Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
Just eleven days ago, we were at Good Friday. And, of course, that means that today, we are only nine days into Easter. From the perspective of the church year, we are all very new to the idea of the risen Christ. So, we have to ask, what does Easter mean for us followers of Jesus Christ who remain here on Earth?
Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord
We have all experienced what it means to love another person. We think of our parents, our children, our spouses, our friends. We've experienced the joys as well as the sorrows and sacrifices of loving others. When a loved one is suffering, helpless or in trouble, we do everything in our power to help them, no matter what the personal sacrifice. We do not consider the cost, nor do we consider it a choice. This can seem irrational and mysterious—even downright foolish. But deep inside we know exactly what we're doing—this is the real “stuff”.
Second Sunday of Easter (Or Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Once so often somebody comes into the confessional with such a sense of sorrow for sin, that they find it had to believe that God can forgive them and love them. This is not because they do not believe that God is all forgiving. The darkness they find themselves in, is a little too dark for them. For some reason they think that they do not deserve God’s forgiveness. I am saying to you today what I say to such penitents: “If you put all the sins that you have committed today together, you cannot beat God’s love and mercy. If you put all the sins you have committed your entire life together, you still cannot beat God’s love and mercy. If you put the sins of all the people in the entire world together, you still cannot beat God’s love and mercy. If you put all the sins of all the human beings from the beginning of creation to the end of the world, you still cannot beat God’s love and mercy. Now if you think that your sins are too much for God, then the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not for you! You can leave!” Nobody has ever left. Most of the time, by then, they are in tears and accept that they can be and are forgiven!
Saturday in the Octave of Easter
At the end of today’s gospel passage the Apostles are given a mission. You and I are reading this reflection because they took on that mission and “proclaimed the Gospel to every creature.” And yet they were not your picture-perfect candidates. How did these dismissible men, receive such an ambitious mission and achieve it with such conviction that, as we see in today’s first reading, they became undismissible?
Friday in the Octave of Easter
During the Easter Season, we do not read the first scripture lesson from the Old Testament as is customary the rest of the year, but we read from the Acts of the Apostles. This is partly to emphasize that Jesus’ resurrection has brought about something new. God is doing a new thing in the midst of the old and we emphasize this by reading only from the New Testament. But there is another, perhaps more significant reason to bring in readings from the Acts of the Apostles: we cannot fully realize the meaning and importance of the resurrection without understanding its aftermath.
Thursday in the Octave of Easter
In today’s first reading people cling to Peter and John in because of their recent healing of a crippled man. It is Peter who stresses that the healing of this man was an act of God, not of Peter or John. I often find myself relating to Peter’s befuddlement and his critical eye toward God’s all-powerful grace that we find in the Gospel narrative. Therefore, I find a lot of hope in this reading from Acts that shows Peter evangelizing despite the fact that he recently denied Christ three times in the Passion. Hope rests in the fact that we can turn our doubts into faith, help others recognize that faith as a gift from God, and rejoice in the mercy and love of God.
Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
I love backpacking because it allows one to journey and explore. The walking is not so much about getting from one place to another, as it is about the experience of the getting there. Sometimes we know the trail and feel like we are in familiar territory. Other times we have to discover the best way, especially when there are multiple paths to get to one's ultimate destination. consider how even when one has a good sense of the road traveled the journey is not always predicable.
Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Our hearts have to go out to Mary as she stands at the empty tomb. She has endured the unfathomable loss of Jesus on the Cross. He was taken violently from her and from this world by death. And it is only getting worse. Now his body has been taken too. It is just too much.
Monday in the Octave of Easter
This past Holy Week I have been caring for my 90 year old father who is seriously ill. In the midst of his suffering and pain he confided in me that he was having some doubts about his faith. Although he has been a faithfully practicing Catholic all of his life, when faced with the reality of his possible death, it has been hard for him to experience the Easter joy that we celebrate.
Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord - The Mass of Easter Day
The story of Arnaud Beltrame has taken the world by storm. He is the 44 year old French Police officer who offered to exchange his life for a hostage in a recent armed struggle in a supermarket in France. After exchanging his life, he helped guide the special forces by leaving an open-line cell phone on a table. The terrorist was finally taken down but not before Arnaud was stabbed in the throat. On his deathbed, Beltrame received two sacraments - the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and the Sacrament of Marriage. His newly-wed wife said of him at his funeral that his heroic sacrifice was "the act of a policeman and the act of a Christian.” I call Arnaud’s act a “holy exchange.”
Holy Saturday / Easter Vigil
Tonight, we will celebrate the Easter Vigil. We wish to race to the empty tomb faster than Peter and John. We’ll even beat Mary Magdalene there with the spices and oils she is bringing for Jesus’ body. That is tonight. Today is different. Today, the tomb is closed and the guard is set. Today is Holy Saturday. Let us enter the silence.
Good Friday of the Lord's Passion
I want to reflect today mostly on the Isaiah passage (Isaiah 52:13—53:12), not because the reading of the passion (John 18:1-19:42) isn’t intensely important, but because when it comes to Good Friday and the crucifixion, I think that meditation on the cross, and the liturgy of the day, speaks for itself. What more could I possibly say? If you have a chance at all to get to a Good Friday service, go.
Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper
The final days of Lent are passing and we are beginning the Holy Triduum. This is the most important part of the Liturgical year, and so we can expect the readings to speak to our most basic and fundamental spiritual needs. We need to love and be loved. We need purpose.
Wednesday of Holy Week
Suffering comes in so many forms. Even our Lenten disciplines may seem like suffering at times. This suffering comes from sacrifices like fasting, which can transform our need for food into a need for prayer. We can learn from suffering if we are open to it. A patient who had battled cancer for a long sometimes decided that because the cancer was spreading not shrinking that it was no longer worth fighting. There is a peace that can come over patients like this, when they accept the Lord’s will and put their lives in the Lord’s hands. It is as if they can glimpse the road ahead. Their grace-filled faith allows these patient’s, and indeed all of us to trust that the Lord is holding us close. It allows us to give thanks and praise to God.
Tuesday of Holy Week
In the scenes from the Book of John that are before us today, the disciples are confused—and for good reason. Jesus is saying that one of them will betray him. They are wondering what betrayal he is talking about and who he could possibly mean. He’s also saying something about being glorified and about God being glorified in him. Given the betrayal he has just predicted, what does he mean about being glorified? And he’s saying that he will soon be gone but he won’t say where he’s going. When Peter asks Jesus directly about this, Jesus says that Peter can’t follow him—at least not now. And when Peter presses him, Jesus says this strange thing about how Peter (who has just promised to lay down his life for Jesus) will deny him not once but three times.
Monday of Holy Week
As we pray our way through this Holy Week, sitting with each day's Scriptures provides us the opportunity to walk with Jesus in the last days and hours of his earthly life. This is not easy. By nature, we shrink away from suffering…especially if we see it as optional. In addition, our daily lives are structured in such a way that we are left with little time for solitude or prayer unless we actively carve out time and commit to it every day. We must make a choice before this precious time slips way.
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
We are entering Holy Week. We are doing so as March Madness reaches it climax. Holy Week is the climax of the Church’s liturgical year. What shall we do? Holy Week or March Madness? Some might be asking the wrong question - “How can I squeeze Holy Week into March Madness? Do it the other way around, people of God! How can we squeeze March Madness into Holy Week? In reality, these two events need not be in competition. Holy Week is about the events of our salvation. March Madness is pure entertainment. We know, don’t we not, that March Madness will not save us! Salvation is at the foot of the cross!
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
In today’s first reading, the prophet Ezekiel writes of how the LORD God will gather the people of Israel together again from their exile. God promises to heal their divisions, to cleanse them from their sinfulness, and to help them obey His commands. He promises to set up make a new and eternal covenant with them. He promises to make a sanctuary, a place to worship Him properly, that will last forever.
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
It is so ridiculously easy to feel despair, anxiety, and worry. I've been surrounded this week by people who ask: why bother with the church? Isn't Christianity just dying? The "young people" just don't care anymore, they'll say. While I don't think Christianity is (or should be) a numbers game and that Jesus is never "relevant" to cultures, I do worry about being a good evangelist for new generations - especially my own children. I've been surrounded this week, too, by a very bitter, acrimonious, and violent political campaign which shows no sign of civility.
Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
What strength Jesus has! His life is on the line – some of the Jews are plotting to kill him and now they are accusing him of being possessed or insane, yet he remains strong in the truth and his understanding of his divinity. The Jews in today’s gospel (John 8: 51-59) do not understand that Jesus is speaking the truth. What they hear is someone speaking nonsense and lies. When Jesus responds with “before Abraham came to be, I AM”, one of Jesus’ most emphatic affirmations of his divine nature, they react out of the belief that he is blasphemous and they intend to stone him.