Sunday, April 17, 2022

 First Sunday of Easter

(Acts 10:34a.37-43; Colossians 3:1-4 [or I Corinthians 5:6b-8]; Luke 24:1-12)

Americans like to make verbs out of nouns. They talk about “googling” a word on the Internet to learn its significance. To “photoshop” a person is to set her image into another photo by means of the “Photoshop” application. Most everyone understands what these new verbs mean. The experience of using the Google search engine or the Photoshop application is so wonderful that it is recorded in memory. Something similar can be done with the noun "Easter."

We can talk about eastering a person. It is giving the person the experience of Easter in its fullness. It is to fill her or him with joy, hope, and the desire to tell others about the risen Christ. Eastered people are seen throughout the resurrection narratives in the New Testament.

Peter is an eastered person. He shows it in the encounter with Jesus on the shore of the lake. He and other disciples have returned to Galilee after Jesus' resurrection. They are fishing when the disciple that Jesus loves recognizes him on the shore. Peter immediately jumps into the water to be the first to welcome him. It seems that sheer joy drives Peter forward.

Once this kind of Easter joy was seen in our society. On Easter Sunday everyone wore new clothes to church. Then they went out into the streets to share the spirit of Easter. Unfortunately, these customs have been lost. Perhaps it is because people have lost the hope that the Lord's resurrection offers. They say, like the disciples when they hear the women's report, that it is “nonsense.”

However, the disciples are not closed to the resurrection for long. With the appearances of Jesus they become firm believers. Saint Paul is the best example. In his letters he writes of the “new self” that is born as a result of the resurrection of Jesus. The “new self” is a person reconstituted to truly love. Paul says that this new person carries within himself or herself the hope of eternal life. There she or he will meet God “face to face”. The meeting is personalized in the Letter to the Philippians: "... I consider everything as rubbish, as long as I win Christ and be united to him..." Without a doubt, Saint Paul is an eastered person.

So too are Mary Magdalene and the other women eastered people. They prove it when they report the resurrection “to the Eleven and to all the others." It is such wonderful news that they cannot contain it within themselves.  They have to share them with each and everyone. The resurrection has opened up a new possibility for humanity. In the end we are not going to be judged by other humans according to our fortune or our fame. We will be judged by God according to our likeness to Jesus. If we conform to him, we will be judged worthy of the resurrection. If we ignore him to follow our own whims, we will not deserve eternal life.

They say that on Saint Patrick's Day everyone is Irish. For this day only everyone wears green and eats stewed meat with cabbage. We are eastered people -- not just for one day but always. Let us be joyful each and every day. Let us not lose hope of eternal life in the midst of a world inclined to fortune, fame and whims. Above all, let us tell others, particularly our children, of the Lord's resurrection. Eastered people don't close themselves off from the world because of its nonsense. Rather, as Jesus Christ, they  show the world what true love is.

Friday, April 15, 2022

 Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

(Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42)

Only the Gospel of John pictures Jesus’ beloved disciple and his mother at the cross.  Jesus tells his mother that the disciple is her son.  He likewise tells his disciple that Mary is his mother.  This action assures that Jesus’ (presumably) widowed mother will be cared for.  More than that, by the dual presentation Jesus makes the church – the community of his disciples -- into a family.  At the same time he turns his family into a church.

The Church is a family in the sense that its members deeply love and support one another.  For this reason, “going to mass on television” – as we did during the height of the pandemic -- could never be the norm.  By sharing of faith and cooperating on mutual concerns, church relations become more supportive than blood relatives.

Once a professor asked his students how many of them said grace before family meals.  He was surprised to hear that few of the students ate regularly with their families.  When families become church, they do more than pray together at meals.  They share deeply and often about how the Lord affects their lives.  They also support one another in living the values Jesus taught. 

In the passion Pilate asks Jesus, “What is truth?”  This is ironic because he is looking truth in the face.  Jesus -- the way, the truth, and the life – shows us how we are to sacrifice ourselves for the good of others.  For our families we forsake independence so that children, parents and siblings may become more caring and responsible.  For our church community we give support and encouragement so that it might reflect Christ’s love for the world.

Thursday, April 14, 2022

 

Holy Thursday – Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 15:23-26; John 13:1-15)

War brings out the best and worst of human beings.  The present war in Ukraine reflects this principle.  In the city of Bucha the Russian military tied, tortured and shot Ukrainian civilians.  On the other hand, in the city of Chortikiv parish priests opened their rectory to a refugee family.  This kind of communal love has been multiplied thousands of times over.  In Ukraine, its neighboring countries, and now faraway places people are harboring in their homes strangers from the beleaguered warzone.  In doing so, they fulfill the mandate Jesus gives after washing his disciples’ feet: “’…as I have done for you, you should also do.’”

In the Gospel of John, the foot washing replaces Jesus’ offering of bread and wine found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  Although the actions are very different, they have the same meaning: Jesus sacrifices himself for the sake of others.  In all the gospels he tells participants to repeat what he has done.  Both actions are symbolic of the total sacrifice Jesus will make the following day.  On Friday he will allow himself to be crucified for the redemption of the world from sin.  This sacrifice will save the people who repeat what he has done from everlasting death.  As assuredly as the blood on the lintels saved the Israelites from death in Egypt, they will experience eternal life.

We come together this evening to carry out Jesus’ command.  Shortly we will take the bread and wine that has become Jesus’ body and blood.  When we leave church, we should have on our minds how we will serve one another.  We might also think of ways we can wash the feet of Ukrainian refugees.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

 Wednesday of Holy Week

 (Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 26:14-25)

 Of the four gospels Matthew’s gives the most complete report of Judas’ betrayal.  As a matter of fact, he is the only witness of much of the chilling story.  Matthew shows Jesus bargaining with the chief priests for thirty pieces of silver in exchange for Jesus.  He pictures Judas defying Jesus during the Last Supper and in Gethsemane by calling anyone “Rabbi.”  Matthew shows Judas’ treachery reaching a low point when he uses a kiss as a signal to capture Jesus.  Then Matthew concludes his account of Judas by showing him returning the money to the high priests and hanging himself.

 Judas betrays Jesus out of greed.  The thirty pieces of silver comprise one hundred twenty days of wages for a skilled laborer.  In the end Judas appears remorseful when he goes back to the chief priests.  But he is not really expressing contrition for his sin. He offended Jesus, not the chief priests.  If he were truly repentant, he would have sought Jesus’ forgiveness. 

Judas was greedy, defiant, and disloyal.  We may possess these or similar character flaws.  Hopefully, we pray every day that God will correct them.  We never want them to cause us to betray our friends.  Most of all, let them never move us to betray Jesus, the best of our friends.

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

 Tuesday of Holy Week

(Isaiah 49:1-6; John 13:21-33.36-38)

Few prophecies foreshadow Jesus’ experience better than the four “Servant Songs” of Isaiah.  Found in the second part of the Book of the Prophet, they are relayed systematically in the liturgies of Holy Week.  The first song or oracle, read yesterday, echoes the voice of God. It says that his servant will bring justice to the whole world by mercy, not by violence.  In the second, proclaimed today, the prophet himself relates how he once felt discouraged.  Then God’s voice lifted his spirits.  It declared that through him not only Israel but all nations will be reconciled with God.

In the third song, read in Palm Sunday’s mass, the prophet again speaks.  He describes how he endured trials to proclaim the will of God.  The final song is reserved for Good Friday’s service.  It summarizes the work of the prophet: of humble origins, the prophet took on the sins of the world by his suffering and death. Certainly, all four evangelists had the “Servant Songs” in mind when composed the story of Jesus Christ.  They emphasized how the events of Jesus’ life and especially his death correspond to the experiences of this prophet.

Who is the person of whom the Book of the Prophet Isaiah speaks?  Scholars have different theories.  Some say Jeremiah; others. the author of the second part of Isaiah’s book; still others, the suffering people of Israel, a composite person.  Although each of these positions can be defended with ample texts, for us the question is mostly academic.  For us Jesus, better than anyone else possibly could, personifies God’s Servant.