Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
Obedience is a word that carries a lot of baggage with it. Especially in our culture today, there is a certain resistance to being obedient or subservient to those is authority. Understandably, there are certain situations in which power and obedience to authority is abused, and I think that fear of abuse or misuse of such power is legitimate. Unfortunately, it seems to have resulted in a negative connotation for obedience even to God. I did not study Latin in school, so it was only more recently that I learned that the word ‘obedience’ comes from the Latin word obaudire, meaning “to listen, to hear.” This sheds a different light on the word, especially with regard to our call to obedience to God.
Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter
"My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy rains
Unending love, amazing grace."
These lyrics are found in one of my favorite contemporary Christian songs. They are found in an updated version of the song we all know, Amazing Grace. God’s grace is surely amazing. For he so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son to save and set us free.
Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena
The first reading for today describes the life of Jesus’ disciples after his resurrection. It describes Jesus’ followers as a community and states that his followers were “one in mind and spirit.” Rather than having private property they “had everything in common.” The reading goes on to state that no one in the community of believers was needy. When new members joined the community, they would sell what they had and distribute the proceeds to those who were in need.
Monday of the Second Week of Easter
I talked with a couple friends about our Lenten journeys after Easter. We all expressed similar feelings about how we thought we had done in our efforts to change or our ability to keep our resolutions. We all had started out hoping to come to the end of Lent somehow ‘doing it better”. Basically we all felt we had fallen short of our expectations. I suspect many of us feel this way. But our faith journeys continue. Even if we did not meet our own expectations during Lent, these weeks immediately following serve as a reminder that it isn’t really about us or our successes or the times we fall short. It is about Jesus and the Spirit he sends us.
Second Sunday of Easter, Sunday of Divine Mercy
(Fr. Satish is recuperating from surgery. This homily was written three years ago for the Second Sunday of Easter. This homily is as relevant now as it was then).
Easter is over! Many of us who gave up things for Lent are now perhaps enjoying these things again. I wonder, what did that first bite of chocolate, that first sip of coffee, that first gulp of beer, the fresh feel of game console feel like. PersonalIy, I consider the weeks after Lent to be the most dangerous time for Christians. Suddenly, the spiritual discipline that we got used to during Lent gets forgotten; prayer becomes more lax, and we get back to our old ways again. After Christ is risen and it is time to sit back and enjoy life again.
Saturday in the Octave of Easter
My wife, Bess, and I are so excited that we have a beautiful baby boy named Ignatius at home with us. He is doing wonderfully after a stay in the NICU and is an absolute blessing. Without fail, we have been broadcasting his birth and homecoming on facebook, via text message, and even our living room window. We are so excited and proud to be recognized as his parents. People could think it was too soon in our marriage to have a baby, they might not like his name, or they might think we are both too young. There could be any number of things that they don’t like, but that couldn’t stop us from sharing our joy and love for our two week old little boy. So my brain took all of this and wondered, “What about Christ?”
Friday in the Octave of Easter
Over the centuries, Christians have been good at naming what I call "resurrection signs", events or people or other creatures that speak to the truth of the resurrection. The butterfly is a familiar one - the caterpillar making its own "tomb" in its cocoon, and then emerging as a changed being. Frogs and pelicans have been similar signs for Christians over the centuries. More personally, I think of moments when I have come close to despair, and the people and events that were like the hand of God, lifting me out of that despair and being resurrection signs. They reminded me that death and despair are not the end and that God always has one more surprise in mind.
Thursday in the Octave of Easter
Have you ever had an “aha!” moment? You know those moments when everything you have been wrestling with, questioning, struggling to understand, suddenly makes sense. I love those moments because of the clarity and peace I have afterwards. I think this Gospel reading is the story of an “aha” moment.
Wednesday in the Octave of Easter
Signs of resurrection are all around us, especially after this hard winter. There is new growth on the trees, new life springing forth from the earth. We also experience new life in the abundance of birds singing in the mornings. These signs along with the ever brightening sun are sufficient to help our souls joyfully sense the wonder and awe of Easter. These are a few of the outward signs that the whole of creation is making to reveal the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
Participating in the Triduum and attending the Easter vigil mass this year brought to my attention the thought that each day of the year should involve a recognition and awareness of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. I have a tendency to think of Easter as a day or perhaps as a weeklong celebration (The Octave of Easter). Yet it is more than that. It is an entire season of the Church year, stretching from Easter Sunday until Pentacost Sunday.
Monday in the Octave of Easter
There were a variety of witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Mary Magdalene and the other women, Peter and John the apostles, and the guards at the tombs all saw and heard the sights and sounds that proclaimed that Jesus was no longer dead, but had risen. Although all of these individuals experienced the remarkable events of that morning, some went forth filled with joy, praise and wonder, while others went away in fear and disbelief. How could these people see the same signs and wonders and yet have such a different response? I believe it is because not all of them had been transformed by the gift of faith. The women and disciples who had followed Jesus during His ministry had freely accepted and embraced the gift of faith that had been offered to them. The guards, Jewish leaders and Pharisees also were offered the gift, but had refused the invitation to believe. Whether it was pride, power, fear, or greed, these people could not allow the grace of God to transform them, and they were not open to the gift that the Father was offering- His only Son. Like those at the tomb who believed, we too are called to be witnesses of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. We can only testify to these truths if we have been transformed by the gift of faith. Once we see and believe all that the Lord has done for us, then we are then sent forth to share the Good News with the rest of the world.
Resurrection of the Lord
There is a new book out in the market entitled, “How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee.” Bart Ehrman is a widely read scholar and author. A previous book by him titled, God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer, created a sensation. As a youth, Ehrman was an evangelical Christian passionate about convincing people about God becoming man. In this latest book he is more concerned about how a man called Jesus became God. According to Ehrman, Jesus does not claim that he is God except in the gospel of John. John’s gospel is written much later than the rest of the gospels. John’s gospel, according to Ehrman, is making a theological point when it says that Jesus make a claim that he is God. But historically, he says, the claim cannot be supported. If Jesus had indeed claimed he was God, why would the other three gospels miss this crucial detail? As opposed to John Ehrman claims that since he is making a historical fact and not a theological point. Historically, according to him, the belief that Jesus is God is a creation of the followers of Jesus. He also says that Christianity would not have the status and numbers it has today if after Constantine it had not become the state religion.
Holy Saturday
Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday)
an interest in the Savior's blood!
Died he for me? who caused his pain!
For me? who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Holy Thursday
Some people don’t like to have their feet touched. My daughter, for one, thinks feet are “gross” and doesn’t want anyone to touch her feet. When we’re born, our feet start out so clean and smooth and fresh, and then after years of wear and tear, they become rougher, calloused, cut and bruised, and they smell bad! Jesus’ disciples walked everywhere they went and probably only wore sandals on the dusty, dry roads, so we can imagine how dirty their feet would get. Washing another person’s feet was an act that could not even be required of the lowliest Jewish slave, so imagine the disciples’ surprise when in today’s gospel reading of the Mass of the Lord’s Supper (John 13:1-15), Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, and begins to wash and dry the disciples’ feet.
Wednesday of Holy Week
Have you ever had an overwhelming sense that something bad was about to happen. You are not quite sure but the energy at home or work seems radically different. I remember sensing my own father’s death before my mother even called to tell me.
Tuesday of Holy Week
It’s been a long, long winter. Just when I think we have turned to corner, I’m reminded that we’ve still got a ways to go. I can hardly think of a better sentiment for Holy Week. We are nearing the end of a long Lenten season, but we still have a ways to go. As we take our last steps toward the Paschal mystery, it seems appropriate to both reflect on the journey and remain mindful of the distance still before us.
Monday of Holy Week
My daughter is a hospice nurse. She has a very close friend who is dying of cancer. She is only 30 years old and has been battling ovarian cancer for the last four years. Of course there have been the hospitalizations, chemotherapy, doctor appointments, scans, and so forth. Those closest to this young woman have struggled with denial, exhaustion, fear, and all the rest. It has been a journey of hopes and disappointments. Whenever I talk with my daughter she always tells me the details of what is happening. More importantly, she tells me how her friend is doing and what she has been able to do to just ‘be with’ her friend and ‘tend to’ her. Today’s Gospel serves as a reminder to me that although we may suspect—or even know for sure—what pain or sorrow lie ahead for those close to us, it is now, in this very moment that God offers us the opportunity and the grace to ‘be with’ and to ‘tend to’.
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Thursday evening, I was at hospice (again) to give the last sacrament Greg O’Connell. Greg was only his sixties. He had fallen at his nursing home and injured his head rather seriously. Only his daughter and her friend were at his deathbed when I visited. In times like these, I often take the time to explain to the family the meaning of the last Sacraments and invite them to participate. I explain to them how these Sacrament are as much for the comfort and consolation of the grieving family as it is for wellbeing of the dying person. When I said all this to Greg’s daughter, she said to me, “I am not a religious person. I am OK. Please do what needs to be done for him.” I took the time to explain to her that our relationships are as important to God as they are to us. I asked her if she wanted this relationship with death. And she said that she did not. I explained to her that we are all intimately connected when we celebrate these last Sacraments – God and the dying person and us. At the final farewell, Greg’s daughter came and stood right next to her father and me. And even though she was not fully convinced of my explanation, she bid her father good bye in God’s name. The point that I am trying to make is that there is difference between standing by and watching someone die and becoming intimately part of that death.
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
As I write this reflection, my best friend and his wife are at the hospital, in labor, preparing for the birth of their first child. Even before glancing at today’s Mass readings I knew what the subject of this reflection would be… this child, which I am so blessed to call my Godson, or Goddaughter as the case may be (if I receive an update before this reflection is complete, I will have to remind myself to update this point). With so much potential for this child and with an entire future yet to behold before this young family, one thing is certain: this child will be a child of God!