2024