Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Wednesday of the Octave of Easter

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

We say Christ is present in the Eucharist in various ways.  He is present in the members of the congregation through Baptism, especially in the priest consecrated to lead the faithful.  He is also present in the passages of Scripture, which is the word of God.  Most importantly, Christ is present in the bread and wine when then are blessed and broken to be shared by all.  The disciples on the road to Emmaus discover this reality as they sit at table with their guest.

The resurrection appearance in today’s gospel is primarily an encounter with Christ in the Eucharist.  This is not to say that Cleopas and his unnamed companion did not visually see Christ.  Rather, it invites Catholics to recognize him every time they take part in the Eucharist.  For the grace to have full effect they should carefully participate by singing the hymns, listening to the readings, including their personal intentions among the many expressed, and entering mindfully into the Eucharistic prayers.

We often take advantage of Mass time as a retreat from the busyness of life.  It is time apart, in a usually comfortable space, giving a sense of approval.  But it avails us much more than respite.  The Eucharist enables us to deepen our relationship with Jesus.  He brings more than completion to our lives; he brings us an eternal destiny. 

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Tuesday of the Octave of Easter

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

Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born, Italian journalist, was baptized by Pope Benedict in the Easter Vigil service five years ago.  Recently he announced that he is leaving Catholicism.  Unfortunately, a significant percentage of Catholics who enter the Church through the RICA similarly exit.  This reality suggests the need of a strong culture of faith to support perseverance.  It also indicates how in the reading from Acts today the apostles enjoy such phenomenal success in preaching to Jews but eventually fail in converting the nation.

According to John’s gospel even Jesus has many followers who eventually leave him (see John 6:60).  People leave for different reasons as the parable of the sower in the synoptic gospels accounts: some because they do not understand what faith means, others because they are seduced by worldly concerns, and still others because they do not nourish their faith with prayer.  Faith in Jesus is appealing to all because it promises eternal life, but it requires attention and devotion on the part of adherents.

Perhaps we should leave these concerns aside for now.  After all, Easter is the time to rejoice for the blessing of knowing that our lives have eternal destinies when we link them to Jesus.’  His graces abound in the Church community as well as, in northern climes at least, in nature at this time of year.

Monday, April 1, 2013

Monday in the Octave of Easter

(Acts 2: 14.22-33; Matthew 28:8-15)

The behavior of the chief priests in the gospel of Matthew could turn a saint anti-clerical.  They pay to arrange the arrest of an innocent man. They seek false testimony to condemn Jesus.  They show no compassion for Judas as struggles with a guilty conscious and less for Jesus suffering on the cross.  After Jesus’ death, they ask Pilate for a guard to prevent the abduction of Jesus’ bodies.  And, in today’s gospel, they bribe the same guard to lie about Jesus’ resurrection.  Because the veracity of these outrages cannot be confirmed, it may be best to attribute them to the animosity between Christians and Jews at the time of Matthew’s writing.

The last two assertions here about the chief priests point to one of the reasons Christians give for belief in the resurrection.  His tomb, a marked grave in which Jesus alone is laid in all four gospel accounts, was found to be empty that Sunday morning again in all four gospels.  Unless the body was stolen as the Jews in Matthew’s account allege, there is no other explanation for its disappearance than the resurrection.

However, our faith in the resurrection is based on more than circumstantial evidence.  Jesus also appeared to people after his body was found missing.  Today’s gospel speaks of the first appearance -- to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary.  Writing almost a generation later, St. Paul will give us a list of such appearances: Peter, the Twelve, five hundred Christian brothers, and himself.  Based on their testimony, the empty tomb, and our own experience of the power of Christ acting in our lives, we do not hesitate to affirm that, yes, he rose from the dead.   

Friday, March 29, 2013

Good Friday

(Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16.5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42)

The Gospel of John features encounters with Jesus.  It tells of characters like Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, and Mary Magdalena revealing to Jesus the depths of their hearts and receiving from him unconditional acceptance.  But not everyone who encounters Jesus responds with faith.  The paralytic whom Jesus heals at the pool of Bethesda, for example, never enters into a relationship with him.  In the passage we just read it is Pilate’s turn to encounter Jesus.  The drama of their meeting is intense.  First-time listeners to this passion account may be asking themselves whether Pilate will say “yes” to him.

The scene opens as a typical day in the life of a Roman governor.  Jesus is escorted within Pilate’s residence for a judicial hearing.  Meanwhile Pilate steps outside for the Jews’ accusation against Jesus.  He comes back to ask Jesus whether it is true: “Are you,” he says, “the king of the Jews?” Jesus' reply, “Do you say this on your own…” gives Pilate opportunity to declare himself for Jesus, but Pilate sneers at it.  Then Jesus explains that indeed he is a king whose dominion is over those who recognize the truth of his being sent from God. Pilate cynically responds, “What is truth?”  Aware that Jesus is innocent, Pilate goes outside to negotiate with the Jews, but they demand his crucifixion.  Their comment that Jesus “made himself Son of God” frightens Pilate thinking that Jesus may be who he says he is.  Jesus wins Pilate’s admiration, but when he repeats to the Jews his intention to release Jesus, they bully him by saying that such an act would make him no friend of the emperor.  Pilate capitulates to expediency and decides to have Jesus crucified.

God calls everyone to a personal relationship with Him through Jesus.  Contemporary times incline many to cynically reject the possibility.  They bully others into fearing that having such a relationship will deprive them of pleasure, prestige, or power.  We must rise up against these prejudices with the realization that a positive relationship with Jesus enables us to be all that we can be.  His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead give us an insight into eternal life.  That life – which the Greek of John’s describes as zoe, not the ordinary bios, is the love of the Trinity, a community of radical self-giving and receiving.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Holy Thursday

(Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; I Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15)

The man telephoned the priest.  He said he needed help.  Then he told a pitiable story of being seduced by his mother as a boy and repeatedly victimized by men as an adult.  The priest listened to the man at length but knew that his situation was beyond any help the priest could offer.  Indeed, through consultation it became evident that the call was probably a ruse to inveigle the priest in sexual perversion.  This abysmal situation – child abuse, sexual predation, and manipulation -- describes the vortex of sin from which God liberates humanity.

Israel’s liberation from bondage in Egypt, catalyzed by the dramatic event related in the reading from Exodus this evening, serves as a prototype for God’s liberation of humanity from sin.  The blood of the lamb sprinkled on the doorposts of their houses saves the Israelites from the plague that forces the Egyptians to let them go free.  Similarly the blood of Christ saves Christians by forgiving their sins as the reading from First Corinthians signals.  But Christian liberation, of course, is by definition not a license to do what one wishes.  Just as Jesus in the gospel, Christians are freed from sin in order to serve one another in love.

The Holy Thursday liturgy packs together the great themes of the Paschal mystery.  These will be drawn out and meditated upon at length during the next three days.  Friday, in the reading of the passion according to John, Christ is presented as the liberating Lamb of God.  Saturday the story of human sin is delineated through a series of Old Testament readings.  Then the victory is proclaimed with the gospel of the Easter Vigil service and all the readings of Sunday’s masses.  We should note the seriousness of these liturgies.  They are hardly meant to be sanctimonious acts.  Rather, they re-create the events that have spared us of that vortex of sin.