EASTER SUNDAY

27 APRIL 2016

            There is a lot of running around in today’s Gospel. Mary of Magdala moves as quickly as she can to the tomb of her master.  Saint John tells us that it is still dark, not only because it was very early on the morning of the first day of the week.  Even more, there is a terrible darkness that surrounds someone who has experienced such a devastating loss.  When she sees that the stone has been rolled away at the tomb, she presumes that someone has stolen the body, and she runs to Simon Peter and the beloved disciple.  In turn, the two of them run toward the tomb.  Even though the beloved disciple runs faster, he allows Peter to enter first.  Peter sees the evidence that the body had not been stolen.  The beloved disciple sees the same evidence and believes.  In spite of their running, neither of them understands yet what is happening.

            Not many of you ran to get here to Mass.  You probably drove, and may have run across Fir Road to avoid being hit by a care.  But, there is a lot of movement today, because it is Easter Sunday.  Whether we come every Sunday, or occasionally, or twice a year, we have a deep sense that running to Easter Sunday Mass is important.  The Resurrection is the central Mystery of our faith, and we know that there is something critical going on here today.

            Mary of Magdala and Peter and the beloved disciple can help us understand how to come to deeper faith in this central Mystery of our faith.  Even though they clearly see the empty tomb, they are not able to accept fully the Mystery of the Resurrection until they will experience first hand the risen Christ.  Mary of Magdala will recognize him when he calls her by a familiar name.  Peter and the beloved disciple will experience the risen Lord when he will break through the locked doors and extend his mercy to them.  Only after experiencing the risen Lord can Peter make such bold statements after baptizing Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles.

            Peter and the beloved disciples experienced the risen Lord in a unique way.  We have not had those same experiences, as they did.  But, in fact, we have encountered the risen Christ when we were baptized.  That is what happened to 10 people last night, as they entered the waters of Baptism, encountered the real presence of Christ, and emerged with all their sins forgiven.  Saint Paul reminds us of that reality in his letter to the Colossians.  He tells them (and us) that once we are raised with Christ, once we emerge from that watery grave with him, we see life differently.  We look, not through our own human eyes, but through the eyes of Christ.  We see the beyond the passing realities of our world.  We understand priorities better.  We accept crosses and death and injustices in a different spirit.

            That is why it is so important to renew our baptismal promises on Easter Sunday.  We renounce Satan, all his lies, and all his empty promises.  We recommit ourselves to living in union with the Father who created us, with the Son who redeemed us, and with the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.  As the newly blessed Easter water falls on us, we remember our Baptism and the ways in which we experienced his risen presence and are called to see life through this lens.

            Throughout these Fifty Days of Easter, the Lord will speak to us in his Word, inviting us to reflect on our experiences of his risen presence in our lives.  He will feed us with his real presence, which we recognize in this Breaking of the Bread.  With our Easter faith strengthened, we can do what Mary of Magdala did and announce his risen presence to our brothers and sisters.  We can do what Peter did and proclaim our faith in the wondrous deeds of Jesus Christ.  Most importantly, we can see and believe, as did the beloved disciple.  Through his Gospel, Saint John never gives the name of the beloved disciple, because he wants us to see ourselves in that role.  As beloved disciples, we know that the risen Christ loves us with a love that will never fail.

EASTER VIGIL

26 APRIL 2016

            A few months ago, we gathered here in the middle of the night to celebrate Christmas.  We heard from the Gospel of Luke that the angels announced to the shepherds that a great miracle had occurred.  Christ, the Prince of Peace, had been born in a stable.  The shepherds, considered to be the lowest class of people, went to the stable, adored the newborn Christ wrapped in swaddling clothes, and spread the good news.  It may have been good news for all.  But for Jesus, this birth was a type of death.  He had emptied himself of the privileges of divinity and had taken on human flesh, with all our weaknesses, except for sin.

            Today, we gather again in the middle of the night (at least past my bed time) to celebrate Easter.  Two angels appear in the middle of a tomb to announce to a group of women that a greater miracle has happened.  Christ, the Prince of Peace, had experienced what all of us dread, a cruel and horrible death.  He had been buried, and his body was wrapped in a burial shroud.  But he has cast aside that burial shroud.  He has been raised from the dead.  These women, considered to be at the bottom rungs of society, spread the good news. 

            None of the characters in today’s Gospel can believe in the resurrection until they have encountered the risen Lord in a personal way.  Once they have encountered the risen Christ, as Saint Paul did on the road to Damascus, they can proclaim the truth that he has been raised.  He may still bear the marks of his cruel execution.  But he has been transformed through the miracle of the resurrection, and he promises that all who die with him will rise with him.

            In just a few minutes, the Elect will clearly declare that Satan has no claim on them.  They will profess their faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Supported by the Communion of Saints, they will march down this aisle and enter into the watery grave of Baptism.  In those waters, they will encounter the risen Christ.  Once they emerge from that water, they will be sealed with the Holy Spirit and fed with the Body and Blood of Christ.

            All of us, who are the Body of Christ, rejoice with them.  We reaffirm our faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, trusting that he can transform all of us through this greatest of miracles which we celebrate tonight.

HOLY THURSDAY

24 MARCH 2016

            The instructions given to the children of Israel for the preparation of the Passover Meal indicate that each family is to take an unblemished lamb.  This detail is important, because the lamb was more than the centerpiece of a meal that expressed the bonds of the people with each other.  It was also a sacrifice.  Rather than taking some lamb that was leftover, they needed to take an unblemished lamb (the first and best of the flock) as a sacrifice that expressed their gratitude for God’s saving actions in their lives.  They were to smear the blood of that lamb over the lintels of their homes.  Not only would that blood be a sign for the angel of death to pass over their homes.  It also symbolized their intimate bond with God, who would lead them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

            Centuries later, Saint Paul speaks about another unblemished Lamb, the Lamb of the New Covenant.  In writing to the Corinthians, he reminds them that our Good Shepherd made the greatest sacrifice.  He laid down his life for them out of love.  He tells them how the Lord, on the night before he became the Lamb of God and poured out his blood to free us from our slavery to sin, instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper.  He gave himself in the form of bread and wine.  Saint Paul tells us what he told the Corinthians:  Recognize the Lord’s real presence in the Eucharistic Sacrificial Meal.  Strengthened by the Eucharist, we can love by our sacrifices.

            There is no better example of what he expects of those who participate in the Eucharist than what Jesus does in today’s Gospel.  Earlier in the Gospel of John, the Good Shepherd said that he would lay down his life for his flock.  At the Last Supper, he lays aside his outer garments and washes the feet of his disciples.  In that Middle Eastern culture, servants and slaves greet guests who had arrived walking the dusty roads and paths by washing their dirty and smelly feet.  Social equals would never lower themselves to such a menial task.  Certainly, no master or teacher would ever do that.  But Jesus washes feet to express the sacrifice of his life on the cross.

            We can only wonder what he thinks or what he says to each of those disciples as he holds their dirty and smelly feet in his hands. One of those sets of feet will go to the authorities to turn him in.  Another will follow him to the high priest’s courtyard, only to betray him.  Most of the others will run away in fear. He loves them so much that he trusts them to turn back and do to each other what he has just done for them.

            We normally end our homilies by shutting up and sitting down.  But, not tonight!  FB2 and I were ordained to serve in the person of Christ, especially at the Eucharist. On this night, we will lay aside our outer vestments and wash the feet of members of this community known for their humble service.  This ritual action will remind us of the close connection between being fed by the Lord’s Body and Blood at Mass and being sent out to wash the feet of others.

            Ironically, we will not be sent out at the end of this Mass.  There is no dismissal on Holy Thursday.  Instead, we will be encouraged to walk on feet washed by the Lord’s love to enter as deeply as possible into this Sacred Paschal Triduum.  These Liturgies do not form an extended passion play.  They will make present through our liturgical remembering what happened to the Lord in these next three days.  When we walk away from this Mass, we must confront the most difficult part of the Paschal Mystery.  Jesus walked out of the Last Supper to suffering and death.  We leave this Holy Thursday Mass to confront not only that cross which took the life of Jesus Christ, but to confront the reality of the cross in each of our lives. The Lord invites us to place our crosses and deaths within the context of his cross and death.  Then strengthened by the Eucharist we share here, we can do for others what the Lord has done for us. 

PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF THE LORD

20 MARCH 2016

          When Jesus prepares to enter into Jerusalem, he sends two of his disciples on a mission.  They are to untie a colt and bring it to him.  If asked why they are untying this colt, Jesus tells them to respond, “The Master has need of it.”  When they do what he tells them and are questioned about the donkey theft, they repeat his words, “The Master has need of it.”

            These words are curious, because God does not need anything.  God did not create the world because he needed us.  God created the world out of pure love for us.  Jesus took on human flesh, not because of his need, but because of ours.  Unlike Adam, who was not content to be an image of God, Jesus did not grasp at being like God.  He is God.  And yet, he needs a donkey to carry him into Jerusalem.  He needs this colt to convey the message that he is the promised Messiah; that he is the king who has come to proclaim peace in heaven and glory in the highest; that he is the Suffering Servant who will give his life to reconcile us with the Father.

            Just as he needs a donkey to carry him into Jerusalem, he needs us to live the Paschal Mystery and carry it into our world.  Pope Francis has declared this year as a Jubilee Year of mercy.  We heave about this mercy repeatedly in Luke’s Passion.  Just as Jesus continues to give Judas a chance to change his mind at the Last Supper and as he kisses him, so he wants us to keep open the path of mercy to those who have hurt us.  Just as he heals the ear of the high priest’s servant, he invites us to search for nonviolent solutions to aggression and hatred.  Just as he looks at Peter to invite him to repent, he looks lovingly at us to admit our denials of him and return to his mercy.  Just as his very presence reconciles Pilate with Herod, he wants us to see the power of this Mass to draw enemies together.  Just as he promises paradise to the repentant thief, he offers us the gift of salvation until the moment we take our last breath.

            This Paschal Mystery is at the heart of everything we believe.  That is why the Lord needs us to participate in the Liturgies of the Triduum.  Lent ends when we begin the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday at 7:30.  Join us for the Passion of the Lord at 1:00 on Good Friday.  Come to the Easter Vigil at 8:30 on Holy Saturday evening, or to any of the Easter Sunday Masses.  Check the bulletin for times of other liturgies.  Come to watch and pray. 

            The Lord needs us to deepen our faith in the Paschal Mystery by coming together as a community during this year’s Triduum.  With faith renewed, he can be instruments of his other need:  to send us to proclaim the Good News of God’s salvation to the ends of the earth (or at least to the boundaries of Saint Joseph County).

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

13 MARCH 2016

          When Saint Paul writes to the Romans, he makes a distinction between being in the flesh and being in the spirit.  Those who are in the flesh have not turned to Jesus Christ.  They live their lives as if there is no reality beyond what they can perceive with their senses.  Those who live in the spirit are enlivened by the powerful inner presence or “spirit” of the risen Christ. 

            We were incorporated into the spirit of the risen Christ when we were baptized.  When we entered that watery grave, we died in the flesh with Christ.  We became one with Christ and began living the spirit of the risen Christ.  That is why Jesus does not tell Martha and Mary that he WILL be the resurrection and the life in some future time after they are dead.  He tells them that he IS the resurrection and the life NOW.        

            This story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead can help us understand better the central mystery of the Lord’s dying and rising.  Like Lazarus, every one of us will eventually have to die.  Our faith does not make the reality of that death any easier.  Death brings strong emotions.  Both Martha and Mary voice their anger at Jesus when he did not come when their brother was still alive.  At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus expresses the deepest emotion and anger at death.  In his own agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus will beg his Father to take away that dreadful cup of death.  Death is the enemy.  Death belongs to the prince of darkness. 

            But Jesus defeated the power of death.  That is why we spend this Lent preparing to renew our faith in the Paschal Mystery at the Sacred Paschal Triduum.  Unlike Lazarus, who had to die again, the risen Christ will never die.  When we keep our baptismal promises by dying to ourselves on a daily basis, we live in the spirit of the risen Christ.  Because of his death and resurrection, we trust that our common enemy has been defeated.  Death is not the end for us.

            The real danger for us is slipping back into the flesh.  We live in the flesh when we lose sight of the presence of the risen Christ in our lives.  We live in the flesh when we put ourselves at the center of everything.  We live in the flesh when we think that power, riches, pleasure, privilege, or any of the many things that seem to give meaning to our lives are at the heart of everything we do.  When we backslide into living in the flesh, we cannot please God, and we cause real pain to those we love the most.

            That is why this final Scrutiny at the 8:45 and 10:30 Masses is so important.  We pray over the Elect one final time as they prepare to drown their living in the flesh in the waters of Baptism and emerge one in the spirit of the risen Christ at the Easter Vigil.  The Scrutinies tell us that they do not journey to the font as isolated individuals.  Their public journey challenges us to bring those times when we have slipped back into living in the flesh to God’s mercy.  Just as the Elect move in a public way to the font, we move in a public way on Tuesday evening to the Lenten Penance Service.  We bring our failures to one of the seventeen priests who are instruments of the Lord’s mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  There is strength in numbers as we encounter the same Lord who called Lazarus out of the darkness of that tomb.

            When we make bad choices and turn away from Christ to live in the flesh, we sometimes blame our failures on the fact that we are “human.”  Actually, that is not quite true.  The Book of Genesis is very clear that God saw his creation of human beings as very good.  We turn from Christ, not because we are human, but because we are fallen humans vulnerable to temptations from the prince of darkness.  By taking on our humanity and dying for us, Jesus has restored us to the Father and continues to restore us through the Sacraments of the Church.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

6 MARCH 2016

          In writing to the Christian community of Ephesus, Paul writes to us.  He reminds us that we are light in the Lord.  When we passed through the waters of Baptism, we were identified completely with Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  We were given lit candles as a way of signifying that reality.  Now Saint Paul reminds us to live as children of light.  If we live as children of the light, we remain transparent and allow that light to shine through us.  We have nothing to hide.  What people see in us is what they get.  That is true holiness.

            Saint Paul also reminds the Ephesians that they were once darkness before they passed through the waters of Baptism.  Notice that he does not say that they were once IN darkness!  They were darkness.  The same is true for us.  When we make bad choices that tear away or disrupt the life which God gives us, we reveal our dark sides.  The light of Christ cannot shine through us, because we are opaque, too busy covering up those patterns of behavior that bring us shame.  We pile one set of lies upon another to conceal the truth from others.  We cannot allow others to look into our eyes, because we are trying to hide too many things.

            The Season of Lent invites us to examine the dark side of our lives.  Today’s Gospel story of the man born blind can help us to recover the light of Christ in our lives.  Jesus does not condemn the man for being blind.  He sees his blindness as an opportunity to reveal himself and show forth his light.  He sends the man to wash (using the same Greek word for baptize) in the Pool of Siloam.  As he is hassled by his neighbors and the religious leaders, the man born blind trusts his experience of Jesus and sees more clearly who Jesus really is.  At first, he sees Jesus as a man who has done an act of kindness to him.  Then, he sees him as a prophet who speaks the truth.  Finally, after being thrown out (as many early Christians had been thrown out of their synagogues), he sees Jesus as the promised Christ and worships him.

            We see this same dynamic in those preparing for the Sacraments of Initiation today.  At the 8:45 and 10:30 Masses, we call forward the Elect for the second Scrutiny.  Those of us who have worked with them know that they have come to see more clearly the person of Jesus Christ.  They had experienced the call of Christ in many ways before committing to RCIA.  They have heard Christ speak to them when they have joined us for the Liturgy of the Word at Mass.  On Tuesday nights, they have reflected on the teachings of the Catholic Church and in their own personal experiences of Jesus Christ.  As they kneel before us in this second Scrutiny, we pray that darkness will not hinder them in these final three weeks before the Easter Vigil.  We support them for them as they are sent to the waters of Baptism to have their sins washed away.  With candles lit, they will show us the light of Christ shining through them. 

            We too were transparent, completely one with Christ in holiness, when we emerged from the waters of Baptism and held lit candles (or had our parents and godparents hold lit candles for us).  But, we have not always lived our Baptismal promises.  We have made bad choices and clouded the transparency of our lives with the sins that make us opaque.  Like Samuel, we have judged other people only by appearance.  Or we have excluded others because they have opinions contrary to our own.  We have not looked into their hearts as God does.  We have lapsed into habits which cloud our vision and made us so opaque that the light of Christ could not shine through us.  In this Second Scrutiny, the Elect invite us to admit our dark deeds and bring them to the merciful fire of Christ’s love in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  With Christ’s light shining more brightly through us, we can more honestly renew our Baptismal promises at Easter and make a renewed commitment to live more as children of the light.