FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

25 APRIL 2021

 

          At special Masses today and next weekend, we invite our second graders to be fed by the Eucharist for the first time.  Even though most of us are separated from farming, the image of a shepherd is powerful for our children.  In fact, our children have been formed for their First Holy Communion through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.  Founded in the 1950’s by Bible scholar Sofia Cavaletti and Montessori educator Gianna Gobi, this method of religious education uses the principles of Montessori education to introduce children to biblical images and liturgical themes.  In preparing to receive their First Communion, our children have not been presented with content to be memorized, but invited into a relationship with Christ, the Good Shepherd.

            Montessori principles hold that educators should be responsive to “sensitive periods:”    those times when children are most apt to learn particular things.  Different elements of the Good Shepherd story appeal to different sensitive periods in their growth.  In the second grade, our children need the protective love of their parents.  The Good Shepherd demonstrates his protective love for them as they receive the Lord in the Eucharist for the first time.  As our children mature and begin to develop a sense of morality, the Good Shepherd continues to accompany them.  They learn that his protective love is also a forgiving love.  It is a love that ventures out to seek the lost sheep.  Adolescence is for them a sensitive period for heroism.  The Good Shepherd leads and guides them as they discern the right path to choose in their lives.

            Montessori education ends with adulthood.  But the Good Shepherd invites us to deepen our relationship with him for the rest of our lives.  We are like Mary Magdalene, who recognized the risen Lord when he called her by her name on Easter Sunday.  We listen to the Lord’s voice and trust that the Lord loves and knows each of us by name.  Listening to him speaking directly to us by name, we adults share in the shepherding work of the Lord.  We are not hired hands.  Instead, we freely lay down our lives for the sake of the flock.  We make daily sacrifices out of love for those entrusted to our care.  Parents of First Communicants are reminded to sacrifice one hour every Sunday to bring their children to the Eucharist, so that the Good Shepherd can continue to walk with them at all the sensitive periods of their lives.  We even trust in his guidance when we are confronted by death.  Psalm 23 tells us that we shall want for nothing when we follow our loving Shepherd.  The Psalm reminds us that the shepherd carries us on his shoulders through the dark valley to dwell in the house of the Lord.

            At the time of Jesus, shepherds would provide green grass and water for their flocks by day.  At night, they would gather their sheep into a sheepfold, where they were safe.  Carved into the rocks of the hills, these sheepfolds had no gate.  Instead, a shepherd would lie across the opening of the sheepfold.  If a wolf or a thief tried to enter, they would awake the sleeping shepherd.  Shepherds gave up their lives to protect their sheep.  That is exactly what Jesus Christ has done.  He is not only our Good Shepherd who accompanies us at every sensitive period of our lives.  He has willingly laid down his life on the cross. 

As the Lamb of God raised from the dead, he now feeds our children for the first time with his very Body and Blood.  He continues to nourish us and form us into a more intimate union with him and with our brothers and sisters formed by baptism into his Body.  The first Letter of Saint John reminds us that we are God’s children now.  What we shall be has not been revealed.  That is why the Good Shepherd is the dominant image on our triumphal arch.  We are those sheep being drawn to him.  By trusting in the Good Shepherd at every sensitive period of our lives, we will see him as he is and eventually know his complete revelation for us.

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

18 APRIL 2021

 

          In today’s Gospel, the two disciples recount how their lives were changed on the way to Emmaus.  As soon as the Sabbath had ended, they were so utterly dejected that they ran away from Jerusalem.  Having committed themselves to Jesus of Nazareth, their hopes were dashed when the authorities crucified him.  They could not believe the testimony of the women who had found his tomb empty.  The risen Christ began walking with them, listening to their pain and frustration.  But they did not recognize him.  He began speaking to them, interpreting all the Scripture passages referring to him and opening their minds to the ways he had fulfilled them.  Their hearts began to burn as they listened to him.  They invited him to stay with them when they reached Emmaus.  They recognized him when he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it them.  Filled with hope and joy, they rushed back to Jerusalem to share the good news.

            As they are speaking, the risen Lord stands in their midst and gives the gift of peace.  They are startled, terrified, and troubled, much as Zechariah had been troubled when the angel Gabriel announced to him that he and his wife would bear a son in their old age.  So Jesus provides proof that he has been raised from the dead.  He tells them to look at the wounds in his hands and feet.   He invites them to touch him.  He asks for a piece of fish, which he takes and eats in their presence.  Having convinced them that he is the same Christ whose body has been transformed through the resurrection, he makes the same connections with Scripture as he had done on the way to Emmaus.  Then he commissions them to proclaim the Paschal Mystery.  They are to preach the need for repentance, the acceptance of forgiveness, and the gift of the Holy Spirit to everyone.  They can do this, because they have been witnesses of these things.

            As disciples of Jesus Christ, we trust that these original witnesses told the truth about their experience of the risen Lord.  As we hear the accounts of their witnessing the resurrection during this Easter Season, we are called to become witnesses ourselves.  We have moved beyond the horrors and pain of Good Friday.  We have experienced the great joyful emotions of the Octave of Easter.  Now, we have settled into the rhythm of the fifty-day Season.  Unlike the Season of Christmas, when poinsettias last until Ash Wednesday, we have already replaced the Easter flowers twice!  As the Easter candle continues to give up its wax to allow its flame to burn, we are undertaking the task of witnessing to the truth of the resurrection in our world.

            Instead of standing on street corners and making speeches like Saint Peter does in the Acts of the Apostles, we can take our cue from the First Letter of Saint John.  In writing to his community, Saint John is aware that some members cannot make the connection between what they know about God and how they behave.  They argue that baptized people are automatically sinless.  John refutes that misunderstanding and insists that the best way to know the risen Lord is to keep his commandments.  We are mindful of his powerful example of washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper.  In imitating his example, we must make every effort to love God and our neighbor.  Then, we become effective witnesses to the power of the resurrection.

            It is critical that Jesus shows those first witnesses the wounds in his hands and feet.  Those wounds continue to be seen in his risen body, because they are powerful signs of his incredible love for us.  In working to love God and neighbor, we can better understand our own wounds.  Whether wounded by abuse or hatred or even the ravages of this pandemic, we can bear our wounds and trust in the Lord’s healing power.  When we can do this, we become powerful witnesses of the resurrection and give hope to our world.

 

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

11 APRIL 2021

 

          During this Octave of Easter, the Gospel of Saint John has given us the story of people coming to faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We began with Mary Magdalene, who comes to the tomb not only in the darkness of night, but also in the darkness of her grief and despair.  She sees the empty tomb and the burial cloths lying on the ground.  She runs to Peter and the Beloved Disciple to complain that someone had stolen the Lord’s body.  She returns to the tomb to hear confusing sounds from angels.  She mistakes the risen Christ for the gardener and asks where he has put the body.  Finally, she recognizes him when he calls her by name, and she becomes the apostle to the apostles, proclaiming the good news of the risen Christ.

            Today we see the movement of the disciples to Easter faith.  Even though Mary Magdalene had announced the good news, the disciples lock themselves in the upper room out of fear.  They fear that the authorities could come after them.  They also fear.  If Christ has risen from the dead, he will be angry with them for abandoning him in his darkest hour.  But, the risen Christ breaks through their locked doors.  He gives them his peace.  He shows them the signs of his love – the wounds in his hands and feet.  In breathing on them, he gives them the Holy Spirit, not only forgiving their sins, but also giving them the authority to forgive the sins of others.

            Finally, Saint John shows us the journey to Easter faith of Thomas.  We do not know why Thomas was not with the rest of the disciples on Easter Sunday.  We can only speculate.  He must have been in incredible grief and despair, like the others.  But he had bragged that he would die with Jesus in returning to Judea to raise Lazarus from the dead.  Instead of dying with him, he had run away.  Immersed in guilt and possibly hatred for those who killed his master, Thomas withdraws from the assembly and refuses to believe.  Jesus breaks through the locked doors again and repeats his message of peace and forgiveness.  He shows Thomas the signs of his love, and Thomas proclaims the ultimate faith in the risen Christ:  “My Lord and my God.”

            We can identify with the characters in John’s Gospel.  Sometimes we are like Mary Magdalene – so caught up in the darkness of life that we miss the clues of the resurrection.  At other times, we are like the disciples hiding behind locked doors out of fear.  Or maybe we might be like Thomas, so paralyzed by guilt or hatred that we separate ourselves from the believing community.  In truth, the experience of this pandemic has amplified all of these reactions.

            That is why we need Easter so desperately.  Child psychologists argue that the best gift parents can give to their children is to show up for them.  When parents show up, they spend time with their children, gently guide them, and prepare them with their presence to take their places in an adult and frightening world.  That is exactly what the risen Christ does in every one of these accounts.  He shows up and calms the fears of his disciples.  He reassures them that he is present to them.  He sends them forth to proclaim the incredible truth that has transformed the world.  Easter reminds us that he continues to “show up.”  He shows up in the Sacramental life of the Church.  He shows up in the clues of his resurrection, including this new season of spring and the hopeful signs that there is an end to this pandemic.

            We live in a most polarized time, both in terms of the Church and our surrounding culture.  But, if we focus our attention on the presence of the risen Christ in our midst, then we too can experience the reality expressed in the Acts of the Apostles.  Despite our divisions, we are of one heart and mind, regarding our possessions as secondary, and bearing witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

           

 

EASTER SUNDAY

4 APRIL 2021

 

          Unlike our experience at Christmas, we are allowed to sing at Easter.  Even when singing behind masks, our voices proclaim the Mystery of the Lord’s resurrection from the dead.  We sing about something God has never done before.  The risen Christ breaks the chains of death and transforms the world as we know it.  Christ invites us to sing this Mystery with our voices and renew our faith in our hearts.

            But on Easter Sunday, we also sing a question.  The Easter Sequence has us pleading: “O Mary, come and say, what you saw at break of day.”  We want Mary Magdalene to share with us the good news.  No matter how many Easters we have celebrated, we still do not understand this Mystery.  We are still caught up in the restrictions and arguments of this pandemic.  Those whom we love continue to die.  The power of disease and failure and loss still has a strong hold on our lives and experiences.  The newness of the resurrection is not always obvious in our daily lives.  So we implore:  “Mary, speak.  What did you see?”

Mary’s response is unsettling.  In this part of the story, she has not yet seen the risen Christ.  The sights and sounds of the resurrection are odd and mysterious.  Mary has seen the empty tomb.  She has seen the burial cloths deprived of a body.  She has heard an angel making unbelievable claims.  Mary sees the glory of the risen Lord only in these small clues.  Neither do we see the risen Lord in our Gospel on Easter Sunday.  Instead, we join Mary in piecing together these clues. After seeing the empty tomb, Mary tells Peter that someone has taken the body.  She doesn’t begin to grasp the truth.  Maybe she can’t dare to believe it.

Later on the day of resurrection, Mary encounters the risen Christ.  However, she does not recognize him.  Instead, she thinks that he is the gardener and asks where they have taken the Lord’s body.  She recognizes him when he addresses her by name.  Only then can Mary proclaim her faith:  “I saw Christ Jesus risen and adored!”  The risen Christ tells her not to hold onto him, because the resurrection has radically changed his relationship with her.

The same is true for us.  The Lord’s resurrection is complete.  He has restored our relationship with him.  But, our participation in the resurrection is not complete.  We certainly encounter his real presence in this Eucharist, just as the disciples recognized the Lord in the breaking of bread at Emmaus.  But when we are dismissed from this Mass, we are like Mary Magdalene.  We must piece together the clues and hints of the resurrection in our daily lives. Those clues and hints are there.  We are just beginning to shed the darkness and cold of winter to embrace the new life that spring offers us.  We can enjoy the companionship of each other at our Easter feasts, in contrast to the isolation of last Easter, when we were all locked down.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel in this pandemic.  Many more are getting the vaccines.  Life is beginning to return to normal.  We can already see the beginnings of our community of faith being restored and even strengthened after this long cross of pandemic that we have endured.  We can recognize hints of the risen Lord in the mercy we receive from others and the mercy which we give to those who have harmed us. We can heed Saint Paul’s advice to throw out the old yeast of wickedness and malice and provide hints of the resurrection by renewing our baptismal promises and living them more completely.  There are hints and clues all around us.  All we have to do is to open our eyes of faith to recognize them.

We can join Mary’s joyful proclamation of faith:  “Yes, Christ my hope rose gloriously.  He goes before you into Galilee.  Share the good news, sing joyfully:  His death is victory!  Lord Jesus, Victor King, show us mercy.”  Happy Easter!