Second Sunday of Easter Cycle A

Doubting Thomas

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All the Easter appearances of Jesus have something both real and unreal about them.

CJesus was the same yet different after the resurrection.

CHe talked with his disciples for hours on the road to Emmaus, but they did not recognize him until he broke bread with them.

CMagdalene saw him right beside his own grave, yet didn't recognize him until he spoke her name.

CAnd that is still the way we recognize him - in the breaking of bread and in the words he speaks.

CThe different stories of the ap­pearance of Jesus are trying to tell us in word pictures what resur­rection means.

CThey show that Jesus is really alive - otherwise our faith would be in vain-

CThey show us that it is the very same Jesus - otherwise there is no point to his earthly life.

CBut they say he is somehow not the same - otherwise there is no benefit from rising from the dead.

CThat may be wonderful for Jesus, but what does it do for you and me?

CWilliam James once spoke of the cash value of any religious idea - its market price - the effect it might have in the real world.

CAn irreverent way to ask the question would be:

C"Will the resurrection and a dollar get me a cup of coffee?"

CDo you want it black or with cream and sugar?

CThe resurrection gives everybody black coffee whether they want it or not. just as God made the world without our leave -

Cand us without our permission, so God raised Jesus from the dead without our consent.

CWe may use or abuse the world, we may love or despise our life, or we may approve or ignore the resurrection.

CBut our opinion does not alter the fact.

CResurrection means that at least one human being emerged on the far side of death transformed into a new life.

CNow, if you want cream or sugar, you have to add your own -

Cas little or as much as you like.

CMinimally, you might believe in the resurrection of Jesus only.

CThat makes you a nominal Christian.

CThen you may add a little personal color by believing that if it happened to him, it can happen to you.

CThat adds a whole new flavor to life, because it means that you have a goal in life

C that you are not an accident of the universe but a purposeful act of God -

Cthat all of your days and ways are not merely futile striving, finally mocked by death.

CYou may even want to add that everybody will rise from the dead, that even history has a meaning - a divine scheme.

CYou and I are not bit-players who strut a while, then retire to the wings without ever knowing how the play ends.

CNo - we all come out for a final curtain-call at the end of the world - to appreciate each other,

Cto enjoy the marvelous unfolding of creation, and to be amazed at how God contrived to make such a complicated plot come out all right - and to applaud God!

CBut although cosmic resurrection is a grand thing, it is a little much.

CAnd most of us, most of the time, would settle for a little less.

CAnd on a really rough day, all we want to know is what we can "cash" resurrection in for.

CI think we have to admit that it is a bearish market today.

CThe world does not appear to be appreciably better since Jesus defied death.

COur lives still seem, at times, to move on in their petty, puny pace.

CBut things do not have to be as they seem.

CIf resurrection is not merely a one time event at the end of life

C if it is instead the radical pattern of everyday life -

Cthen our ups and downs are not indifferent blips on a screen.

CEvery ache and pain is an extension of the death of Jesus.

CEvery happiness is an expression of his resurrection.

CEvery single thing that befalls us is an indispensable line in the script of our salvation.

CThat is difficult to prove.

CIn fact, it is impossible.

CIt is rather our belief, our hope.

CAnd it is fragile.

CIt demands a new way of walking, a blurred look through a clouded mirror, and a personal attachment to a dead and risen friend.

CIt is hard.

CBut that is how faith has always been.

Question for Easter 2

Second Sunday of Easter

Encouraging others

Reading I          Acts 2:42-47 (communal life)

Reading II         1 Peter 1:3-9 (thanksgiving)

Gospel                 John 20:19-31 (appearance to the disciples; Thomas)

Key Passage    Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” (John 20:27)

Adult:                  We show our faith when we demonstrate courage in the face of difficulty. What could you do this week to help strengthen someone?

Child:                  What could you do this week to encourage someone who is sad or discouraged?

Easter Sunday 2014

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There's a fascinating detail in John's account of Jesus' resurrection regarding the burial cloths of Jesus.

The evangelist makes a point of where Peter and the other disciple find the wrappings.

the shroud and cloths in which Jesus' body was wrapped and bound are found on the ground;

the cloth that covered Jesus' face was rolled up separately.

It seems very deliberate, planned.

Whatever Mary and Peter and the disciples saw Jesus wearing in his appearances on Easter morning and evening gave no indication of his excruciating passion;

his Easter garb was not the shroud of the dead.

Jesus left the bindings of death behind.

Forever.

On this Easter morning, many of us are wearing new Easter clothes, as well ‑

new shoes, new dresses, new suits, new ties, new sweaters, new slacks.

After a long winter, we are finally able to leave the old dark colors of winter behind and put on the colors of the long awaited spring.

The custom of wearing new outfits at Easter originated with the early Church.

When the newly‑baptized emerged from the pool of water at the Easter Vigil,

they were dressed in new white robes as a sign of their "putting on Christ."

They left behind their old lives in the baptismal waters, emerging from the pool re‑born into the life of the Risen Christ.

Even the Christians who had been baptized in previous years dressed in new clothes at Easter to indicate that they, too, were reborn through the penance and prayer of Lent.

So the new outfit you are wearing today is part of a custom dating back to that first Easter morning:

your new clothes are nothing less than a profession of the faith in the resurrection of Christ.

Our new Easter finery notwithstanding, we do live our lives as if wrapped and bound in burial cloths ‑

shrouds that we spin for ourselves out of our fears, our doubts, our prejudices, our narrow‑mindedness.

We cling to the safe wrappings and things of the "dead," afraid or intimidated to "live" the life of God;

We can't seem to put aside the things of the "dead" to take up, instead, the things of God.

Easter, however, calls us to newness:

a newness of attitude, of perspective, of spirit.

The grace and hope of the Risen Jesus enables us to put aside the shrouds of fear and distrust that cover us,

to walk out of the tombs of vengeance and anger that imprison us. 

Holy Saturday 2014

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when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus

And so the mystery begins to unravel.

The women at the empty tomb are confused.

Who has taken the body of their Lord?

Why would anyone do this?

Where have they taken him?

They are further confused by the angels' words:

Why do you seek the living one among the dead?

He is not here, but he has been raised.

Then the angels remind the women of what they already know:

Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee, that the Son of Man

must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.

And they remembered his words.

Remembering is an innately human activity.

How often have we been told a story, heard a grandparent reminisce, or cried over a loved one who has died.

Don't we all remember those major milestones in life:

falling in love for the first time;

high school victory on the football field;

21st birthday celebrations;

marriage;

birth of our first child;

day I received my first communion or was confirmed or was ordained.

Then there are the painful memories of trauma, tragedy and sadness in our lives.

All memories are important, evoke certain feelings and constitute who we are.

In our Easter Vigil tonight we are invited to remember the story of our salvation and the good news that Jesus who was crucified is now risen.

Everything we do tonight - lighting candles, listening to the stories from scripture, , sharing communion -

says that we are like the women standing in the tomb:

we remember, we believe, we celebrate our Christian heritage and identity.

And this brings me to the second thing I would like you to remember.

Please remember that you belong with us.

The Catholic Christian communities of Francis de Sales and Visitation, or whatever other Catholic community you may become a member of, is your spiritual home.

You belong here, and this is the place where you can thrive and flourish as a disciple of Christ.  

You belong with us

Please remember that.

And lastly, I would like us to remember that, like the women in our gospel tonight, we all too are sent to announce the good news of our faith to others.

We do this, not so much by overt preaching, but simply by living lives of courageous Christian witness and moral integrity.

we are sent and commissioned to be a sacrament - indeed a living memorial - of the person of Jesus in our world.

That is what is called evangelism.

And our diocese wants us to be about re-evangelizing our community and our world.

Our world, and the one human family that inhabits it, is hurting and divided

Human greed, fear, arrogance and blindness, are depleting the earth's natural resources.

Disease, poverty and violence are killing thousands everyday.

As disciples of Christ  I encourage you to always uphold the dignity of human life;

to always honor and reverence everything in creation and to above all demonstrate to the world what it means to live in loving communion.

As we remember, as we believe and as we celebrate who we are in God's beautiful dream of humanity.

Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

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As we reflect on the events that are recorded in the passion narrative. it is only natural to ask ourselves what Jesus' death is all about.

What does it mean'?

From one point of view, it's quite simple.

Those who oppose Jesus gather a crowd together and scare the Roman governor into letting Jesus be executed.

Jesus is an innocent man, done to death by his more powerful enemies.

But there's more to it than that.

For one thing, Jesus is done to death because of his message B

a message of God's love offered to all human beings.

This message simply seemed too good to be true.

It seemed dangerous to the power brokers.

Jesus could have backed off.

He could have toned down his message.

He could have gotten out of the country or simply kept quiet.

But he didn't, and the reason he didn't was because the message was too important. The Good News of God's love was B and is B a message that everybody needs to hear.

It's a message that gives ultimate meaning and purpose to the life of every human being.

If Jesus had backed off he might have saved his life. but the message would have been lost.

Jesus remained truthful to his message B

even when he began to see that it would cost him his life.

He died so that the truth he preached would be available to the people of his time. so that it would be available to us.

Jesus died for his message.

the message that is our salvation.

Jesus died for us.

But there is still another dimension to Jesus' death.

He was sent from his Father with a mission.

and that mission was not just to teach, important as that was and is.

but also to demonstrate what human life is all about.

Jesus came into a world like ours.

a sinful world.

a selfish world.

a shortsighted world.

Through the whole course of his life Jesus showed that the real value of human life lies in relationship to his heavenly Father.

Everything Jesus did was directed to the love of God and to the love of those who are loved by God.

His mission was to live human existence as God had intended it to be lived from the beginning.

He remained obedient to that mission even when it cost him his life.

From then on human life has been different in God's sight.

in and selfishness and shortsightedness remain, but God now offers a whole new relationship to those who are willing to continue the life of Jesus.

to those who are willing to live with the values and goals and relationships that were his.

Our life is different because we share the life of Jesus.

Our life has a new depth because Jesus was faithful to his heavenly Father even when that faithfulness brought about his death.

Jesus died for us.

These are deep and complex matters.

Yet like all the greatest truths. this one can also be expressed very simply:

Jesus died for us.

That is what we celebrate today.

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord Question

Easter Sunday

Witness to faith

Reading I          Acts 10:34, 37-43 (Peter’s discourse)

Reading II         Colossians 3:1-4 (mystical death and resurrection)

Gospel                                John 20:1-9 (Peter and the disciple at the tomb)

Key Passage    Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also  went in, and he saw and believed. (John 20:8)

Adult:                   What is your experience of resurrection in your own life or the life of your family?

Child:                  Jesus is with us today. How can you see him in the people around you in Church?

The Easter Vigil in the Holy night Question

Holy Saturday (Vigil)

New life in Christ

Reading I          Genesis 1:1—2:2 (first story of creation)

Reading III       Exodus 14:15—15:1 (crossing of the Red Sea and destruction of the Egyptians)

Reading V         Isaiah 55:1–11 (an invitation to grace)

Reading VII     Ezekiel 36:16–17a, 18–28 (regeneration of the people)

Epistle                                Romans 6:3–11 (death to sin, life in God)

Gospel                                Matthew 28:1–10 (the women at the tomb)

Key Passage    Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

Adult:                 How do you live your baptismal call to spread the  Good News?

Child:                  If someone who was not a Christian asked you what difference it makes to be baptized, what would you say?

Holy Thursday Question

Holy Thursday

Perfect sacrifice

Reading I          Exodus 12:1–8, 11–14 (the Passover ritual prescribed)

Reading II         1 Corinthians 11:23–26 (the Lord’s Supper)

Gospel                l              John 13:1–15 (the washing of the feet)

Key Passage    For I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you.” (1 Corinthians 11:23–24)

Adult:                 What sacrifices did you make out of love?

Child:                  What is the difference between doing something for someone out of love, and doing it because someone makes you?

Lenten Reflection on Lazarus

Many years ago, in a period of my life when I was feeling particularly lonely, dissatisfied with my work, and uncertain about the future, I found myself thinking a great deal about the story of Lazarus. Instead of drawing hope from Lazarus’ triumphant rise from the dead, I felt no great solace. In fact, much the opposite.  

I decided to explore these feelings in a poem. I wrote a rather cynical sonnet in the voice of Lazarus. What if Lazarus didn’t especially want to return to the dust and drudgery of daily life, I asked. What if he preferred the soundlessness of the grave to the bickering voices of his sisters? What if he chose the dreamland of death over the discontent of a poor man’s life? “No one asked me if I wanted to return,” Lazarus says in my poem. He contemplates the “cruel trick” he is asked to endure. He is the only human being in history who must live and die twice.

There are many ways to read the Lazarus story. On one level, it foreshadows Christ’s imminent crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. It offers one of the clearest portraits of Jesus’ compassion, driven home by the phrase, “And Jesus wept.” It presents us once again with a chance to identify with the clueless disciples who seem incapable of comprehending the amazing events they witness. And it gives us a chance to smile at the distinctions between practical Martha and the ethereal Mary (Mary prays at her brother’s wake; Martha worries about the stench of death).

Once again this Lent, I find myself thinking of Lazarus, but this time in a totally different context. Imagine for a moment just the physical journey the poor fellow faced. There he lies, ensconced deep within the earth in a cave sealed with a stone. His cadaver is not only wrapped from head to toe in burial cloth, he even has a kerchief covering his face. Think of him hearing Jesus’ call to “Come out!” Picture him following the sound of that voice, feeling his way gingerly along the dirt walls of the cave in absolute darkness.

In the course of that underground journey, he must have felt as though he was passing through yet another eternity. (Think about of how slowly time seems to pass when we are caught  in traffic and anxious to arrive at our destination). Finally Lazarus reaches the end of the tunnel. Perhaps his eyes can sense the intense desert sun even through his burial cloths. In that light, the first voice he hears is a familiar one, that of Jesus. “Untie him and set him free.”

At this stage in my life, I doubt I’d write the kind of poem I did when I was younger, questioning Lazarus choice to journey from death back to life. What the Lazarus story says to me today is that life is worth that slow uncertain slog through darkness. It spurs me to consider what ties me in place, what makes me unseeing. Is it my propensity to work too hard? My lack of attentiveness to the sacred all around me? My hoarding of grudges, my inability to let go of hurts, my constant questioning of my own self-worth? This Lent, I vow to peel off the psychic burial cloths of my own making, the soiled rags that bind me in place. There is someone calling to me at the end of my emotional burial ground. Someone who wants to lead me out of blindness, to untie me and set me free. What ties do you need to loosen? What burial cloths are binding you in place?

Holy Thursday @014

"In the Cup of the New Covenant,"
Jan Richardson, 2012.

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In her long poem "Feet"^[1] Denise Levertov¹ wrote:

"I watched a man whose feet were neatly wrapped in green plastic.

He entered a restaurant that advertised a $2.00 special C Sloppy Joes.

And I saw him come out immediately again.

"It was cold and wet, and I was taking shelter under the awning, waiting for a bus.

The man was angry.

"'What happened?'

He looked at me C

'No shoes,' he said.

We all know the rubric C

No shoes, no shirt, no service."

You can drag dirt into an eatery with shoes but not with feet covered in plastic.

On this holy night, we remember the Passover of the Lord.

The readings are a treasury of meaning and hold together in powerful ways.

The foot‑washing scene in John's Gospel has no parallel in ritual meals of the Judaism of Jesus' time.

It is innovation, par excellence.

In the time of Jesus the streets would have been filled with human and animal waste.

The washing of feet was usually done by a slave.

That is why the disciples are stunned when Jesus takes off his outer garment

and puts a towel over his shoulders and begins to wash their feet.

Peter, of course, speaks what everyone is thinking and feeling.

the first level of meaning is that of humble service.

But there is another level of meaning as well.

In biblical times the hands and feet symbolize human activity.

It is with hands and feet that we sin.

in our minds, to wash them, to cleanse them, is to wash away sin, it is to forgive.

When Jesus urges his disciples to repeat this action he is not merely talking about washing of feet.

He is insisting that we forgive one another as he has forgiven us, that we love one another as he has loved us.

What about hands?

We remember Jesus as taking, breaking, giving bread and wine.

The handing over of food and drink became an embodied symbol of that other "handing over,"

the "handing over" when Christ, betrayed into the hands of sinners, surrendered his body to death on the cross.

Human hands connect Eucharist and cross, Holy Thursday and Good Friday;

hands outstretched to take, break and give;

hands cupped to hold, receive, eat and drink;

hands nailed east and west on a cross.

On this holy night, we pledge once again to use our hands and feet for the work of forgiveness,

for the work of loving each other.

We pledge to wash each other's feet, to hand over our lives for each other, for the sake of the world.

We pledge ourselves to do Eucharist, to do this in memory of the One who gave His life for us.

We do so because Jesus is our Passover Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.

Fourth Sunday of Lent A

"And Open Our Eyes to Behold Love's Face"
© Jan Richardson

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There was a man born blind.

On that point, everyone seems to have been in agreement.

He had become a part of the cultural scenery, so familiar that people forgot to look at him.

As a beggar he received food; but apparently he received little actual attention.

He was born blind.

Everybody knew that.

And that was how he was to be classified for life.

He had been neatly placed in the "blind and helpless" category, so that folks were free to go about other tasks in life.

Even today, society and daily culture depend upon people first being categorized and, then, staying in their place.

But all this changed on the day that Jesus walked by.

Everybody still agreed that the beggar who used to roam their streets was born blind‑there was a man born blind!‑but no one could get straight exactly what had happened to him.

The story of this dramatic event is one of the funniest stories in scripture, told in the entire ninth chapter of John.

The public investigation of how this blind man became able to see sounds like an early story line for the Keystone Cops.

Here is how it goes:

As Jesus walked by one day, he met a man born blind.

Immediately, this man born blind became for the disciples an object lesson.

They treated him, not as a man, but as an example, or a proof text, for their own theology. "Rabbi," they ask, "who sinned‑this man or his parents‑that he was born blind?"

Notice how attention is so quickly diverted from the need at hand, which is the man himself, to a theological or philosophical argument.

We do the same maneuver today.

In the face of human need, many of us prefer to use that need to shore up our own belief system or our own political agenda.

We see a person in need and we systematize.

That person is homeless; he must be too lazy to work.

On food stamps; must be spending money on booze

How can my belief system, or morality system, account for this phenomenon?

The maneuver is inevitable for most of us.

We have belief systems for good reasons.

But if we forget the actual person standing right in front of us, then our belief system‑and moral system‑is useless no matter what our persuasion is.

"Who caused this to happen," we ask, "this man or his parents?

Who is to blame here?

Why is there blindness in the world?

Why is there poverty, illness, or behavior which out and out does not match mine?

Who is to blame, nature or nurture‑this man or his parents?"

Jesus, as he so often does, answers with a third option, one that the questioners did not think of. Jesus said,

"Neither this man sinned, nor his parents.

This man is here, before us blind, so that the marvelous works of God can be shown."

What an amazing way to interpret human need or suffering!

When Jesus sees someone in need, he does not use that person's plight to develop a political or moral agenda.

Jesus sees opportunity, a chance to recognize God's work.

God's work is revealed, not in moral statement, but in an act of mercy, in an act which pays close attention to the need itself.

But, finally, at the end of the story, Jesus finds the healed man again.

Now comes the time for interpretation and reflection.

The act of healing has occurred.

Jesus asks, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?"

"Who is he?" responds the healed man, just as honestly as he always has.

"I who speak to you am he," Jesus responds.

And the healed man proclaims, "Lord, I believe."

With that proclamation, the healing is indeed complete.

The man born blind sees not only the world around him, with utter and complete honesty.

The man born blind now also sees Jesus himself, the Lord of that world, who can bring clarity even out of the mud made from human spit.

Our scattered speculations, emerging as they do only from a need to defend our own agendas, are only as clear as mud in the eyes of God.

As long as we seek only to fit the acts of God into our human picture, we are blind, unable even to comprehend what God may have for us in the future.

At the end of the ninth chapter of John, some Pharisees begin to see.

The evidence of that sight is their own questioning.

They question whether they can see at all.

They ask Jesus, "Surely we are not blind, are we?"

And Jesus' response is sharp and precise:

"If you say, 'We see,'" Jesus says, "then your sin remains."

Be careful, then, whenever we say, "We see."

Our human speculation, as fun and provocative as it may be, can never comprehend the amazing power of God.

We can never enclose the marvelous presence of God.

God will burst the boundaries and walls of our personal agendas with new light.

That light is Jesus, the Lord, the Light of the World, who shines a new light in our lives.

Jesus does that by focusing not on the reasons for illness, not on the philosophical justifications of reality, but by focusing on human need.

There are people around us whose needs are so familiar to us that we now ignore them.

They were born blind, we say, and that is that.

Jesus, however, refuses to walk right by them, just as Jesus refuses to walk right by each one of us.

Jesus wants to touch each one of us with sight.

And every person‑blind or seeing, Pharisee or disciple‑is an opportunity for Jesus.

Each of us is an opportunity for God to reveal light in utter and elegant simplicity.

Let Jesus touch our eyes today; and we will see the Light of the World

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Image: "Breath Will Come to the Desolate Bones"
© Jan Richardson

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Jesus said: "Lazarus is dead. "

But what exactly is death?

It depends on whom you ask.

To the ordinary person, death is when you stop breathing.

To a doctor, it is when brain waves stop.

Those are reasonable ways of deciding the point of death.

But there is more to us than a physical body.

From the Christian perspective, what happens to us at death is far less important than what we do at death.

For Christians, death is that point when we sum up our whole life, when a whole lifetime of actions has determined who we are,

when a succession of decisions has defined our personality,

when we decide what we want to be for eternity.

Death is the instant when we finally acknowledge precisely who we are and then present that finished self as an offering to the mercy of God.

Even if the body is suddenly killed, personal death is a process.

Even if bodily cessation is accidental, death is purposeful.

That is why the instant of physical death may not be the same instant of personal decision.

It might be that pain or anxiety or drugs or fear may prevent a person from the ultimate personal decision at the point of physical death.

But at some point in life, every person does—or does not — make that ultimate offering of self to God.

Even if they do not know when, even if they do not believe in God. each person at some time decides whether their whole life is sell serving or self-giving,

whether their life dissolves in futility or falls into the mystery of God.

Karl Rahner wrote: "There are so many little deaths along the way that it doesn't matter which is the last one."

Each failure, each suffering, each illness is a lessening of our life, a diminishment of our self.

But we are not created for our own self only.

We are created to live with God forever.

We are given this earthly life to allow us to become that person we want to be forever.

We are given a certain amount of time to create, by every free choice, that unique person who will have a

unique personal relationship with their God.

That relationship with God. as with all other relationships, is based on love.

And love is the desire for union with another.

Which demands that we get out of ourselves and into the other.

Love means that we prefer the good of the other to our own good.

Love means that we defer to the other's wishes, that our wishes coincide.

All of which means that, like the Baptist, we decrease so they increase.

That is how by each act of love we gradually let go of our control of life, that we gradually give in to God.

So that when death finally comes, giving up the rest of our self will not be hard.

Death will he a joyful letting go instead of a grudging holding on to life.

People have difficulty with death because they consider it to be the end of life.

Christians know that death is a transitional stage to a different kind of life.

People have trouble with death because they think it is the destruction of all they worked so hard to accomplish.

Christians know that death is the summation, the culmination of life.

Or, as Jesus called it. his hour of triumph.

If we really believed these things, then death would lose its frightful grip on us

.