April 11, 1999 |
We now have the beautiful season of Easter in front of us...a total of 50 days. During these times, we will be hearing of the appearances of the Risen Christ to Disciples, the response of the Apostles, and their preparation for their role as leaders in the Church especially St. Peter. As we draw nearer the Ascension (May 13 this year), and Pentecost (May 23) the readings of the Sunday Liturgy (and the weekday ones as well) will turn more and more toward Jesus' preparation of the Apostles for His leaving, and the life of the early Church.
The first week of Easter (the octave) is liturgically equivalent to Easter Sunday. The second Sunday of Easter brings us the story of St. Thomas, The Doubter. St. Thomas is a symbol of the whole Church coming to Faith in the Resurrection of Christ. Doubts are not something to be feared, but can actually be moments of grace when our Faith can be strengthened. They can be moments to reconfirm in our own lives what we always knew and believed.
In these days of skepticism about the Resurrection, it is worthwhile to recall the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain (ICor.15:14)...Faith in the Resurrection has as its object an event which is historically attested by the disciples, who really encountered the Risen One. At the same time, this event is mysteriously transcendent inso far as it is the entry of Christ's humanity into the glory of God.
The empty tomb and the linen cloths lying there signify in themselves that by God's power Christ's body has escaped the bonds of death and corruption. They prepared the disciples to encounter the Risen Lord. Christ, the 'first born from the dead' (Col.1:18), is the principle of our own resurrection, even how by the justification of our souls (cf.Rom.6:4), and one day by the new life he will impart to our bodies (cf.Rom.8:11). (Nos. 656-658)
Christ's Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the empty tomb, the apostles' encounters with Jesus afterward and His appearances to many. This event remains the very heart of the mystery of faith. It is an object of faith because it is an evident intervention of God Himself in creation and history. His Resurrection reveals Jesus conclusively as the Son of God. Its twofold effect for us allows us to be reinstated in God's grace, to be free from sin and enter into a share in the divine life. It is His Resurrection and the Risen Christ Himself that is the principal and source of our own future resurrection. A truly Blessed Event and center of every Sunday celebration! ALLELUIA!
Last week's Easter celebration drew thousands of parishioners and visitors to fill our church, Parish Life Center and parking lot to overflowing capacity during the seven scheduled Easter liturgies. Easter marks both the end of the Lenten Season and the beginning of the Easter Season that ends on Pentecost, May 23.
"Easter is the greatest feast in the Church's calendar. This is the feast from which all others stem-the only feast kept by the early followers of the Lord. The Resurrection is so important that the Lord's followers observe every Sunday as the Lord's Day, as a 'little Easter.'
Lent has prepared us for the Resurrection feast. Now in similar fashion the Easter Season is the liturgical continuation of this greatest of feasts. The Easter Season lasts for 50 days. This amounts to seven weeks (or octaves), crowned with the feast of Pentecost. At the Pentecost Vigil Mass, in fact we say: 'fifty days have celebrated the fullness of the mystery of your revealed love.'
This entire Season is designed as a prolongation of Easter. The feast of Ascension occurs after 40 days, but this does not change the spirit of the Easter Season. The Ascension celebration helps us to look forward even more expectantly to the Holy Spirit and Pentecost.
There are two special characteristics of the Easter Season. First the Paschal Candle, which until Pentecost burns brightly at our liturgical celebrations. Second is the 'Alleulia' -our victory cry, or acclamation, over the Resurrection of our own Lord. 'Alleluia' or 'Hallelujah' is a Hebrew word meaning 'Praise the Lord.' In the book of Revelation this is a special song of those who have been saved. As Augustine said, 'We are Easter people and Alleluia is our song.' We stand for the Alleluia- as a physical reminder of Resurrection." (The Vatican II Weekday Missal, page 668).
During the past Season of Lent our focus was directed each week on the journey of "Conversion-the Heart of Lent." During the Easter Season our attention could well continue to focus on conversion, but with a subtle shift-from "willfulness" (e.g. will power to fast, pray more often, etc.) to "willingness" to be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The gift of the Spirit and the forgiveness of sins belong to all believers, even to those who are not eyewitnesses. John in today's Gospel passage uses Thomas to become the paradigm of all who will rely on the witness of others for the beginnings of faith. He comes to faith without the fulfillment of his request for some miraculous demonstration of the truth; he did not put his hand in Jesus' side, nor his finger in the nail holes, though invited to do so. His expression of faith, "My Lord and my God," sums up all that John has said about Jesus' identity. Because Thomas has come to belief without the proofs he so insisted on, his confession is complemented by the beatitude affirming that all the barriers to real and living faith are broken down: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe," John has Jesus say. Faith is possible without appearances or miraculous demonstrations.
Traditionally the Second Sunday of Easter has been called "Low Sunday," but in recent years this Sunday has been designated as the Feast of Divine Mercy. Many Catholics begin preparation for this Sunday's Feast of Divine Mercy on Good Friday with a novena in which the Divine Mercy Chaplet is prayed for nine days. Pope John Paul II and our Archbishop are fervent promoters of this devotional practice which is believed was given to Blessed Sister Faustina Kowalska in Poland. On February 22, 1931, Sister Kowalska saw a vision of Jesus with rays of mercy streaming from the area of his heart. He told her to have an image painted to represent this vision and to sign it "Jesus I trust in you!" The Second Reading this Sunday affirms this dimension of divine mercy: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading."
-- Dr. Harry Kocurek, Pastoral Associate
Easter is not a one day celebration! Having just celebrated the six week season of Lent and the three day Triduum, it is now time to celebrate the Easter Season.
The Easter Season is a fifty day liturgical time period that begins April 4, with Easter, and ends May 23, fifty days later on the feast of Pentecost. It celebrates not only Christ's victory over sin and death, but also the coming of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and disciples, the Church.
Vatican II restated that "every seven days, the Church celebrates the Easter Mystery, taking its origin from the actual day of Christ's Resurrection -- a day appropriately designated The Lord's Day.'" When Christ appeared to the Apostles on the evening of Easter, He breathed upon them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:22-23). The outpouring of the Spirit was the great gift of the Risen Lord to his disciples on Easter Sunday. Fifty days later, the Spirit descended as a "mighty wind" and "fire" (Acts 2:2-3) upon the Apostles and Mary. Pentecost not only is the founding even of the Church but also the mystery which forever gives life to the Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. So how can we celebrate Easter all year long? Suggestions will be provided weekly through Pentecost. Read and reflect on the Emmaus account in Luke 24:13-35.
+ Identify at least two ways that Christ's presence may go unidentified right here in St. John's and/or in Edmond. What can you do personally to be more attentive to that presence?
+ The Hebrew word for joyful praise is "Alleluia." What are you offering praise for this Easter season? How can you individually become an instrument of praise for someone else?
In the joy of the Easter message: "PEACE BE WITH YOU," we gather as the believers who have heard the Good News. The greeting of the Lord to the first disciples is also ours. Everything has been made new when the Lord conquered sin and death.
This is reflected in the first reading from Acts where the brethren devoted themselves to the common life, that is, they felt moved to share all in common. The need of the other took precedent over being secure and comfortable. As we continue to hear the marvelous deeds of God through the power of the Spirit let us take heart and love in peace.
We are in need of that reality in our world as the conflict continues in the Balkans. The tension and hatred that has brewed for centuries has once again erupted. We cannot be indifferent or casual. In the Spirit we are all one and when our sister or brother is hurt we, too, experience the pain. That is the meaning of the Easter peace that the Lord entrusted to the Church.
Let us begin by rededicating ourselves to promoting peace and reconciliation beginning in our own lives; our communities, nation and world. The work of the Spirit is now our work to bring the Good News to all.
Fr. Ron
Kosovo dominates our news. Recently, someone asked me for my insight on this issue since I had served the military for the last 24 years. It reminded me of thoughts I shared with the Servites around the world. Pat Carroll, an Irish member of the Servite General Council in Rome, asked me to reflect on the military chaplain from the justice and peace perspective. Justice and peace and the military chaplain seemingly live in different worlds. I say not true! I spent 24 years of military service as an Air Force Chaplain. Twelve of those years were part-time in a reserve unit in Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The last 12 years were full time active duty in Columbus, Mississippi; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Soesterberg, the Netherlands (Holland); and Denver, Colorado. I've watched an ever increasing use of military know how in the justice and peace arena. The foundation of such activity is in the opening words of the United States Constitution ....establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity... A justice and peace agenda does not enter military planning as such, but the role of peacemaker and peacekeeper does. It is a role that the vast majority of military members see themselves called to exercise, often in the most austere and adverse circumstances. Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and now Kosovo come to mind, where peace making is essential before humanitarian relief is even possible, let alone effective. The military chaplain is part of every such undertaking. The chaplain not only provides for the personal religious needs of the troops, but also helps personalize their humanitarian efforts with projects directed at children, the aged, and most downtrodden refugees in such desperate circumstances. Seldom are these activities revealed in the news media, but bring fulfillment to the participants. It is unfortunate that military force is necessary to allow human compassion even a remote possibility of success. The alternative is to watch the atrocities portrayed on the evening news with our supper and a yawn of remote indifference. In my years of military service, I saw myself as pastor, missionary, preacher, and even a lonely voice of God in the chambers of war, but always priest. As priest and believer, I now pray for the miracle of peace and ask you to do the same.
Fr. Michael Doyle, OSM
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, 'so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.' Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: 'Go and tell my brethren.' We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.
Finally, Christ's Resurrection - and the risen Christ himself - is the principle and source of our future Resurrection: 'Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep...For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.' The risen Christ lives in the hearts of his faithful while they await that fulfillment. In Christ, Christians have tasted the powers of the age to come and their lives are swept up by Christ into the heart of divine life, so that they may 'live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.'
Saint Paul writes: But someone may say, 'How are the dead raised? with what kind of body will they come back?' You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as he chooses, and to each of the seeds its own body.
[Cor 15:35-38]
By: Joseph F. Pearce, C.O.
In our society, silence is considered to be uncomfortable. We prefer noise. We fill moments of quiet with noise. silence frightens us because it makes us vulnerable and opens us up to introspection. At times we might even be afraid of being alone with ourselves and silence unmasks these feelings. In our liturgy and worship, SILENCE is necessary and important. It is a must. Silence is our response to God's invitation to us to pray and worship. Silence is a quiet non-verbal Amen. When we have heard the Word proclaimed, silence allows us to meditate in our hearts on how God has just spoken to us individually. After Communion, silence allows us to reflect upon the greatest miracle of all, how Our Lord and Savior Jesus has intimately come to us under the guise of bread and wine and is within us in a very special and intimate way at that very moment. Silence is our friend. Just as certain friends connect us with other friends, silence connects us to God our Creator and Father, Jesus our Savior and Brother, and the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier and Companion. Without silence, our union with the Trinity will be incomplete.
We are now in the most joyous time of the church year. For eight days we observe the feast day of Easter. For fifty days we commemorate the Season of Easter. All because the reality of the Resurrection is so powerful and so packed with meaning that it takes all this time to understand and to absorb what is really going on with us.
Each week we come to grasp the meaning of Easter through the structure of the scripture readings. The Gospel always reveals to us another facet of the resurrected Christ for us. The second reading shows us how this encounter with the risen Lord impacts upon our spiritual lives. The first reading demonstrates how our interaction with Jesus raised from the dead forms the Body of Christ the Church.
Today we conclude the feast day of Easter with the solemnity's octave, which has come to be known as Mercy Sunday because of the theme of the scripture readings.
Scripture Readings:
The Gospel show us how the Lord Jesus, though the doors were locks, came, stood before the disciples, offered them peace, and gave them the mission of mercy.
The second reading tells us that, through God's great mercy, Christians have new life in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The first reading gives witness to the building of the early community of faith which becomes the testimony of and the catalyst for God's merciful love.
Meaning:
We've seen the Lord! We've witnessed what has happened! Through Word and Sacrament, community and human events, personal conscience and prayer we've encountered the Lord of Mercy who gave us new birth and brings us together.
Application:
By our lives we witness to the mercy of God. By our work we are agents of that mercy for others. This means:
We must seek the mercy of the Risen Lord by our prayer, by our use of the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist, by saying we're sorry to each other.
We must share the mercy of the Risen Lord by our respect of each other's dignity, by our efforts to affirm and appreciate each other, by our willingness to build community.
We must show the mercy of the Risen Lord by our attempts to forgive each other, by our outreach of compassion and understanding, by our signs of generosity and thoughtfulness.
This is our Easter faith of knowing, loving, and serving the Risen Lord.
Father Benet OFM
The fact of the resurrection, which only those whom God has chosen beforehand witnessed, left traces which cannot be denied by profane history: the announcement of it offers all men of good will certain signs which find their complete meaning only in the faith. The resurrection cannot therefore be regarded as a purely subjective experience, or as simply the irruption of the living Christ in the apostles' interior life.
Insofar as it is a divine action, the resurrection defies the grasp of sense experience. It is a mystery to which only God can give access. It depends on faith, and it is in faith that the apostles knew it: in his appearances, in which he is seen to be alive, Christ reveals the divine nature of his resurrection in order to provoke and shape their faith. Our faith rests on this faith of the apostles, to which, nothing being able to prevent them from speaking, they bore witness to the end. Our certainty comes from the unshakable and unwavering certainty of the apostles' faith...
Christ's resurrection totally defies historical investigation. The latter's aim is to establish the reality of facts which an objective enquiry into man's history obliges us to affirm. The apostles, witnesses of the circumstances in which the risen Jesus showed himself to them, locate in the course of history (he rose on the third day) an event which their faith revealed to them as being of salvific significance for all humanity.
The Bishops of France, 1972
THEME: POST EASTER FAITH: It's hard not to be skeptical these days. We're bombarded with advertisers spending mega-bucks to tell us (or at least imply) things that are not absolutely true. The newspaper is filled with stories of people deceiving others. Even some of our political and religious leaders are involved in dubious dealings. How are we to sort it all out? Sometimes, like Thomas, we have to see things for ourselves. We have to try the product to see if it really does what the advertiser claims. We have to talk with and check out references for people who will impact our lives. We have security systems, answering machines and Caller ID to protect ourselves from strangers. It's easy to criticize Thomas, but how open are we to the incredible?
Conversion And Penance...In this third year [of preparation] the sense of being on a journey to the father should encourage everyone to undertake, by holding fast to Christ the redeemer of man, a journey of authentic conversion. This includes both a negative aspect, that of liberation from sin, and a positive aspect, that of choosing good, accepting the ethical values expressed in the natural law, which is confirmed and deepened by the Gospel.
This is the proper context for a renewed appreciation and more intense celebration of the sacrament of penance in its most profound meaning. The call to conversion as the indispensable condition of Christian love is particularly important in contemporary society, where the very foundations of an ethically correct vision of human existence often seem to have been lost. [TMA n. 50]
Contemporary man seems to find it harder than ever to recognize his own mistakes and to decide to retrace his steps and begin again after changing course. He seems very reluctant to say I repent or I'm sorry. He seems to refuse instinctively and often irresistibly anything that is penance in the sense of a sacrifice accepted and carried out for the correction of sin.
In this regard I would like to emphasize that the Church's penitential discipline, even though it has been mitigated for some time, cannot be abandoned without grave harm both to the interior life of individual Christians and of the ecclesial community and also to their capacity for missionary influence. It is not uncommon for non-Christians to be surprised at the negligible witness of true penance on the part of Christ's followers. It is clear, however, that Christian penance will only be authentic if it is inspired by love and not by mere fear; if it consists in a serious effort to crucify the old man so that the new can be born by the power of Christ; if it takes as its model Christ, who though He was innocent chose the path of poverty, patience, austerity, and, one can say, the penitential life. [RP n. 26]
Recourse to the sacrament [of Penance] is necessary when even only one mortal sin has been committed. However, the christian who believes in the effectiveness of sacramental forgiveness has recourse to the Sacrament with a certain frequency, even when it is not a case of necessity. In it he finds the path for an increasing sensitivity of conscience and an ever-deeper purification, a source of peace, a help in resisting temptation and in striving for a life that responds more and more to the demands of the law and love of God. [TPS 37/5, 1992, p. 306]
A couple of weeks after hearing a sermon on Psalm 51:2-4 (knowing my own hidden secrets and Psalm 52:3-4 (lies and deceit), a man wrote the following letter to the IRS:
"I have been unable to sleep, knowing that I have cheated on my income tax. I understated my taxable income, and have enclosed a check for $150.00. P.S. If I still can't sleep, I will send the rest."
