Third Sunday of Easter

This Weekend we celebrate the third Sunday of Easter it seems strange that we have come so far from the ashes of Ash Wednesday right through to Jesus resurrection at Easter. In the resurrection We celebrate the one who affirms for us that God has walked on our streets, confronted the evil we see and suffered died and rose again for us.  Jesus  resurrection assures us that life can come out of death and good can overcome evil. It doesn’t always seem that way these days when we see the suffering of the people around the world especially in places like Ukraine but for people who have faith in God nothing is impossible. After the earth shattering events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday Peter and the others were ready to put the events of those days behind them and return home to what they did before they came across Jesus. But Jesus won’t let them go and by association he won’t let us go either.

In our Gospel Story for this Sunday he comes to the shore looking for them. He gets their attention, as he did when he first called them, with a large catch of fish. He prepares breakfast for them and invites them to eat, “Come, and have breakfast.” After the meal Jesus asks Peter three times about the reality of his love. Insisting on love is something of a mark with Jesus. Three times Peter affirms his love, as three times Jesus insists on it. And when Peter professes his love Jesus commissions him to care for his flock when he says feed my sheep. And that is what Peter does – as we hear in Sunday’s first reading. In his ministry of preaching and healing Peter gets through to many people, and the authorities become nervous at the ability of Peter and the apostles to work in the name of Jesus. In spite of the opposition Peter will continue insisting on his love for Jesus and this insistence will take him to martyrdom in Rome. No matter whether the believer is new or old, a pew sitter or a leader of people, the call of Christ is the same: “Follow me.”

Following Christ means life in the community of faith where we are. Are we, like Peter, spreading the net for new believers and professing a true love for our Savior? Or are we on the sidelines watching others doing the work when we should really be out there doing the work with them?  At the end of the day whatever happens we remember that God is with us and wants us to be with him now and in the future, He is with us in good and bad times so let us take courage this Eastertime  to go forward in faith.

Second Sunday of Easter

This Sunday we celebrate the second Sunday of Easter that is also called Divine Mercy Sunday. The season of Lent, Holy Week and  Easter  Sunday have come and gone so quickly  and are now a distant memory. Many people think that Easter begins and ends on Easter Sunday but it doesn’t end there the celebration of the season of Easter goes on for 50 days and ends on Pentecost Sunday. I wonder what the Apostles would think if they were to come down to us these days and find that we are celebrating the Death and Resurrection of Jesus that took place over 2022 years ago, they would be amazed especially as they thought everything was over with the Crucifixion on Good Friday but that first Holy Week and Easter Day was only the beginning of the story. In this Sundays Gospel reading the Apostles were still huddled together behind locked doors, pondering the shocking experience from the week before when all seemed to be lost. Then Jesus appeared  to them and to assure them that he was alive.

 His message must have troubled them as well when he told them: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”   In the same way as the apostles were sent out we are sent out to bring the  message of god’s mercy  and love to other people wherever we are. Then of course there is doubting Thomas who heard the witness of the those who saw Jesus but, like so many of us today he wanted more proof. Jesus says to Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” That is a favorite quote for many of us, who have not “seen” the risen Christ in person as the disciples did. We have come to believe though we have not seen him in the flesh but he is with us in the midst of our communities through so many different people. When Jesus says to the Apostles Peace be with you the Peace he is talking about is much more than the lack of conflict. True peace, gives us happiness, since it is built on trust in God and one another.  The gospel tells us how Jesus gave his followers peace because they trusted him. In spite of the skepticism of Thomas and so many others, Jesus  offers us the same peace of heart mind and soul.  

As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday we remember the joy, the hope, the grief and the anxieties of the people in our time those we know and those unknown to us and we bring them to the merciful Lord. We remember in a special way the Ukrainian people and all those who are refugees from that country who have come to ours wherever we are. Our world is hurting so much because of the things that are happening within it with people at each other’s throats for so many reasons.  Let us not give up on our efforts, as small as they seem, to bring peace into our families, workplace, classroom and community. May all of us be witnesses to the love  and mercy of the Gospel as we try to bring the caring face of God’s mercy to the people wherever we are.

The Easter vigil and Easter Sunday

Though  it isn’t now an obligation, the early Church continued to fast through Saturday. Our anticipation has not ended with the memory of Christ’s death. In fact, our anticipation increases as we wait to celebrate the Resurrection. We light the new Easter Candle from a large fire outside to remind us that Jesus is our light in the darkness, we then process into the darkened church. We hear the great hymn of praise called the ‘Exultet, in which we praise Christ for saving us. The hymn says that we would greatly prefer a fallen universe with Christ to a perfect one without him.  “0 Happy fault which deserved so great a Saviour.”We hear more readings than usual on this night, recounting the history of our salvation. Most significantly we welcome new members into the Church, then With them we all renew our Baptismal promises. At Easter, we celebrate joy, the kind  of joy that each of us longs for, when every tear is wiped away, and there is no sorrow any more no more suffering from weather or hunger or hurtful human beings. As we sing in the much-loved hymn by Fr. John Foley, S. J., at Easter, “the cross and passion past, dark night is done, bright morning come at last!” When we ourselves rise to meet our risen Lord, in that bright morning we will hear him say, “Come away, beloved.  The winter is past; the rain is gone, and the flowers return to the earth” (Song of Songs 2:10-12). In the loving union of that encounter, all the  brokenness of our lives will be redeemed. 

That will be perfect joy. So in that same vein of perfect joy we say “this is the ‘day which the Lord has made.’ Alleluia!  let us take fresh hope,  with Christ our Passover everything is possible! Christ goes forward with us in our future!” Let us go forward together as Easter people rejoicing in the Resurrection. We need time to do all of these things well, so we begin a fifty day season of feasting with a long liturgy that is packed with all the riches the Church has to offer. Having  completed our Lenten observance and after the liturgies of Holy Thursday and  Good Friday we  are now at the stage of celebrating the Easter Vigil and the day of resurrection that is Easter Sunday. The Psalm for Easter Sunday says, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Above all days, Easter is a time  of joy . Joy expressed in so many people and things especially at this time of the year. It can seem that once Easter Sunday has passed Easter is finished, but the’ celebration continues for fifty days. The next Sunday of Easter day  is traditionally known as Low Sunday or Dominica in Albis (White Sunday) which refers to the white baptismal garment of the newly baptized. Divine Mercy Sunday is a new feast also celebrated on this day. It comes almost as an opportunity in which anyone who missed out on celebrating the mercy of Christ in Holy Week has another chance. After forty days we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Christ who returns to the Father to send us the Holy Spirit.

We spend the novena (nine days) between the Ascension and Pentecost praying for the Spirit like Mary and the apostles in the Upper Room. On the fiftieth day (which is the literal meaning of the word “Pentecost”) Easter ends. On that day “Christ’s Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit” (CCC 731).  Our celebration of Easter resonates throughout the rest of the year: full of gratitude for Christ’s passion, joy in his resurrection and, strengthened by the Spirit, we continue our Christian journey.

HOLY THURSDAY

 On this day we celebrate the Sacraments of Priesthood and Eucharist. In every  diocese the priests who have given their lives in generous service of the people of God gather with the Bishop for the Chrism Mass and they renew their commitment to priestly service. Also at this Mass the oils of Chrism, Catechumens and the Oil of the Sick are blessed by the bishop, these holy oils will be used in the Baptisms, Confirmations and anointing of the sick in the local parishes. The theme running throughout this day is one of service, service to God and one another. On Holy Thursday Evening we commemorate the first Eucharist when Jesus gave us the gift of himself to be with us for all time.  The Evening Mass commerates the Last Supper and its theme is one of service and sacrifice.  We see Jesus as one who serves. Just as he  freely gives himself in washing the feet of his disciples, so too he gives himself  in the bread and wine he takes, blesses and hands to the apostles gathered in the upper room as he does through the priests down through the generations to us, in the same way he will give himself on the cross on Good Frida.  All these acts of self-giving are the same act – that of the Son of Man who came ‘not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

The action of the Church that is our action  as the body of Christ on this night also witnesses to the Church’s respect for Christ’s Body present in the consecrated Host in the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, carried in solemn procession to the  Altar of Repose. No Mass will be celebrated again in the Church throughout the world until the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday evening when we proclaim the Resurrection. As people who are followers of Christ We should embrace all those who are in need of any kind as Christ did. We should be leading lives of generous service to all those who need our help wherever they are and there are many people around who may need our help and care. Each of us is called to show that we are a caring people showing the love of God to all those who have nobody to care for them we have to show them that ours is an all loving and caring God.  When we serve our brothers and sisters in whatever way we are called showing them that our God is an all-loving and caring father in heaven then the Eucharist whenever we partake of this great sacrament will bring us joy and peace. In the words of the liturgy let us go forth to meet the Lord in peace and thanksgiving as we celebrate the three days of the Easter Triduum

Palm Sunday

For the last five weeks of Lent we have journeyed along the path of renewal and reconciliation with Jesus. And now we now begin Holy Week with our annual celebration of our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem. The Liturgy of Palm Sunday has two very distinctive moods. We begin with the blessing of palms, joining with the enthusiastic crowds that greeted Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem as they sang Hosanna. Then with the Opening Prayer of the Mass the mood dramatically changes by speaking of Jesus’ giving of his life on the cross. The readings lead us deep into the mystery of Christ’s suffering and death, culminating in the drama of Jesus’ arrest, trial, sufferings and crucifixion as it unfolds in St Luke’s account of the Passion.  

This is the first time that we will celebrate Holy Week without many of the restrictions that Covid19 has brought. For many people the past 2 years have brought many life changing events and sadly many people have lost members of their families and friends to the pandemic. This Holy week we remember all the people who are not with us as we continue to pray for peace in Ukraine. In the Gospel reading from Luke we hear how the crowd goes from rejoicing to calling out crucify him, crucify him. The entrance into Jerusalem is one of the very few events in Jesus’ life which is mentioned in all four gospels.  It is the only time that Jesus accepts and encourages public acclaim as Messiah even at that time it wasn’t really about him it was about doing his father’s will.  He even goes as far as organising his entrance by telling the disciples to go and fetch the donkey.  The key moment in God’s great plan of salvation is about to begin and Jesus knows exactly how it will unfold and where he will end up. As we reflect upon the story of Jesus going up to Jerusalem we recommit ourselves to Jesus and his message of salvation.

The events of Palm Sunday were foretold thousands of years ago.  The first reading from Isaiah, was written at the time of the Babylonian captivity and it speaks of a courageous and obedient messiah-figure,  who says, “I have set my face like flint” set my face against the beatings and scourging that lie ahead, “knowing that I shall not be put to shame.”  On Palm Sunday we feel an certain amount of embarrassment when we cry out “Crucify Him” with the palm branches still in our hands. It reminds us of our responses and our lack of courage in responding to Gods love for us. Yet as we know it was the sins of us all which brought Jesus to Calvary.  Holy Week is a time for us to realize what we are like, and to find that the only remedy for us is the love of God shown to us through Jesus his Son. As we recall the Passion story on Palm Sunday and then again on Good Friday we are called to respond as God’s family, we are called to look out for one another. It’s not just about “me” It’s about “us” and our journey of faith. A journey that we make together.

 May the passion story that we hear this week inspire all of us to try to imitate in some small way the all loving all forgiving Jesus who went through betrayal to death and finally to resurrection for us so that we will have life and have it to the full.  The Church leaves us in no doubt that we have now set out on the solemn journey of Holy Week How will we mark this journey in the coming days? Will we let it pass by with little interruption to our normal routines? Or will we seriously, attentively, prayerfully walk with Jesus through Holy Thursday to the cross of Good Friday and then to the Feast of Easter. It is up to each one of us to make up our minds how we will celebrate the great events of Holy Week that are at  the heart of all we believe.

5th Sunday of Lent

This Sunday in our Gospel we hear the story of the woman who was caught in adultery and we hear Jesus telling us ‘If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Jesus did not deny the Scribes and Pharisees the right to carry out this prescription of the Law, but he insisted on one condition, namely, that they have no sin on their consciences. “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” So many of us today are like the Pharisees in that we are prepared to lift the stone and be the first person to throw it despite our own shortcomings. This story is about so much more that throwing the stones it is really about God’s mercy towards the woman and by association God’s mercy to us. When Jesus and the woman were left alone, he looked up and said, “Woman, where are they?” Ironically, the self-righteous observers of the Law, so eager to throw stones, could not measure up to the requirement that Jesus had laid down and all of them had left.

After they had gone, Jesus lifted up his eyes to the woman looking at her with the eyes of gentleness; he asks her, ‘Has no one condemned you?’ She replies, ‘No one, Sir.’ And he says, ‘Neither do I condemn you. What does this say to you and me today as so many of us are prepared to throw stones of condemnation at so many people and of course there are also people who would throw stones at us as well.  This gospel story says to all of us  that we should consider what we say and do and its effect on other people sometimes the things that we say can be more hurtful than any stones we might throw especially in today’s world of Facebook, Twitter and instant communication. If we remember what Jesus tells us when he says let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw the stone then we won’t go far wrong. The simple truth is all of us are sinners and as a result of that none of us are in a position to throw the stone even though we might think we are!!

As we continue our Lenten Journey   let us ask the Lord to show us his way especially as we head towards Palm Sunday and Holy Week.