EASTER SUNDAY

1 APRIL 2018

            Mary Magdalene could not go to the tomb of Jesus on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week.  The law forbade her from performing the work of properly anointing his dead body on the day of rest.  So she waits in horrible agony until the eighth day, the first day of the week, to approach the tomb in the darkness.  That huge stone, the permanent barrier between life and death, had been removed.  The tomb is empty.  In distress, she runs to Simon Peter and the Beloved Disciple to tell them the news.

            It is the Beloved Disciple who makes the connection between what had happened to Lazarus on the Fifth Sunday of Lent and what is happening on Easter Sunday.  Jesus had called Lazarus out of the tomb and ordered that his burial cloths be removed.  Now, the Beloved Disciple sees the burial cloths that had bound the dead body of Jesus laid aside carefully.  He believes the impossible – that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, and that the power of death could never touch him again.  Later that day, the risen Christ himself would break through the locked doors and reveal himself, transformed through the resurrection.  This eighth day now becomes the first day of the new creation.

            Last night at the Easter Vigil, ten people walked to our 8-sided Baptismal Font, as we asked the intercession of the saints.  They entered into that watery tomb and died to an old way of living.  They emerged from those waters with all their sins forgiven, one with Jesus Christ.  Sealed with the Holy Spirit in Confirmation and fed by the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, they will share in Christ’s dying every time they keep their baptismal promises, so they can share in his risen life.

            That is what Saint Paul says when he writes to the Colossians.  Like those people baptized last night, we too have been buried with Christ in baptism and rose with him to share a new life.  He advises us to seek what is above and to think of what is above.  He is not telling us to walk around looking up at the sky.  Rather, he is telling us that our connection with Christ through Baptism should affect the way we act in our daily lives.  If we look at life from the lens of our connection with Christ, we will behave differently.  We will be much more willing to forgive and let go of hurts.  We will be quicker to avoid judgment and condemnation.  We will let go of our own ego, our own insistence on doing things our way, and our own disordered passions. 

            On this eighth day, the first day of the new creation in Christ, we renew our own baptismal promises.  Baptism is always about death, because baptism is about entering into the tomb with Christ.  But Baptism is always about life, because Jesus emerged victorious from the tomb.  That is why we renew our baptismal promises on Easter Sunday.  We renew our promise to die to our selfish interests and desires.  We renew our trust that the Lord keeps his promise that those who die with Christ will rise with him.  Simon Peter trusted those promises.  After encountering the risen Christ and listening to him, Peter has been transformed.  He is no longer the bungling Peter who keeps putting his foot into his mouth.  He no longer denies knowing Jesus three times out of fear.  At the house of Cornelius, he now understands the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.  He speaks with confidence and authority about the power of the risen Christ in his life.  The Lord will speak to us during this Easter Season, so that we too can increase our faith in the Mystery of the resurrection.  We are the Beloved Disciple.  We listen to the Lord, so that we too may be transformed during this Easter Season.

HOLY SATURDAY

31 MARCH 2018

A Vigil gives us an opportunity to hear the Word of God proclaimed.  For the last hour and a half, that is exactly what we have been doing.  We’ve listened carefully to the Word of God and heard of the incredible surprises of God’s love for us.  The first surprise was at the beginning.  God created the world and made it very good.  The next surprise comes to Abraham.  Because he trusted in God by being willing to sacrifice his only son, God promised that he would have as many descendants as the stars in the sky and the sands on the shore of the sea.  God surprised a group of slaves and led them through the Red Sea to freedom.  God surprised his people in their Babylonian Exile and gave them consolation.  God surprised others who were guilty of turning their backs on him by forgiving them.

We just heard the greatest surprise of all!  The women came on the eighth day, the day after the Sabbath, to do the final acts of kindness to the dead body of their dead Master.  Instead of finding his body, a young man dressed in white announced that he had been raised from the dead and went before them to Galilee, where they had started.  Out of love, the Father had sacrificed his only Son.  Out of love, he raised him from the dead.

Tonight, we renew our faith in this greatest of all of God’s surprises.  The Elect will stand before us to renounce the power of Satan in their lives.  They will profess their faith in the surprising Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Like those women on the eighth day, they will march to our Font, which has 8 sides.  They will enter into the watery tomb of that font to share in Christ’s dying.  They will emerge, completely one with Christ, with all their sins forgiven.  Clothed in white, like that young man in the tomb, they will proclaim the resurrection and join in the Sacramental life of the Church, confident that the risen Christ will walk with them in this new creation.

In response, we who have been baptized will renew our baptismal promises.  We will renew our faith in the God who always surprises.  We will continue to walk with them, never despairing that the God of surprises will always keep his promises.                  

                       

PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD’S PASSION

25 MARCH 2018

          Throughout the Gospels, there is a consistent pattern of Jesus meeting the needs of others.  He never asks for anything for himself.  However, in today’s Gospels from Saint Mark, Jesus needs two things.  In the Gospel proclaimed at the blessing of palms, Jesus sends his disciples to bring back a colt.  He needs that colt so that he can ride into Jerusalem, not as a conquering king on an Arabian stallion, but as a humble king whose throne will be a cross outside the city walls.

            In the Passion, Jesus sends his disciples to find a guest room.  He needs that room to celebrate the Passover Meal with his disciples.  At that last Passover meal with his disciples, he will give the greatest gift of the New Covenant, the Eucharist which we celebrate now.

            Even when Jesus needs something, that need becomes a vehicle for him to give of himself totally to us.  That is why he needs us this week.  He needs us to enter into the Sacred Paschal Triduum with him to renew our faith in the central Mystery of our faith:  the death and resurrection of the Lord.  Lent ends on Holy Thursday evening when we begin the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7:30.  Please join us for the major Triduum Liturgies.  Be sure to watch and pray in the church.  Be sure to carry the fasting into your home.  The Lord needs us to be here for the Triduum.  He needs for us to renew our faith, so that we can be effective disciples in a world desperately in need of transformation.

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

18 MARCH 2018

          When the prophet Ezekiel speaks to his people, they are in an impossible situation.  They have been languishing in exile in Babylon for years.  The Babylonians had killed their king, destroyed Jerusalem, and tore down the Temple, dashing their hopes of returning home.  He speaks to them, telling them that God can deliver them from impossible situations.  Walking through a field littered with dead bones, representing their current situation, he reminds them that God will always be faithful to the Covenants – those commitments of love enshrined in the floor of our church and featured in our Lenten Series on Tuesday nights.   God will raise up those dead bones of his people, breathe life into them as he had breathed life into clay and formed Adam, and return them to their homeland.  Ezekiel insists that God keeps his promises.  Their eventual return from exile will remind them of God’s faithfulness to his Covenants, even when they had been unfaithful to their end of the deal.

            When Jesus approaches the tomb of his friend, Lazarus is in another hopeless condition.  He has been dead for four days.  There is no chance of him being revived.  Martha and Mary yell at Jesus for not coming sooner.  (We tend to yell at people close to us!)  Jesus marches to the tomb filled with the deepest of emotions, because he hates death as much as Martha and Mary do.  He prays a prayer of thanksgiving, showing that his power comes from the Father, and orders Lazarus to come out of the tomb.  Like Lazarus, Jesus himself will die.  Like Lazarus, he will emerge from the tomb.  Unlike Lazarus, who will eventually die again, Jesus will be transformed through the power of the resurrection and never die again.  Jesus has shown his power over the most impossible condition of all:  death!

            On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we pray the final scrutiny over the Elect at the 10:00 Mass.  At the Easter Vigil, they will renounce Satan and all his empty promises, promise to trust God’s presence in their lives, and enter into the waters of our Baptismal font, as Christ entered into the tomb.  They will emerge from those waters, sharing fully in his life.  In the Scrutiny, we ask the Lord to remove any final doubt in the power of Jesus Christ to bring them to new life.

            As we commend them to the Lord’s loving scrutiny and support them in their journey to the Sacramental life of the Church, The Lord scrutinizes us who are baptized!  We have emerged from the waters of baptism to share in the life of the risen Christ.  Every time we have failed to live our baptismal promises, every time we have failed to die to ourselves, we have denied the power of the resurrection.  In his discussion with Martha and Mary, Jesus does not promise to be the resurrection at some future time after their death.  He promises to be the resurrection and the life NOW!  We already share in his resurrection every time we die to our selfish interests, when we choose to be humble, when we let go of our pride, and when we face our fears and trust that he is present in our most impossible situations, including death.

            During these last two weeks of Lent, the best way we can prepare to celebrate the Lord’s resurrection is to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  As the Elect are freed from all sins in the waters of Baptism, we are freed from our sinful failure to live our Baptismal Promises when we bring our sins to the Confessional and trust in the Lord’s merciful forgiveness.  Come to the Penance Service this Tuesday evening.  The Service gives us a chance to reflect together on God’s Word, examine our conscience, and spend some time in silence.  There will be 21 priests available for individual confession and absolution.  Restored to our Baptismal innocence, we will make our own renunciation of sin and renew our baptismal promises at Easter, renewing our trust that Jesus Christ is with us in the most impossible situations.

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

11 MARCH 2018

          In writing to the Church in Ephesus, Saint Paul explains how disciples should live in a pagan culture.  He reminds the Ephesians that they were once darkness.  They were once blind to the person of Jesus Christ and the Gospel which he proclaimed.  Then he tells them that they are now light.  When they had emerged from the waters of baptism with their sins forgiven, they were united completely with Jesus Christ, the light of the world.  In the ancient Church, they were known as the “illuminati,” the illuminated ones who carried candles lit from the Easter Candle to represent their new life in Christ.

            Saint Paul’s advice to them is simple:  Don’t fall back into darkness.  Live as children of the light!  The verb which Saint Paul uses is much stronger than simply “to live.”  The word means “to walk”.  If they walk as children of the light, it is no temporary activity.  It is a way of life.  If they live their baptismal promises and walk as children of the light, the light of Christ will shine through them, illuminating a culture often mired in darkness and despair.

            Saint Paul then outlines three ways that walking as children of the light will make a difference.  First, their light will produce goodness, an intrinsic quality of the heart.  That goodness will manifest itself in works of kindness.  Second, their light will produce righteousness, sustaining a right relationship not only with Jesus Christ, but also with each other.  Third, their light will produce truth, not just words spoken, but also actions that are noticed.  Living the truth will make them constant, sincere, and free from falsehood.  Unlike the darkness of deceit and lies, the truth is trustworthy.  These three effects are direct gifts from God, graces given to those who walk as children of the light by living their baptismal promises.

            During this past year, we have been working with ten people in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.   Like the man born blind, they have grown in their understanding of the person of Jesus Christ.  Through prayer, study, and fellowship, they have come to see him as more than a teacher, as more than a prophet who speaks the truth, and ultimately as the Christ, the Messiah whose bright light illuminates a darkened world.  They were chosen by Bishop Rhoades to spend this season of Lent as a final preparation.  We pray the second Scrutiny over these good people at the 10:00 Mass today, asking the Lord to remove any remaining darkness from them as they prepare to be illuminated through the waters of baptism, sealed with the Oil of Confirmation, and fed with the Body and Blood of Christ at the Easter Vigil.  Awakened from the waters of Baptism, they will reflect the light of Jesus Christ.

            As we pray over them, the Lord scrutinizes us!  We may have been illuminated through the waters of Baptism, but we have not always followed Saint Paul’s advice.  We have not always walked as children of the light.  As a result, we have diminished our acts of kindness, making our world even more mean spirited than it already is.  We have not always walked in right relationship with Jesus Christ and other people, causing even more polarization and divisions.  We have not always been truthful and added to an environment already confused about what is true and what is not.  As baptized members of the Body of Christ, we can be restored to our baptismal brilliance through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We can bring our “deeds of darkness” to that Sacrament and allow the Lord to burn our sins away with the fire of his merciful love.  The Lord’s mercy will remind us that the light does not originate in us.  We can only reflect the true light, who is Christ.  Then we will join the newly baptized at Easter in renouncing Satan and all his empty promises and all his lies.  Then we can renew our baptismal promises and walk again as children of the light. 

THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

4 MARCH 2018

          When Jesus encounters the woman at the well, he asks for a drink.  She gives him a drink, but receives much more in return from him.  As the story unfolds, it becomes obvious that he is the faithful bridegroom.  His ancestors had come to this well to woo prospective brides.  And that is what he is doing now.   In taking a drink from the woman, he defies cultural norms forbidding men to speak to women alone in public.  In taking a drink from a Samaritan, he makes himself ritually unclean.  He is reaching out to an outcast.  Her ancestors had pursued false gods, just as six different husbands had used her.  Jesus becomes the seventh, and perfect, bridegroom. 

            In talking with Jesus, the woman grows in her understanding of his identity.  At first, she recognizes him as a very kind man who treats her with respect.  Then she sees him as a prophet, someone who knows and speaks the truth about her sordid background.  Finally, she recognizes him as the Messiah, the promised Christ who has come at noon as the Light of the World to give eternal life to those who embrace him.  Then the woman does something dramatic.  She leaves her bucket at the well and becomes the first evangelist, telling everyone in the village about her encounter with the promised Messiah.

            For over a year now, we have been working in the Rite of Christian Initiation with ten young people and adults who have come to know Jesus Christ.  By joining us every Tuesday night for prayer, catechesis, faith sharing, and fellowship, they have given something very valuable:  the gift of their precious time and energy.  Now they have entered the Season of Lent as the Elect, chosen by Bishop Rhoades for the Sacraments of Initiation.  At the 10:00 Mass today, we prayed the first of the three Scrutinies over them.  We prayed that their thirst for the waters of Baptism would draw them closer to Jesus Christ, letting go of any other “water buckets” that might get in the way of a deep and abiding faith in the One who offers eternal life through the living waters of Baptism, the strengthening Chrism of Confirmation, and the abiding real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist.  Like the woman at the well, they are reaping much more than they have been sowing, because they look forward to being incorporated into the person of Jesus Christ and his Church and receiving the promise of eternal life.

            As we accompany these good people through the journey of Lent, the Lord challenges us to consider what we might be sowing.  Most of us have already renounced Satan and all his empty promises and lies.  We have already received the fullness of life through the waters of Baptism.  As the Scrutinies heal whatever keeps the Elect from growing closer to Christ, they convict us of not living our baptismal promises.  We have weakened or separated ourselves from the faithful Bridegroom by our sins.  By giving ourselves to the Lenten discipline of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we can distinguish a little more clearly those realities which can never fully satisfy our thirsts.  Those water buckets might include our thirst for pleasure or financial gain or fame any other reality which cannot last.  In leaving these water buckets behind, we can more readily associate ourselves with Jesus Christ, the source of life giving water.

            For us who are baptized, the Sacrament of Reconciliation invites us to bring our water buckets and leave them there with the Lord’s mercy.  Like the woman at the well, we can join the newly baptized at Easter and become evangelists ourselves, spreading the good news about our faithful bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who offers eternal life to all who believe.  When the Good News of Jesus Christ is spread, then the answer to the question asked in the Book of Exodus is clear.  Is the Lord in our midst or not?  Yes, he definitely is!