PENTECOST SUNDAY

19 MAY 2024

 

          The Jewish Feast of Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Passover.  In the first century, Jews would arrive on pilgrimage to Jerusalem from throughout the known world.  Like Catholics visiting the Vatican today, they spoke different languages.  But together, they celebrated the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.  They recalled that incredible event when a mighty wind shook the mountain.  Flashes of lightning revealed God’s presence.  In giving the law, Moses gave them the language to speak of their relationship with God and with each another.  At Mount Sinai they became aware that they were God’s chosen people.  God had freed them from slavery in Egypt and led them through the Red Sea.  God fed them with manna in the desert and would lead them to the Promised Land.  By observing Pentecost, faithful Jews celebrated the Covenant given to them by God and renewed their commitment to it.

            In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke tells us that the disciples are in one place together on the Feast of Pentecost.  That is in marked contrast to what happened to them after the Last Supper.  They had been scattered like rats when Jesus was betrayed and arrested.  On the birthday of the Church, all Christians are in one place, an impossibility today with billions of Christians.  Suddenly, there is a strong wind, much like the mighty wind which shook Mount Sinai.  Tongues as of fire appear to them.  They are driven out of the safety of that room to begin their mission of proclaiming the truth about Jesus Christ.  Jews from every nation and every language understand what they are saying.  They have received the Advocate promised by Jesus at the Last Supper.  Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they will speak the language of the Paschal Mystery fearlessly, putting them at odds with the languages of their contemporary culture.

            That same Holy Spirit is given to us, individually, and as a Church.  The Holy Spirit enables us to speak the truth about the Paschal Mystery.  For the last ninety days, we have reflected on how to behave as disciples of Jesus Christ.  Lent taught us that we must share in the sufferings, cross, and death of Jesus Christ.  The Easter Season has reminded us that our efforts to die with Christ will not be the end.  We will share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We too can speak the language of love in a world filled with hate, division, war, and revenge.

            There is a very popular book called The Five Love Languages.  It explains that saying “I love you” is not the only way to express authentic love.  The best communication happens when the recipient is fluent in one of the five languages.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit.  When we were on pilgrimage to the Holy Land a couple of years ago, we visited the Church of Saint Anne’s near the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem.  That church has perfect natural acoustics.  Our group began singing the “Salve Regina.”  Even with our limited choral abilities, we sounded great.  Then other groups began to join in, with each group singing in their own language.  The singing united everyone in that church through languages and cultures.  It was a miniature version of Pentecost.

            Saint Paul reminds us that we need to live by the Spirit.  If we live by the Spirit, we can speak the language of love, even to those with whom we disagree on political or cultural matters.  If we are guided by the Spirit, then we can produce the fruits of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  The Spirit can guide us as members of the Body of Christ to produce these fruits in a culture which badly needs them.

 

  

 

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

12 MAY 2024

 

          Today, the disciples find themselves in a place of uncertainty, in an in-between time.  They had left everything to follow him.  In their three years with him, they had listened to his teachings and witnessed his miracles.  They were convinced that he was the long-awaited Messiah.  However, their hopes were dashed when his life was ended by the cruelest tool of Roman occupation.  It seemed that Rome had won again in their work of domination.  However, he not only survived Rome’s power.  He was raised from the dead.  Saint Luke tells us in the Acts of the Apostles that the risen Lord had appeared to them over the course of forty days.  That symbolic number  indicates that they had been given sufficient time to appreciate his incredible victory over death and to deepen their faith in his risen presence.

            In the Ascension, their risen Lord is taken from space and time to return to the right hand of the Father.  In this in-between time, they do not know what to do.  All of us have been stuck at one time or another in an in-between time.  Mothers, you know what the in-between time is like.  You have carefully nurtured your children, and now you have to let them go to school.  Or, you have invested all of your time and energy in your vocation of being a mother, and your adult child has left the nest to begin a new life.  Graduating students, you are in an in-between time.  You have completed your years of education.  And now you await the next step into an unknown way of living.  To be honest, I am in an in-between time myself.  I know what it is like to be the pastor of a parish.  I have no idea what it will be like to be a retired priest without that role.

            Anyone caught in an in-between time can learn from the experience of the first disciples.  Like them, we need to pay attention to the two men dressed in white garments.  They were the same ones at the empty tomb on the day of resurrection who asked the question, “Why are you looking for the living among the dead?”  Today they ask, “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?”  Their questions challenge the disciples to see this in-between time as a new beginning both for the risen Christ and for them.  They tell them to stop looking up to the sky and begin the mission of proclaiming the Good News they learned from the risen Lord.  The Kingdom of God is in their midst, and that the victory has been won by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

            Of course, they will remain in the same messy occupation by Rome when they emerge from their in-between time.  That is why the risen Christ assures the disciples that signs will accompany their mission.  In their mission to proclaim the good news, they will have the power to drive out the demons of hatred and division.  They can speak the new language of love.  They can pick up the serpents of oppression and persecution.  They can drink the deadly poison of lies and fake news.  They can become instruments of God’s healing for the sick.

            They will be able to do all these things, because they will receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit will drive them out of their isolation in that upper room in Jerusalem and give them the courage for their mission.  As we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit on each of us and on our Church next Sunday, we can have that same confidence.  The Easter Season has not changed our world.  We continue to live in the same world of division, conflict, lies and half-truths, war, and a general disrespect for the dignity of human life.  But we can emerge from any in-between time confident that we are not alone in our mission, and confident that we will succeed.  As the risen Christ promised, he is with us always.

 

 

 

SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

5 MAY 2024

 

          The first Letter of Saint John tells us that God loves us.  God revealed his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.  Not only did Jesus take on human flesh, but he loved us so much that he gave himself completely by dying on the cross for us.  Because God loved us first and showed what that love looks like, God invites us to imitate his self-giving love by loving one another in this same way.  We come to know God in the way we behave toward God and each other.

            This is the message Jesus gives to his disciples at the Last Supper today.  Jesus call them friends, because they have remained with him for three years and have freely accepted his love.  He shows them how to love one another by washing their feet like a humble slave.  He promises that he will be present whenever they do what he does at the Last Supper – taking bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to them.  He will demonstrate his most incredible love by allowing himself to be sacrificed as the Lamb of God on the next day on the cross.  He commands them to love as he has loved them.

            He gives this same message to us at this Mass.  We became his friends when we passed through the waters of Baptism.  Boys and girls, you will go back to the Baptismal Font walking on your own legs.  When your parents brought you to the waters of Baptism, they carried you, with many of you crying.  Your parents and your godparents made the promises for you.  Now, you will renew those promises and bless yourselves with the water from the font.  As you were clothed with a white garment to demonstrate that you had put on Christ, you wear these white garments to connect you with your baptism.  Then, you will bring up the gifts of bread and wine and the sacrificial tithe and receive Jesus for the first time in the Holy Eucharist.

            The sacrificial gift of Jesus in the Paschal Mystery happened only one time.  Only once did he share the final meal with his disciples.  Only once did he give himself out of sacrificial love on the cross.  Only once was he raised from the dead.  Only once did he ascend to the right hand of the Father.  But those saving acts are made present at every Mass when we do what he told his disciples to do at the Last Supper.  After renewing your baptismal promises, we will take gifts of bread and wine.  In the Eucharistic Prayer, we will bless the Father for the sacrifice of Jesus made present here.  As we sing the Lamb of God, we will break the consecrated host.  Then we will give it to you.  Because we are doing what Jesus told us to do, those saving actions are made present as we remember.  You will eat the bread transformed into the Lord’s Body.  You will drink the wine changed into his blood.

            As friends of Jesus, we need to receive this Eucharist often so that we can love one another as Jesus has loved us.  Saint Peter understood the importance of the Eucharist in his life.  As a faithful Jew, he had never entered into the house of a pagan.  And yet, he followed the promptings of the Holy Spirit and dared to enter the house of Cornelius.  Not only was Cornelius a non-Jew, but he is also a Centurion who was part of the oppressive Roman occupation of his people.  In taking this risk, Peter baptized Cornelius and began to understand that the message of Jesus Christ must go to all people.  Peter realized that he was the instrument of God’s initiative to proclaim the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.

            As we receive the Lord’s body and blood, we need to trust that we will be strengthened to make difficult choices and embrace sacrifices to love as Jesus has loved us.  And boys and girls, you lead the way for us today!

 

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

28 APRIL 2024

 

          Last Sunday, we celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday.  In his Gospel, Saint John says that Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  He knows each of us by name, as ancient shepherds knew each of their sheep by name.  He loves us so much that he has laid down his life for us.  As the priests were sacrificing the lambs at the altar in the temple for the Passover on the Day of Preparation, the true Lamb of God was being sacrificed across Jerusalem on a hill of execution.  By entering into death, Jesus defeated the power of sin and death.  As the Lamb of God who gave himself completely out of love for us, he feeds us with his Body and Blood at this Mass.

            Today, the First Letter of Saint John reminds us that we must imitate that selfless love in our lives.  He calls us children and insists that we “love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.”  We love by keeping his commandments.  We keep the first commandment when we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ.  If we believe that he has loved us first, then we can keep the second commandment.  We can love one another just as he has commanded us.

            We became children of God when we passed through the waters of Baptism.  To use the image of today’s Gospel, we were grafted as branches onto the true vine that is Jesus Christ.  If we remain connected with the life-giving vine of Jesus, then we can bear much fruit.  Like Paul and Barnabas who boldly proclaimed the truth about Jesus Christ, we too can win believers to Christ.  In bearing fruit, we can share the great love of the Good Shepherd to each other.

            That is why the Eucharist is so critical for our efforts to live as authentic branches of the one vine.  We were baptized only one time when we were grafted as branches onto the one vine and became members of the Body of Christ.  We were sealed with the Holy Spirit only once in the Sacrament of Confirmation.  But we are fed with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ every Sunday, or every day if we choose.  Because it is so difficult to love others as the Lamb of God has loved us, we need the Eucharist to strengthen us.  As Saint Augustine reminds us, we become what we receive.  Every time we receive the Lord’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we are changed a little more into who we are:  The Body of Jesus Christ in our world.

            Boys and girls, in just a couple of minutes, we will walk to the Baptismal Font.  After you were baptized and grafted onto the true vine, you were clothed with a white garment, signifying that you put on Christ.  Wearing a white garment now, you will renew your baptismal promises and dip your hands into the waters of the font.  Then you will bring up the gifts and receive the Lord in the Eucharist for the first time.  You will receive the Lord’s promise that he will remain with you, that the Lord will dwell with you and deepen that indwelling every time you come to be fed by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

            The Lord does not promise that everything will go perfectly with you and with any of us who share the Eucharist on a regular basis.  He warns that we will be pruned.  The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles explains how Saint Paul was pruned.  Before his conversion from Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, he worked closely with the Hellenists.  Now they want to kill him.  The disciples of Jesus are afraid of him because of what he had done to Stephen and the other disciples.  As he proclaimed the Good News throughout the Mediterranean Sea, he was pruned many times.  However, the Eucharist sustained him.  The Eucharist sustains us, connects us more closely with the other members of the Body of Christ, and strengthens us to endure whatever difficulties we may experience in the future.

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

21 APRIL 2024

 

            The image of God as a shepherd is a classic one in Scripture.  Just as shepherds guarded, guided, protected, and watched over their sheep, God guards, guides, protects, and watches over Israel.  That is why God expected the human leaders of ancient Israel to be good shepherds of their people.  The prophet Ezekiel criticized the leaders of his day.  He accused them of being shepherds taking care of themselves and neglecting the care of their flock.  Their failure to be good shepherds resulted in the calamity suffered by their people.  He promised that God would some day shepherd his people himself.

            We see this prophecy fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ.  At the top of our triumphal arch, the Good Shepherd is seated, drawing the sheep to himself.  As we meditate on this image, we are reminded that we are those sheep.  We are called to be the lamb seated on his lap.  There is another image of the Good shepherd outside the entrance to the Parish Education Center.  It is a copy of a statue believed to be the first image of Jesus the Good Shepherd.  The shepherd is young and without a beard.  He carries a lamb on his shoulders, bringing that lamb through dark valleys and dangerous places to a place of rest and refreshment.

            Today, Jesus proclaims himself as the Good Shepherd, using the words “I am.”  When Moses asked God to identify himself in the burning bush, God responded “I am.”  In the Gospel of Saint John, the first descriptive title given to Jesus comes from the mouth of Saint John the Baptist:  “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  At the end of the Gospel, the high priest Caiaphas argues that it was “better for one man to die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”  His statement is fulfilled in ways that he could never have imagined.  At noon on the Day of Preparation, Caiaphas sacrifices an unblemished lamb on the altar in the temple to inaugurate the beginning of the Passover observance.  Across town, outside the city walls, the true Lamb of God, Jesus, voluntarily and once-and-for all lays down his life on the cross of execution, “lest the whole of humanity perish.” 

            On the night of Jesus’ trial before the Sanhedrin, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times out of fear.  In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter boldly proclaims the truth about Jesus Christ to the Sanhedrin.  He had encountered the risen Lord and had been filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  What he tells them, he tells us.  We can trust the love of the Good Shepherd, because he knows each of us by name.  He has laid down his life on the cross for us, as shepherds would lay down their lives at the entrance of the sheepfolds at night.  There were no gates at these sheepfolds.  They became the gate preventing wolves and thieves from attacking their flock.  He has become the Lamb of God who feeds us with his Body and Blood. 

            He calls us to imitate his selfless and total love in our roles as shepherds.  He speaks to us who are priests or deacons, teachers, mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, or brothers and sisters.  Filled with the Holy Spirit and fed by the risen Lord’s real presence in the Eucharist, we too must lay down our lives for those entrusted to our care.  When we are humble enough to imitate his example, it is the Good Shepherd working through us who continues the work of salvation.  There is no salvation through anyone else.

            Today’s Collect sums it up.  “Almighty ever-living God, lead us to share in the joys of heaven, so that the humble flock may reach where the brave shepherd has gone before.”  We already share the joys of heaven when we give ourselves in humble service.

 

 

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

14 APRIL 2024

 

            In the passage preceding today’s Gospel, two of the disciples of Jesus had left Jerusalem and were heading for the village of Emmaus, seven miles away.  They were disappointed and broken.  On their way, the risen Christ joined them.  With his risen body transformed, they did not recognize him.  Thinking that he was a stranger, they told him their story.  They had been disciples of Jesus and had been convinced that he was the Messiah.  But he had been executed like a common criminal.  They were running away.  After listening to their pain, Jesus began to speak.  He connected the sayings of the prophets with his experience.  Listening to him, their hearts began to burn within them.  Even though he indicated that he was going further, he agreed to stay with them.  When he took bread, blessed, broke, and gave, they recognized him.  Despite the danger of traveling at night, they immediately returned to Jerusalem. 

            Today’s Gospel picks up that story.  As they are telling the other disciples what happened on the way, the risen Christ stands in their midst.  They do not recognize him.  But he greets them with the words, “Peace be with you.”  Jesus breaks, shares and unlocks for them the words of Scripture.  They begin to understand, and in the process are transformed themselves.  Then they share a meal with the risen Lord, whose transformed body contains the same wounds that were visible on the cross.  Then the risen Lord gives them the mandate to preach in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem to go and transform all the world.

            This is exactly what happens at this Mass.  We began the Mass by being reminded that we are baptized members of the Body of Christ with the sprinkling rite.  Then we heard the Word of the Lord.  Saint Luke emphasizes that the disciples are not seeing a ghost.  They are encountering a physical person who is eating with them. As soon as I stop talking, we will profess our faith and offer our intentions.  Then we will celebrate the Eucharist.  We do not encounter the risen Lord in the same physical way that those original disciples did.  But we encounter his risen presence in a very real way when we feast on his Body and Blood under the form of bread and wine.  Finally, we are dismissed from this Mass to spread the Good News.  We cannot keep the good news to ourselves.

            Throughout this Easter Season, the Scripture readings invite us to renew our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The first reading for every Mass is taken from the Acts of the Apostles.  In this second volume, Saint Luke helps us to understand how the good news is spread from Jerusalem to the end of the earth (Rome, at that time).  The first members of the Christian community  have accepted the testimony of the original witnesses.  They cannot keep their faith to themselves.  Peter may have denied knowing Jesus out of fear after the Last Supper.  But he has encountered the risen Lord and has known the Lord’s peace and mercy.  He has received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  He is not afraid to proclaim the central mystery of our faith to anyone who hears him.  He tells them that those who crucified him did so out of ignorance.  But with the knowledge that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has raised him from the dead, he invites his listeners to repent and be converted.       

            He speaks this same message to us, who profess our faith in the resurrection while still suffering wounds and being tempted to fall back into sin.  The Letter of Saint John tells us that we express our faith in the resurrection by keeping the commandments.  When we are sent forth from this Mass, we proclaim the good news by redoubling our efforts to love God and neighbor in very specific ways.

 

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

7 APRIL 2024

 

            On the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala had come to the tomb of Jesus in the dark.  The darkness was not only the absence of daylight.  The darkness expressed her grief and despair, because she had come to complete the anointing of his dead body.  Later, in the light of that eighth day of the new creation, she encountered the risen Lord and became the Apostle to the Apostles.  She announced the news to the Apostles that he had been raised from the dead. 

            On that same day, they remain in darkness.  In the darkness of the evening, they lock themselves in a room.  Saint John says that they had locked the doors out of fear of the Jews.  They fear that the authorities might do to them what they did to Jesus.  They are also afraid of Jesus.  If Mary Magdalene is telling the truth, Jesus must be angry with them.  Most of them had abandoned him at his darkest hour. Thomas had bragged that he would go to Bethany to die with Jesus.  At the Last Supper, Peter insisted that he would never deny him.  But when one of their own betrayed him and handed him over to be crucified, most of them had run away. 

            Just as the risen Christ had broken through the locked heart of Mary Magdalene, he now breaks through the locked doors of the place where the Apostles are hiding.  He shows them his hands and his side.  He has been raised from the dead.  It is the same body scarred by the nails and spear.  Instead of scolding them, his first words are, “Peace be with you.”  He speaks these words of forgiveness and mercy again and breathes the Holy Spirit on them.”  He tells them to give that same mercy to others.  We receive that gift of mercy every time we encounter the Lord in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

            Saint John does not tell us why Thomas is not with them.  More than likely, his heart is  troubled.  Perhaps his intense grief is made worse by the guilt of what he had bragged about before going to the tomb of Lazarus.  In being separated from the community of believers, he remains in the darkness of unbelief and grief.  On the next Sunday, united with the community, he makes the most profound expression of faith when he sees the wounds:  “My Lord and my God.”  In response, Jesus proclaims that those who have not seen as he has seen will be blessed.

            Jesus is talking about us!  We have not encountered the physical body of the risen Lord as those first disciples had done.  But, we trust that they were telling the truth.  Their encounter with the risen Lord profoundly changed their lives.  In response, they gave their gifts of mercy and forgiveness to others, even to those who persecuted them and took their lives from them.

            In the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke describes the community of faith formed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  They are of one heart and mind.  They share their possessions with one another, especially with those who were needy.  During this Easter Season, we will hear from the Acts of the Apostles as our first reading.  We will hear about how they cooperated with the Holy Spirit.  We will hear how they failed.

            As we reflect on their witness, we can reflect on our own community of faith.  Our community is formed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Sometimes we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes we fail.  Like Thomas, we can bring our darkness and fears to our encounter with the risen Lord when we come to Mass.  We can bring our wounds.  We can acknowledge our doubts.  We need to understand that facing our doubts and wounds can be a way of coming to a deeper faith, as Thomas did.  But we must not make the same mistake that he did.  We cannot separate ourselves from this faith community, with all our successes and failures.  Alone and isolated, we are vulnerable.  Gathered here as a community, we can allow the Holy Spirit to breathe courage when we have locked our hearts and minds to the presence of the risen Lord.