THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

4 MAY 2025

 

            When Simon Peter climbs on shore and sees the charcoal fire, could he be thinking of another charcoal fire?  The one burning in the courtyard of the high priest?  As he was warming himself around that fire while Jesus was being tried by the Sanhedrin, he had denied three times that he knows him.  He deeply regrets those denials.  The risen Christ brings them up when he asks Peter three times if he loves him.  He asks three times not to rub salt into Peter’s wounds, but to heal him.  He asks, because he knows that Peter is deeply sorry for his sins.  Jesus continues to invite Peter to be the leader of his Church by inviting him to feed his lambs, tend his sheep, and feed his sheep.  I would have said, “You blew it, Peter.  I am appointing John to lead my Church.  I always liked him better anyway!”

            Not Jesus!  He has always invited flawed human beings to be in positions of authority in his Church.  It is interesting to reflect on this Gospel as the College of Cardinals gathers in the Conclave on Wednesday to elect the next successor to Saint Peter.  It is true that the successor of Saint Peter has the gift of infallibility when he makes a definition about a dogma in union with his fellow bishops.  However, individual popes have always been fallible human beings.  Eamon Duffy has written Saints and Sinners, A History of the Popes.  It is an interesting book to read, because he tells the story of outstanding and holy popes.  But he also describes those popes who were corrupt and far from holiness. 

            When he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict said this about the Conclave of Cardinals gathered to elect a new pope: “I would not say … that the Holy Spirit picks out the Pope, because there are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would obviously have not picked.  I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us.  Thus, the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote.  Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”  When he says that “The thing cannot totally be ruined,” he is alluding to the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  Jesus calls Peter the “Rock” upon which he will build his Church.  He promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  The Holy Spirit has clearly been guiding the Church over the last 2,000 years.  Duffy’s book proves that Jesus Christ has clearly kept his promise.  The thing cannot totally be ruined!

            During my lifetime, there have been several conclaves.  Each of them has given us holy and dedicated men called to be successors of Simon Peter.  Each pope has brought his own gifts and personality to the papacy.  Pope John XIII brought a sense of humanity to the papacy and surprised everyone by calling the Second Vatican Council.  Pope Paul VI had the difficult task of completing the Council after John’s death and always looked sad.  Pope John Paul I brought many smiles to the job and lasted only a month.  Pope John Paul II was a philosopher and an extravert who attracted large crowds to hear him.  Pope Benedict was an introvert and a brilliant scholar and teacher who seldom spoke off the cuff.  Pope Francis was a pastor who cared deeply for his flock, especially those on the peripheries.  He never hesitated to talk off the cuff, sometimes causing people to roll their eyes and wonder what he was talking about.  As a pastor myself, I do that all the time!

            Be sure to pray for the Cardinals as they enter into the Conclave on Wednesday.  Pray that they remain open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  We wait together for the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel.  No matter who gets elected, the Church will be fine.

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

27 APRIL 2025

 

          Saint John reports that the disciples of Jesus had locked themselves the upper room on that first day of the week for fear of the Jews.  He is not singling out a race of people when he uses the word “the Jews.”  Unfortunately, too many people over the centuries have read the Gospel incorrectly and have promoted anti-Semitism.  He refers to the religious leaders at the time of Jesus.  The disciples are afraid of that group, because they had been responsible for executing their master in a most cruel way.  They feared that they would be next.  But, there is one particular Jew that they fear:  Jesus himself!  If the reports from the women are correct, Jesus has been raised from the dead.  They could be very much afraid of him, because they had let him down so badly.  The one who had called them to be his disciples and who had loved them so faithfully and fearlessly for three years has gone through a horrible ordeal.  In his most desperate time of need, they had run away and abandoned him.  Surely, he would express his anger and disappointment when he would confront them.

            The risen Christ breaks through their locked doors of fear.  He shows them the wounds in his hands and feet to help them identify him.  Instead of berating them for abandoning him in his darkest hour, he wishes them peace.  Two times, he says “Peace be with you.”  On the following Sunday, he gives the same gift to Thomas, moving him from doubt to the most profound profession of faith in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God.”

            Christ’s resurrection is not only powerful for them.  It remains powerful for us, in at least three ways.  First, he gives us that same peace.  Like those original disciples, we live in a divided and dangerous world.  We too are tempted to lock ourselves up out of fear and spend all of our energy worrying about what will happen next.  Through the resurrection of his Son, the Father offers us a peace that the world cannot give.

            Second, the scars of the Son are very important.  In his resurrected body, he is not recognized by his closest disciples.  But in those awful wounds, they see the one who has loved them so much.  He made himself so vulnerable that he allowed soldiers to pierce his hands and feet with nails, and to pierce his side with a lance.  The disciples now understand that they too can be vulnerable.  Even though they had abandoned him and failed him in so many ways, the Holy Spirit sends them on mission, not as perfect ambassadors, but as men and women with weaknesses and flaws.  Today, as we pray for the repose of the soul of Pope Francis and wait as the cardinals enter into the conclave to elect his successor, we see the divisions and wounds in our Church.  But the Holy Spirit still works in our wounded Church and our individual wounds.

            Finally, the Holy Spirit gives mercy to us.  As Catholics, we understand this passage as the first indication of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Not only does Jesus Christ give the peace of his Father to his first disciples.  Through the Sacrament, he forgives our sins and reconciles us with the Father when we fail to live our baptismal promises.  We call today “Mercy Sunday,” not only because the risen Christ gives mercy to each one of us, but also because we are expected to extend that same mercy to those who have betrayed, abandoned, and hurt us.  He pushes us out of our locked doors of guilt to bring that mercy to others.

            The risen Christ speaks to us when he says to Thomas and the other disciples: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”  We have not seen the transformed body of the risen Christ as they did.  But we experience his risen presence when we hear him speaking to us in the Word.  We encounter him in the breaking of bread and the sharing of the cup.  He sends us from this Mass to spread the good news of the resurrection to a fearful and divided world.

 

EASTER SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD

20 APRIL 2025

 

          Saint John says that it is dark when Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb.  He not only describes the darkness of the early morning of the first day of the week.  He is also talking about the darkness which Mary Magdalene herself brings with her.  She is grieving in a very dark way at the death of Jesus, her beloved mentor.  When she arrives, she sees that the stone has been removed from the tomb.  She reacts by running to Simon Peter and the other disciples whom Jesus loved.  She tells them that someone had taken his body from the tomb, and she does not know where they put him.  Simon Peter and the beloved disciple react by running to the tomb themselves.  When they arrive, they recognize that the tomb is empty, and that the grave clothes are folded and the cloth that had covered his head is rolled up in a separate place.  The beloved disciple allows Simon Peter to enter first.  He does not know what to make of it. 

            The beloved disciple sees and believes that something extraordinary has happened.  With Mary Magdalene, he had been present when the Lord died on the cross.  He had been part of his burial.  However, Simon Peter had not been present at the crucifixion and burial.  Probably, he is still wallowing in deep pain and regret for his three-time denial that he knew Jesus when we was warming himself by the fire in the courtyard of the high priest.

            Later, all three would remember the Scriptures to allow them to move from recognition to a deep and abiding faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That happens to Mary Magdalene when the risen Christ will reveal himself to her later in the day, after she thought that he was the gardener.  That will happen to Peter and the other disciples when Jesus will break though the locked doors of the upper room that evening as the risen Lord.  Peter’s belief in the resurrection of the Lord is evident in his words which we heard in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  Not only has he encountered the risen Lord in the upper room, but the risen Lord has forgiven and healed his denials by asking three times if Peter loves him when he appears to Peter and the other disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

            On Easter Sunday, we come to the empty tomb again.  In our busy and hectic lives, we do a lot of running, just as those three characters are running in today’s Gospel.  Each of us comes to Easter Sunday with whatever is happening in our lives.  Some of you come today having lost a loved one in death.  You come with heavy hearts and profound grief.  Some of you have faced job losses and the danger of economic havoc.  Others come burdened by physical illness and pain.  To be honest, all of us come to Easter Sunday worried about the political divisions that bring the anger and disputes and a dreadful uncertainty about the future of our country.

            Easter Sunday challenges us to deepen our faith in the Mystery of the resurrection, as those three characters in today’s Gospel did.  We begin by reacting.  After celebrating the Liturgies of Holy Thursday and Good Friday, we react to the fact that the Lord’s body is not in the tomb.  We can easily say, “Jesus is not here, he is risen.”  Then we run back into our busy lives.  Instead, we need to take time to recognize that the power of the Lord’s resurrection can become a more profound part of our lives.  That is whey we celebrate the Season of Easter for fifty days.  When we gather to hear the Word of God and remember the Scriptures in these next Sundays of the Easter Season, we can reflect more deeply on the truth we recognize today.  Death and sin and the horrors of this world do not have the last word.  We can experience a little bit of the Lord’s rising every time we deliberately enter into his dying.  Not only do each of those deaths give us a share in his rising, but the final answer at the end of the world and the end of our lives is not death.  It is life, and an eternal sharing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

 

EVENING MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

17 APRIL 2025

 

          The first reading from the Book of Exodus helps us understand the background for Saint Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians.  Moses instructs his people to gather as families to slaughter an unblemished lamb.  They are to take the blood and smear it on the lintels of their homes, so that the angel of death can pass over their homes.  As they eat the flesh of the lamb, they are to prepare themselves to pass over from slavery to freedom in their journey to the Promised Land.        

            Jesus follows these instructions and gathers his disciples to celebrate the Passover as a family.  But he goes beyond the original Passover Meal.  He will be he unblemished lamb to be sacrificed on Calvary.  In taking the unleavened bread, he identifies it as his own body, given up for them.  In taking the cup, he reveals the new covenant established in his own blood poured out for them.  He establishes the Eucharist as a perpetual remembrance of his real presence in the new covenant.  He speaks to us in insisting that every time we celebrate this Eucharist as Saint Paul commanded the Corinthians, he is really and truly present.

            Last week, I read a report from a psychologist who insisted that half of Americans are afflicted with loneliness.  She provided an interesting solution to this problem.  She urged lonely people to make a list of three things for which they are grateful each day.  She argued that keeping these lists of gratitude will combat loneliness.  That is why we gather to celebrate the Eucharist every Sunday, or every day if we choose.  We do not gather as isolated individuals making lists, we gather as a community of disciples to give thanks to the Father not only for all that we have received.  With the Greek word for Eucharist meaning thanksgiving, we especially give thanks to the Father for the sacrifice of Jesus made present as we remember it at Mass.

            In the Gospel of Saint John, there is no account of the Lord instituting the Eucharist at the Last Supper, as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Paul do.  He has already given his theology of the Real Presence in chapter six.  Instead, Saint John tells us that Jesus washes the feet of his disciples.  In the ancient world, the best way for a host to welcome a visitor would be to have the visitor’s feet washed.  Those dirty, ugly, and smelly feet are the results of many miles walked through dusty roads.  The host himself would not lower himself to do this humble task.  Instead, a servant or a slave or one of the children would do it.

            Jesus reverses the order of a master dominating and the servant obeying.  Saint Augustine identified the dysfunction of human society when he names the lust to dominate.  In becoming the servant, he reverses the dysfunction of human society and teaches us how to be humble servants.  He anticipates his ultimate act of giving his life totally out of love for us on the cross.  In doing so, he teaches us how to love as he has loved us.  In the Eucharist, he nourishes us with his own Body and Blood so that we can be humble servants and foot washers today.  He nourishes parents to wash the feet of their children.  He feeds bosses and managers so they can take care of those who work under them.  He feeds every single one of us to reverse the lust of dominance to make a difference in our world today.  He sends us out of this and every Mass to keep our eyes open and to humble ourselves to serve those people.

            Normally, we end our homilies at this point.  But not only Holy Thursday.  Tonight, I will wash the feet of twelve parishioners known for their humble service to this parish and to those in need.  In this Sacred Paschal Triduum, we are not just acting out events that happened over 2,000 years ago.  We are participating in the saving actions of Jesus Christ, who continues to free us from whatever holds us back.  We are a Eucharistic people, becoming what we consume.  As the Body of Christ, we give ourselves in humble service.

 

PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

13 APRIL 2025

 

            In 1931, Gertrud von Le Fort wrote a novel, entitled The Song at the Scaffold.  It was about the true story of a Carmelite community of nuns in France, who were executed in the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.  During a moving scene, the nuns are observing the “blasphemous mockeries of Eucharistic processions.”  One of the sisters refers to the Eucharist as “the defenseless God.”  Her remarks describe how dependent God in the Eucharist is on human respect and faith.  God in the Eucharist is wholly vulnerable to human choice and action, whether that action is faith-filled and reverent or blasphemous and denigrating.

            Ours is a God who does not shield himself from buffets and spitting.  To use the words of Saint Paul, Jesus does not grasp at divinity as an escape from (or punishment for) human weakness. This Passion according to Saint Luke sets the stage for our reflection on the final chapter in the continuing story of God’s choice to be vulnerable to human sin.

            Lent ends this Thursday evening when we enter into the Sacred Paschal Triduum and celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 6:00.  We are invited to stay with the Lord through the Passover Meal and the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We will witness the denial in the courtyard of the high priest, along with the solitude of the night in custody and the mockery of the council of elders.  On Good Friday at the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion at 1:00, we will visit the shuffle between Pilate and Herod, along with the brutality of scourging and the carrying of the cross.  On Calvary, we will hear the reproach of friend and foe alike, the last breath, and the placement of the dead body into his mother’s arms.

            We will begin with the darkness of that death at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening at 9:00.  But throughout that incredibly beautiful Liturgy, we will renew our faith that the horrors of this reality will be replaced by Easter joy and redemption.  It is critical that we gather together for these liturgies, identifying with our defenseless God who has destroyed the power of death by entering into it himself.

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

6 APRIL 2025

 

          The prophet Isaiah gives hope to his people in captivity in Babylon.  He reminds them of God’s saving acts in the past.  God had led their ancestors in their journey from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land through the Red Sea in.  The mighty army of Pharaoh’s horsemen was drowned in their pursuit.  However, he tells his people not to remember the events of the past.  God will do something new.  God is present to his people in captivity, and God will lead them in a new journey through another desert to their homeland.  God will give them water, just as God had done for their ancestors. 

            Saint Paul is also on a journey when he writes to the Philippians.  Writing from his prison cell, he has lost everything.  He has lost his ministry to the Gentiles and the freedom of traveling wherever the Lord led him.  He had also lost the sinful parts of his life, especially his original hatred for the disciples of Jesus Christ and for his active persecution of the Church.  He accepts the loss of all those things, because he has found gain in Jesus Christ.  Because of that gain, he can let go of what is behind him and strains forward to what lies ahead.  He can continue his pursuit toward the goal of achieving the prize of God’s upward calling in Jesus Christ.  He is confident in his journey to share in the fullness of the resurrection.

            As we continue our journey through the desert of Lent, the story of the woman caught in adultery provides some direction.  The scribes and Pharisees bring a woman caught in the act of adultery.  As Pope John Paul II asked, where is the man?  Instead of bringing both people, they bring the more vulnerable of the two.  They could care less about this woman.  They use her to set a trap for Jesus.  They ask him if they should follow the law of Moses and have the woman stoned.  If Jesus agrees, they will question his teaching about mercy.  If he responds that the woman should be shown mercy, they will accuse him of ignoring the law of Moses.  Instead of falling into their trap, he bends down and writes on the ground with his finger.  We have no idea what he is writing.  Then he dares the one among them without sin to be the first to throw a stone at her.  After they all go away one by one, he addresses the woman.

            Instead of using her as an object, as the scribes and Pharisees has done, he speaks to her with love.  Just as no one had been able to condemn her, he does not condemn her either.  He does not minimize her sin of adultery.  Instead, he tells her to leave that sin in the past and not sin again.  He invites her to cast off the misery of her past sins to live without sin with him.  The loss of her misery can be replaced by his mercy.

            We have no idea what that woman chose to do.  Did she go back to her lover, or did she agree to allow Jesus Christ to journey with her?  Because this is the living Word of God, the Lord invites us to deepen our trust in his presence and to journey with him.  In our journey, we can recall the many ways the Lord has been with us in the past and give thanks.  We might be tempted to recall the ways we have refused to journey with Jesus Christ and have turned against him.  Like the ancient Israelites, like Saint Paul, and like the woman caught in adultery, we can count all of those times as loss.  Our common gain is our relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is that gain which is being revealed in our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

            In these last two weeks of our journey through the desert of Lent, we can face a wilderness of uncertainty, because God is before us preparing the way.  He is doing a “new thing," which we can embrace with hope as we walk with him through his passion, death, and ultimately to his resurrection.

 

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

30 MARCH 2025

 

          In the first reading, Joshua reminds his people that God has formed them into a new creation by leading them through the desert to the Promised Land.  Saint Paul builds on the words of Joshua in his letter to the Corinthians and applies them to Christ.  Jesus Christ has formed us into a new creation by reconciling us to the Father through his death on the cross.  As members of this new creation, we are ambassadors for Christ, extending the reconciliation we have received with others.

            This most famous parable of Jesus helps us to understand God’s reconciling love.  We call it the “Parable of the Prodigal Son.”  The word “prodigal” means “recklessly extravagant.”  The younger son is definitely “prodigal.”  He makes a recklessly extravagant demand on his father.  He demands half of his inheritance.  In the ancient world, the inheritance would be given only after death.  He recklessly considers his father dead.  The older son is also reckless, because his job would have been to negotiate the terms of the inheritance with his brother and to talk sense into him.  But he stands by and does nothing.  He seems to be waiting for his father to die to get the rest of the inheritance, with his younger brother out of the way.  However, the most recklessly extravagant person is the father.  He recklessly gives his younger son what he demands.  He risks looking like an old fool to his neighbors.

            The younger son leaves and squanders his wealth on a life of dissipation, recklessly and extravagantly wasting his wealth on himself.  But when the famine strikes and he is stuck caring for pigs (a horrible job for a Jewish boy), he comes to his senses and regrets his actions.  He intends to return to his father as a slave, supporting himself apart from his father’s house.  But the father is filled with compassion.  He rushes out to welcome him back as his son.  Again, he looks like an old fool to the neighbors.  Not only does he embrace him, but he gives his son the symbols of his reckless extravagance – the finest robe, the ring, sandals on his feet, and an extravagant feast.  At this point, the son recognizes the incredible gift of his father’s mercy and accepts the gift of his original sonship.

            As members of the new creation, the Father offers us the recklessly extravagant gift of reconciliation.  Through the Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the Lord invites us to examine our consciences to see how we may have imitated the example of the younger son.  Have we been estranged and rebellious while being absent from the presence of the Lord?  If so, we can honestly confess our sin.  When we repent and make up our minds to change our course, we open ourselves to receive the Lord’s grace of extravagant mercy.  We can share the joy of that gift and be restored to the status of sons or daughters given to us when we were baptized.  Then, we can become ambassadors of Christ, extending that same gift to others.

Or, are we more like the older son, estranged and rebellious in our hearts while remaining in the presence of the Lord?  The father rushes out to meet his older son to answer his angry questions about his brother.  The father does so publicly, again looking like a fool to his neighbors.  He has been estranged and rebellious in his heart while remaining in his father’s presence.  In his arrogance, he refuses his father’s gift of extravagant mercy. 

This parable answers the objection of the Pharisees and scribes: “this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  They clearly resemble the older brother.  The Lord has thrown a feast for us in this Eucharist.  He eats with us sinners, whether we are the older or the younger son and invites us to repentance.  Then he sends us out of this Mass to be ambassadors of his reckless mercy to others.