Fourth Sunday of Easter A

May 11, 2014

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The little girl asked the family's dinner guest, "Do you like dolls?"

The guest said, "Of course, sweetheart, I love dolls."

'"Would you like to see mine?"

"That would be wonderful."

The little girl leads her guest to her room where she brings out all of her dolls.

The guest asked, "Which doll is your favorite?"

The little girl hesitated a moment, and then picked up a well-worn, tattered rag doll.

It was missing a button eye, its seams had obviously been sewn up many times, its dress was faded and frayed.

She hugged the doll close and showed it to the guest.

"This is Annie. I love her most of all."

The guest was surprised that, out of all the beautiful dolls she had, the little girl would pick this old, tattered rag doll.

"Why do you love this one so much?"

The little girl said, "Well, if I didnt love her, no else would."

When we have lost faith in ourselves, when we are feeling especially unlovable when we are feeling swamped by all the demands placed on us and our inability to make everyone happy,

the Gospel of the Good Shepherd should restore us to hope and confidence.

In Christ the Good Shepherd, God's limitless, unconditional love takes on a human face,

becomes a reality in human history.

In God's eyes, love is never absent;

in Gods heart, forgiveness is never impossible;

in God's embrace, no one is ever alone or forgotten.

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?