resurrection

May we embody the boldness and faith of St. Martha.

Enough of waiting. They had sent word to Jesus while Lazarus was dying but still alive, and he did not come. Now Jesus is close to their home, and Martha does not wait for him to come to her but “went to meet him” (Jn 11:20). She went boldly, and most likely, did not hold back any of the full range of her hurt and pain.

Martha’s words expressed her anguish. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn 11:21). She believed in Jesus, knew of his power to heal, but could not understand why he did not come. She could not understand because she could only see the loss of her brother which was right in front of her. He was dead and now in a tomb.

It is true that Jesus came too late to heal his friend, it is also true that he felt the pain of his friends. What Lazarus had to go through in his death and what Martha and Mary were experiencing in their grief. That is why he wept. But Jesus came with a purpose, and what he came to do was beyond their wildest imaginings. Jesus came to restore Lazarus to life.

What is so amazing is that as Martha speaks with Jesus, she is not aware of what Jesus is about to do. And when Jesus asks her if she believes that he is the “resurrection and the life” she says without missing a beat: “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God” (Jn 11:27). Martha believed Jesus was the Christ before the raising of her brother and even while still experiencing the rawness of her grief.

Martha’s boldness and faith give us a model of how to face the challenges in our lives. We are to go to Jesus with them directly and believe that he is the Christ the Son of God. What may at first appear to be hopeless is not. Our loving God and Father will always bring about a greater good, even when it does not seem possible in the moment of our trials and tribulations. And even death, our own or of our loved ones, no longer has the final say, Jesus does. For those of us who die with Christ will rise with him because Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.

Let us begin and continue our day ahead with the boldness and faith of Martha. We, like her, will not be free of the pain and suffering of life this side of heaven but we will not have to go through any of it alone as long as we believe in and turn to Jesus.

————————–

Icon: Close up of Icon of St. Martha, Monastery Icons.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, July 29, 2024

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

Jesus offers us peace, are we willing to receive his peace and put it into practice?

Have you ever wondered why there is so much violence? How many countries, including our own, were founded on taking of lands by force and oppression of aboriginal peoples? Has there ever been a time without war? How many of our youth and citizens die from gun violence and mass murders? So many examples of road rage, domestic abuse, human trafficking, terrorism – foreign and domestic, and the myriad of random acts of violence that occur everyday?

We often hear goodwill speeches, petitions, and intercessions ringing from our pulpits and prayer groups, participate and see people march, and vote for change. There are those working in the trenches, putting their own lives at risk, matching their words and their deeds, yet do any of these efforts make a difference?

Amidst our own experiences, directly and indirectly, and with the constant temptation of cynicism and despair biting at our heels, the words of Jesus are proclaimed in today’s Gospel from John: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (Jn 14:27).

The peace that surpasses all understanding, the peace that is not of this world, has been and continues to be offered to us as a gift. Many have indeed said, “If there is a God, well then, why doesn’t he do anything?” He has. The reality is, the peace that God shares through his Son, is one person at a time. This is why when he rose from the dead, he only appeared to those he chose and not the whole world. Even if he had, these experiences, in time, would have been attributed to mere myth and legend. Jesus must be encountered personally, and his relationship is built with each person in each generation. What we pass on as disciples are our experiences of our relationships with him. Our accounts and presence provide for others the opportunity to open their hearts and minds to receive and enter into their own encounter and relationship with Jesus, to accept the gift of his grace and peace.

This peace that Jesus offers is not some abstract formula and the command to love is not some pie in the sky universal love for all. The acts of peace and love Jesus shares throughout the Gospel are very concrete, individual, and personal. Jesus interacts with people as people, not as numbers. He interacts and directs us to do the same, by encountering, accompanying, and loving a person. The real question is not why isn’t God doing anything? The real question is why have we left the gift of his peace that he has given us unwrapped?

If we want peace, our heart and mind must be open to receive it, to embrace it, and to live it in the most minute of details. Having the room to receive it means that we must be willing to let go of our own weapons of hate, prejudice, cynicism, racism, paternalism, and the like. God created us as beings who are interconnected, which means that what one does affects all, for the sun rises and sets on the good and the bad alike.

If we want peace, we need to be more aware and mindful of our thoughts, words, actions, and even the expressions on our faces. The thoughts that we feed are the ones that bear fruit in our words and deeds. Figuratively and literally, we need to be willing to “beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks” (cf. Isaiah 2:4).

This verse becomes real in our lives when we disagree with someone and resist being disagreeable and respectful of the person. When we make a mistake, we resist beating ourselves up and instead look to learn from our missteps and begin again. We also need to be willing to offer the same understanding and patience to someone who speaks or acts in a way that gets under our skin.

Can we really bring about world peace? In some abstract form, for all people, for all time, no. What we can do, is make a choice to respect the dignity of each person we encounter. We can offer a smile, a random act of kindness, an encouraging ear or word, we can be patient and understanding, even with someone who we have kept at a distance. What we need to decide today, is whether or not we really want to receive the peace that Jesus offers and to put it into practice, person to person as he did.

—————————————————————

Photo: With Fr. Ed O’Brien during a moment of stillness before my ordination as a permanent deacon, September 7, 2013. Seeking to be an instrument of his peace as his priest in a few more days.

Link for the Mass reading for Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Our healing begins when we are willing to receive the embrace of Jesus.

A ghost is a disembodied spirit or an apparition. Jesus is no ghost, though when he appears to his disciples they believe him to be just that. Jesus then tells them: “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 also then requested from them something to eat, and Jesus received and ate the baked fish he was given.

Jesus, in showing the wounds on his hands and feet and in eating of the fish, revealed to his disciples that his resurrection is a bodily one. Jesus was not a disembodied spirit. Nor was he a mere apparition or hallucination. Jesus, was not resuscitated, just to die again. Jesus has conquered death and is risen from the dead. Jesus then proceeded, as he had done with Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus, to share with those present how he is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets by opening the scriptures for them.

Jesus not only revealed himself as having risen from the dead and shared that he was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, he embodied forgiveness. Though the disciples had betrayed him, and carried the weight of shame upon their shoulders for their lack of courage, the first words Jesus spoke were not words of condemnation but forgiveness: “Peace be with you” (Lk 24:36). In the showing of his wounds, the disciples were certainly reminded of what Jesus had gone through, his suffering and crucifixion. Could those wounds have also mirrored their own betrayal of him, their internal wounds, as well their own need for healing and repentance? Jesus did not bring up any of their past failures. He instead offered them peace.

All of us have been wounded in some way and have experienced trauma brought on by the myriad ways we have been exposed to the fallen nature of humanity. Jesus invites us to stop running from the fear of facing our hurts and the roots of our suffering and to instead kneel before him. He offers us his hands held out to us. May we gaze upon and ponder his wounds still present from the nails and come to a deeper appreciation of the suffering he endured for us.

Jesus invites us next to look up into his face, the face of the one who conquered death and rose again. Resist turning away from the smile that radiates his unconditional love. May we allow ourselves to lose ourselves in the eyes of his acceptance, that offer each and every one of us the realization that Jesus loves us in this moment just as we are.

Then listen, receive, and abide in the words he speaks, “Peace be with you.” In those words of invitation, may all our fears, anxieties, and hurts melt away. May we die to our pride and arise, allowing ourselves to be embraced by Jesus, embraced by his love, so to receive and abide in his love which is the foretaste of eternity. In the arms of Jesus, let our healing begin.

Pencil drawing: Kathryn J. Brown, 1982, hanging on my seminary room wall. Spend some time to rest in Jesus’ embrace this Lord’s Day.

Link for the Mass readings for the third Sunday of Easter, April 14, 2024

Jesus has risen! Let us share his love, light, and joy!!!

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, met the risen Jesus. When both Mary and the two disciples share their experiences with the eleven, they are not believed, and “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 those times when someone has 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? Maybe someone is bringing us a message from a different or no faith tradition…

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).

Christianity is not a secret sect, it is a universal call and proclamation to share the love of God with everyone. The source of this love that we celebrate this Easter Octave is the Paschal Mystery, 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 invites us to participate in his reign of the kingdom of heaven which is at hand. 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).

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 allow God to work through others and receive his message from them as well! Alleluia!!!

———————————————————————

Photo: One of my last classes at Cardinal Newman HS in May of ’22 before leaving to enter seminary. Hopefully, I was able to share with them the love of Jesus and that they are spreading his light, love, and joy!

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, April 6, 2024

With Jesus, each day is a new beginning.

There are a handful of incidents in today’s Gospel reading from John that refer back to encounters Jesus had with his Apostles before his death and resurrection. Jesus waits on the shore as seven of his disciples; Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others, return from a night of fishing. This is reminiscent of when Jesus first came to Andrew and Simon, James, and John as they were casting and mending nets and he invited them to follow him.

The disciples are on their way back to shore with their nets empty, and Jesus suggests that they cast their net over the right side, and they quickly find that they “were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish.” Peter had this experience in one of his first encounters with Jesus when he had been fishing all night and Jesus encouraged him to put out into the deep water, and that time they were able to fill two boats with fish.

After their great catch “of one hundred fifty-three large fish,” John told Peter that the Lord was the one who had instructed them. Just as when Jesus approached his disciples that night walking on the stormy waters, Peter jumped out of the boat and walked on water until he took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. Peter again “jumped into the sea.” Did he walk on water all the way to shore this time? And when Peter and the disciples came to shore “they saw a charcoal fire.” The most recent event with another charcoal fire was outside the gate where Jesus was led for his judgment. To keep warm Peter joined the servants and slaves huddled around a charcoal fire. It was at that charcoal fire that Peter denied Jesus. The final scene in today’s account was when Jesus offered cooked fish and bread to his disciples, this is reminiscent of Jesus feeding the five thousand with two loaves and a few fish.

Throughout our lives, we will have encounters with people and experience incidents that we have experienced before. We may not have been as present as we may have wanted to be when attempting to comfort someone, we may have given in to temptation we regretted, we may have been involved in some task and made a mistake, or as Peter had done gone against our better instincts, as he had denied Jesus three times at that charcoal fire. Peter wept when he heard the cock crow. The sound brought back Jesus’ prediction, brought to light Peter’s own denial and cowardice. How many times must he have berated himself, how many times have we done so when we have sinned, fallen short of our goals, or made mistakes?

Making mistakes and taking risks, are necessary for learning and growing in any endeavor in life. Jesus does not want us to beat ourselves up when we fall short, fail, nor even when we sin. What is required for maturation is an honest assessment of the situation, an acknowledgment of our mistakes and sins, a healthy sense of guilt but not a turning in upon ourselves and steeping in our own guilt. Once we have recognized what we have done or have failed to do, we then repent, correct our mistakes, confess, and make the proper adjustments. Often, we overcompensate in the beginning, but as we remain persistent and seek God’s help and guidance, we will reach a healthy balance.

Jesus returns to be with his disciples after his resurrection, he meets them in very similar settings as he had before his death. All of his disciples failed him. Jesus did not condemn, but instead forgave them. Jesus showed them how far they had come since he first called them, while at the same time helped them to see how far they still had to go to. Jesus is not only their teacher but the divine source of their own transformation.

Jesus has risen, he is new life, he appeared to his disciples to guide, encourage, and empower them to be who God called them to be. Jesus offers us the same access to the wellspring of his humanity and divinity. Our repentance and Jesus’ forgiveness go beyond helping us to become better people. Through the love of Jesus, we are invited to experience a new beginning each day. When we are willing to surrender to him, participate in the sacraments, and pray, our minds, hearts, and souls will change, we will be redeemed, transformed, and conformed to Jesus and share more in his life. Good news to not only share in word but in deed. Alleluia!!!

————————————————-

Photo credit: While on my evening Rosary walk, a new bloom of Bermuda Buttercups. In Jesus’ name, may this day be a new beginning for us as well! St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminar, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, April 5, 2024

 

God reaches out to us in so many ways, to let us know that he cares and we are not alone.

Just as Jesus came among Cleopas and the other disciple on their journey toward 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, “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 asked for something to eat. They gave him fish and he ate, something a ghost or spirit would not do. He talked with his disciples as he had done during their time together before his crucifixion.

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, who Jesus was, and continues to be: a hypostatic union, meaning that 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 his death and resurrection. This is how he could disappear after making himself known in the breaking of the bread and how he will come 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 redeemed 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 also 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 life and 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.

There have been times when I have felt pretty wiped out physically, working second shift full time while student teaching in my last year of college; the balance of family life, teaching full time, and five years studying for the permanent deaconate; taking care of JoAnn in her final months; recovering from pneumonia; and over these past two years studying for the priesthood. Through each of these episodes and the regular day in and day out in between each of these more intense moments, I have found peace and renewal, and even more importantly, a deepening of my intimacy in my relationship with Jesus. This has grown as I have been more consistent in the daily anchor practices of praying with the liturgy of the hours and the daily Mass readings, participating in Mass, meditation and contemplation during my holy hour, the Rosary, and Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

Most recently, in the days before taking my Cura Animarum, our final, oral exams, I headed out for my Rosary walk and saw a unique rainbow to the west (the picture of which I posted a few weeks ago), then the next day during my holy hour I was drawn to Jeremiah 1:7-9 in which God was encouraging me to have no fear and that he would place his words in my mouth, and then the day before the exam as I was genuflecting before Jesus present in the tabernacle, I surrendered all of myself to him and felt this overwhelming sense of closeness. Jesus was affirming not only that I would pass my oral exams, which I did, thank God, I felt he was affirming again my vocational path to the priesthood.

Since my late teens, God has revealed himself in these small ways. No mere coincidences have they been but God-incidences. These are moments where God says hello and lets us know that he walks with us and that we are not alone. Even in the midst of our trials and tribulations, when weary and worn, we can experience joy! God is reaching out to us in so many ways, all the time. We just need to take a moment, take a breath, and look up, listen, and be willing to feel. The more we do so, not only in our trials but in every situation, the more we will experience God-incidents – Alleluia!!!

——————————————————-

Photo: While praying the glorious mysteries, came upon this glorious bloom! – St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass reading for Thursday, April 4, 2024

We experience the miracle of the Resurrection at each Mass!

As we continue through our Easter readings we are 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 can encounter each day.

In today’s Gospel, Mary does not return with Peter and John after having 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. She questioned him 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 that there was a sense beyond her understanding that compelled her to stay. Whatever the reason 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 his mission would not be complete until he returned back to the Father with his Ascension.

In the accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus, there was not only a newness to his appearance, but his relationship with his followers were also transformed. He was not coming back to avenge those who betrayed him. Jesus charged Mary to return and convey the message he gave her to his “brothers”. Jesus is revealing to Mary the intimacy of relationship with him that she personally experienced when Jesus called her by name. And this was only a foretaste of the greater intimacy to come at his Ascension, when he would return to the Father and unleash the power of their divine communion of love through the power of the Holy Spirit that would be experienced by his brothers and sisters 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 are offered the invitation to participate in his death and resurrection as well and share in the same intimacy of Jesus’ life and love that he shares with his Father.

The miracle of the Resurrection is revealed at each Mass when Jesus, Body and Blood, is represented again. Around the altar we gather as his brothers and sisters to be configured to his Body, and as we consume him, we are not only being nourished by the Bread of Life, we are being perfected, divinized by the trinitarian love, and being transformed into the image and likeness of the Father that we have been created to be. This is why Easter is such a cause for joy and celebration!!! This is why, like Mary who was sent by Jesus, at the end of Mass we to are sent forth to, “Go and announce the Good News of the Resurrection” in our everyday lives! Alleluia!!!

———————–

Photo: Beginning of Easter morning Mass where I was blessed to assist Fr. Nick and his parishioners at St. Clare Catholic Church, North Palm Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Stolen or Resurrection?

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). Then in the midst of their travel they were greeted by Jesus, he assured them and then sent them to tell his“brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (Mt 28:10). Off the pair went to share the message: 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 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 of this Octave and during this Easter Season, may we become less, so that the risen Jesus, who is our Way, our Truth, and our Life, becomes more.

—————————————————————–

Photo: Sanctuary of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Palm Beach Gardens, FL before the Easter Vigil this past Saturday night. Ready to celebrate the Resurrection!!!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 1, 2024

We are an Alleluia people because death does not have the final answer, Jesus does!

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? Some make the 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 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 then entered 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 the new creation!

All human history changed in that tomb because of this new fact of the resurrection of Jesus. How this happened is a mystery and seeking to understand, which is good, 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 regarding how Jesus crucified was now gone from the tomb. They came to understand the mystery of the Resurrection, the same way that they came to understand the mystery that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. Understanding happened in their encounters with Jesus. 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 about this on page nine of his Joy of the Gospel: “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.”

Easter Sunday is the day where this joy first truly became possible, and this joy is needed now more than ever. And yet, as we read in our gospel, Easter Sunday did not begin with a full brass band and banners waving. For: “On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark and saw the stone removed from the tomb” (John 20:1).

Mary reacted as most of us would. She sought some point of reference. The stone was opened, someone must have stolen the body. When we encounter a mystery, we seek to understand. Jesus, time and again, transcends our comfort zones and the parameters of our finite attempts to seek meaning. When we are willing to seek with our reason, open our minds and hearts to encounter the reality beyond our reason; when we allow ourselves to wonder and allow ourselves to encounter Jesus; our Fridays of pain, suffering, and grief become good, our Saturdays of silence and the between times become holy, and the Resurrection is the fulfillment of the promise that we do not suffer and believe in vain.

Jesus who is the Christ, has truly risen – Alleluia, Alleluia!!!

We are an alleluia people. God has not only loved us into existence, but through his Son, we have also been loved into the promise of eternity, where suffering and death will be no more! A promise I believe even more strongly on this Easter, as I celebrate my fifth one without JoAnn. I hope that she is now celebrating along with Mary and the saints and that she is now where we will one day be rejoicing, because Jesus has opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed, death that he conquered, and his Resurrection that we celebrate today! Alleluia!

May God bless each of you and fill you with the peace, joy, and love of Jesus his Son! Happy Easter!!!

————————————————–

Photo: Our last Easter vigil together, April 20, 2019.

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, March 31, 2024