Wednesday, April 20, 2022

 Wednesday in the Octave of Easter

(Acts 3:1-10; Luke 24:13-35)

Ask people who work daily with the poor about giving money to a street beggar.  They will probably tell you it is not a good idea and advise you to contribute to a charity.  In today’s first reading Peter suggests something more.  He would have you share Jesus Christ with the person.

It is not a pious put-off.  In a poem called “Eucharist” the narrator speaks of a ragman, a prostitute, a lonely widow he meets.  To each he responds as a caring neighbor.  He greets the ragman, kindly refuses the prostitute’s offer, and listens to the lonely woman.  These actions were giving Christ.

After the Lenten exercise we should find less trouble in living as new women and men.  Discernment should easier.  Doing good should be more of a joy.  We have experienced the risen Christ in the liturgies of Holy Week.  Now we share him with others.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

 Tuesday in the Octave of Easter

(Acts 2:36-41; John 20:11-18)

In today’s gospel Mary Magdalene is looking for Jesus – at least Jesus’ body.  She is heartbroken that it is not in his tomb where it was left two days before.  Suddenly she turns and sees Jesus in disguise.  It turns out that Jesus has been looking for her.  Often it is the case.  We think we have difficulty finding God.  But God is the one who is chasing us.

A priest, Fr. John Bartunek, grew up unchurched.  As a young man, he was attracted to evangelical Protestantism and then, in the university, to Catholicism.  Upon graduation he felt called to the priesthood.  Fr. Bartunek’s own father was not pleased with the religious trajectory.  He did not attend Fr. John’s ordination.  However, with more years he accepted his son’s vocation.  At the end of his life, the old man admitted that he had been raised a Catholic.  He longed to receive the sacraments again which Fr. John was happy to provide.  Soon afterwards his father died in grace, another example of God finding someone.

We should not worry when we feel frustrated in our quest for God.  It is time for us to reconsider our lives.  We will probably find ourselves blessed many times over.  It is God who has been pursuing us all along, like Jesus coming to Mary Magdalene.  We must acknowledge his presence.  Like Mary also, we should announce that presence to others.

Monday, April 18, 2022

 

Monday within the Octave of Easter

(Acts 2:24.22-23; Matthew 28:8-15)

For Vladimir Putin the war in Ukraine is not a war or an invasion; it is a “military operation.”  Most Russians believe him.  There is resistance to the party line, but the people are largely supporting their troops.  In today’s gospel the chief priests and elders try to foist such propaganda regarding the resurrection of Jesus.

Matthew recounts how the Jewish leaders bribe the Roman guard of Jesus’ tomb.  They tell the soldiers to say that Jesus’ disciples stole his body while they were sleeping.  Thinking about this version of the story, one should see its implausibility.  If the soldiers were sleeping, how could they know what happened.  Also with such a story, they would be opening themselves to ridicule if not punishment for neglect of duty. 

What is more lamentable here than covering up the truth is the truth that is being covered up.  Jesus’ resurrection opens to us a new way of living.  We no longer have to count as success accumulating wealth or achieving fame.  Success is now staying close to the Lord who has promised eternal life to his friends.  Like it did for him, our self-sacrifice for others will bring us the happiness that we seek.

 

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.