PENTECOST SUNDAY

John 14: 15-16, 23b-26

Dear Friends,If there ever has been a time to be careful for what we pray for, it is on this Pentecost Sunday. In the Response we pray: “Lord, send out your Spirit and renew the face of the earth.” When the Spirit comes, an explosion of creativity follows. Our comfortable boundaries are under siege.

The Spirit gifted the new-born Church. though it was wrapped in poverty and bewilderment, it was able to gather an extensively diverse group of people, driven by a wide-range of cultures, into a semblance of unity. In spite of all the many self-interests, a fragile but growing unity prevailed. This was the work of the Spirit.

All of today’s readings uncover this action of the Spirit. The presence of the Spirit is an unsettling event. It opens up the depth and breadth of Jesus’ revolutionary message. There is a creation of new worlds with expansion of horizons, calling us to accept the new, the different and the neglected. The Spirit shatters our sense of security, and often, our confidence rooted in false independence. The Spirit always pushes for more, for new ways to include others.

The disciples who received the Spirit, as described in Acts, were only shortly removed from being dominated by the search for power, prestige and wealth in their commitment to Jesus. (Mk 8:22-10:52) With the enlightenment of the Spirit, Jesus’ message had a new transforming power within their hearts. Now the Good News of God’s unconditional love and limitless mercy penetrated their entire being. The mystery of the crucified and risen Christ now opened their eyes and hearts. Reality now was experienced with a graciousness and beauty that directed them away from selfishness to the liberating journey of love. With the guidance of the Spirit, they now were at home in Jesus’ upside-down world. Finally, they longed to serve, to wash the feet, to be last and desired to lose their life so they could walk in the new reality of life and truth revealed in Jesus.

Even with these new insights, gifted by the presence of the Spirit, they still struggled mightily to accept the Gentiles. They failed to see the God-given dignity of women along with countless other racial and ethnic challenges. The seeds of Jesus’ message were far from reaching full bloom in the days of the earliest believers. It is the same for us today where there is so much about the Church that fails to mirror the Gospel.

It took some time, but the first Christians who wore Jews’ eventually experienced their long-cherished birthright as the Chosen People in the light of the Gospel. They now understood their heritage as children for Abraham was not something that closed them in. I t became for them a world-shattering reality where all humankind was endowed with the call to the New Covenant. Ever so reluctantly they accepted Gentiles into the fold. With much struggle, they broke the bondage of the law and embraced the freedom of the Spirit. They saw clearly the infantile and destructive pull of the flesh. They recognized that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, faithfulness, gentleness self-control” (Gal 5:22-24).

As the disciples learned to listen to the Spirit, two things became obvious. They had to learn to listen to their hearts. This shattered their traditional and commonsense vision of reality. Secondly, they must assent to the challenging consequences of the Spirit’s presence. It always demands change, a disturbing experience. History tells us the demands and new horizons of the Gospel are never finished. The Spirit always has more to keep us from settling down to a comfortable status quo that we yearn for so dearly. The Spirit is always about the troubling encounter of new possibilities and new perspectives.

The disciples recalled Jesus telling them he would send the Sprit to deepen their awareness of his words. This helped them. As they faced the upheaval and confusion, they eventually learned this turmoil was often the by-product of the Spirit’s movement.

Two concrete and consequential examples of this struggle with change for the early Church were the delay of Jesus’ second coming and the previously mentioned reception of Gentiles into the Church. These two issues were truly traumatic events. These make the changes of Vatican II look like an argument over the color and size of the altar cloth.

The disciples learned that Jesus’ Spirit would open them to the future (John 16:13). Down through history this has been abused by many to foretell the end of the world and other self-serving predictions. In fact, this opening to the future is more in line with all of the Spirit’s work, the building up of the faith community in the footsteps of Jesus. This teaching about the future tells us the Spirit will guide us to see where God is at work moving the faithful community into a future God desires. This is what we mean by the signs of the times. The true future is walking in trust and love guided by God’s Spirit. This calls us to share the creativity of God and to oppose everything that diminishes this call to new life in any and all of our brothers and sisters.

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THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION

Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23, & Mark 16:15-20

Dear Friends, Recently, I enjoyed the opportunity to get back at some teenagers. I love the creativity of their use of two words, “so” and “whatever” Their use of both words captures the content of a full paragraph. While the words are often somewhat disrespectful, they also are playful.

Recently, some teens, with varying degrees of anxiety, came to me with this latest “end of the world” prediction. I loved confusing them with the simple reply, “So!” before I gave a more informed response.

Of course, I had no concern about the end of the world. The liturgy of the feast of the Ascension has a very consoling and challenging message on this topic.

In the first reading from Acts, Jesus responds to the Apostles’ question about the end of the world in these words: “It is not for you to know the time or the seasons that the Father has established. …You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem…and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8) The angel asks, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking at the sky?” (Acts 1:11) In other words, get on with the task of living and proclaiming the gospel. We share that task. The message of today’s feast of the Ascension is not the end of Jesus’ mission, but the beginning of our mission as disciples of Christ.

The next chapter in God’s story of salvation is our chapter. We are now called to declare the message of the Good News with our lives, our proclamation and our witness. This is the time of the Church. It is time of reaching out and lifting up, a time of service and celebration, a time of hope in spite of the continuing ravages of sin and injustice in our midst.

As Church, we have a clear mission from Christ. We must be open and involved in the world, the historical process so rooted in injustice and sin, yet called to redemption. As gospel people, we are not meant to be by-standers to the pain and suffering so pervasive in our time. The temptation is to just wait and see. This is not Jesus’ mandate. He tells us to go out to the whole world and preach the Good News. It is the very power of this divine word that will be the source of transformation of our broken world. Our calling in the midst of war and injustice is to seek peace and to live for justice. Violence, greed, oppression and neglect of the neediest must be met with the power of the gospel to transform this broken world into the seeds of God’s kingdom. Our task, in this time of the church, is to complete the mission of Jesus.

If we truly understand this call of Christ, we can reply to the constant predictions of the end of the world with the creativity of the youthful, “So!”.

The meaning of this beautiful feast of the Ascension is further captured in the words of the Preface of the Mass:

Christ, the mediator between God and men

Judge of the world and Lord of all

Has passed beyond our sight

Not to abandon us but to be our hope.

Christ is the beginning, the head of the Church;

Where he is gone, we hope to follow.

The Christian response to the end of the world is not fear and anxiety. It is hope rooted in the reality that Jesus is with us till end of time. We have no need for hopelessness and confusion. The true Christian response is a simple commitment to live with faith and trust in a God who has a better plan. Our part in that divine plan is to proclaim, serve and celebrate as we share the gospel. We must attempt to live the truth of Christ in our humble brokenness. We pray in the opening prayer of the Mass of the Ascension, “May we follow him into the new creation, for his Ascension is our glory and our hope.”

Many times, we have heard the stories of saints responding to the question, what would you do if you had only a day to live? They all say the same. They would continue living life to the full and seeking to do God’s will. The message of the Ascension tells us to do the same. Remember, God has a better plan!

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DEEP PERSONAL PRAYER AND ORIGINAL SIN-1

Original Sin and Our True Destiny

I

Any true evaluation of our ordinary life will unveil a sea of chaos within us and our common life in society. There are patterns of irrationality, confusion and all manner prejudices and distorted reality that we accept as the human condition. Our lives are influenced by illusion and self-deception. The “Dear Abby” type of advice columns will never run out of customers. Likewise, the United Nations Security Council will always have situations of violence to consider. In the midst of all these personal and social struggles, a simple, dominant truth remains. We live in God and God lives within us. Our sinful condition leads us to neglect, if not totally forget, this most fundamental truth that we are made in the image of God.

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who was one of the great spiritual teachers in the 20th Century North America, stressed this truth of our oneness with God. He said we act as if we are pursuing this sense of being one with God. In fact, we already possess this oneness but we are blind and negligent of this because of Original Sin. We have to grow in awareness of the depth of our sinful condition and its consequences of how we experience reality.

The “Fall” that we inherit from our first parents has profound and extensive repercussions for all of us. We live in a world where disunity and separation are the strong inclination of the human heart. The patterns of division between “us” and “them” are innate and constant inclinations for all of us. Disputes in the church choir and antisemitism seem to never end. White supremacy and blaming the poor are staples of our sinful condition. Alienation and isolation are also the product of our sinful heritage. Our world is dominated by illusion and bias under the guise of common sense understanding of reality. The fact is, however, what is truly real is hidden by all of these deceptions. Our situation demands a transformation of consciousness to deliver us from the layers of lies we inherit from Original Sin. This transformation of consciousness is a process of enlightenment flowing in good part from deep personal prayer.

This is why we need a sincere commitment to personal spiritual growth through prayer. This spiritual activity invites us, slowly but steadily, into the awareness of the reality of our union with God. This is our calling, to be people pursuing the love that will set us free. It is always a struggle because of our captivity in the continual deception of our sinful condition. We must remember this axiom: the grace of God is in the struggle. Our destiny Is to be one with God. Deep personal prayer is one of the most significant means to achieve this divine destination. It is, indeed, the great treasure we must sell all to buy and embrace God’s plan for us.

This is what Merton was stressing when he said that what we are seeking is what we already are: united with God. We need to be purified and transformed to be both enlightened and energized to achieve this true destiny.

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SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

JOHN 15:9-17

Dear Friends, Some eleven and half weeks ago, we received the ashes with the command: “Repent and believe in the Good News.” During our common journey through Lent, hopefully, we have indeed repented and have also prepared ourselves to celebrate the great event of our faith, the Pascal Mystery of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. We are now entering the sixth week of Easter. During these days after Easter, we have been invited to embrace the great mystery of the final victory over death and our call to life eternal.

For the first three Sundays after Easter, we have been encouraged to measure our life’s daily experience with the unfolding revelation of Christ in the post-Easter appearances. Last week, we were invited to encounter Jesus, the privileged manifestation of God, as the true vine. As part of the vine, we experience the ever-present stream of God’s grace calling us to the fullness of life both now, and ultimately, in our personal resurrection.

In today’s readings, we have the simple but overwhelming proclamation that God is love. Our life’s goal is to accept that love and let it define our relations with God and our sisters and brothers. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:9)

In today’s second reading from the First Letter of John, we have the conclusion of all revelation: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) In the Gospel, we are called to share that love that is our gift in the Risen Christ.

Today’s Gospel makes clear that first and foremost, we are loved by Christ. This joyful message is repeated over and over again. In this love, we are called to keep his commandments. Jesus is calling us beyond the commandments of the Law. Jesus is asking us to love as he loves. “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” (Jn 15:12)

Jesus is challenging us to open our hearts to love in a way that mirrors his total gift of self. We need to keep this ideal before us at all times. It will deliver us from the relentless pull of mediocrity and compromise. It will make our faith pulsate with life.

In the first reading, we are challenged to accept the new horizons of Jesus’ love. It is hard for us to appreciate earth-shattering experience of Peter and his companions when Cornelius and the others received the Holy Spirit. Thousands of years of Jewish privilege and exclusivity as God’s Chosen People were being confronted. It would take the early Church generations of struggle to overcome the ingrained prejudice and sense of privilege involved in accepting the Gentiles into the new Christian community.

The struggle continues in our own day in our Church, in our society and in our own heart. The political divide based on cultural conflict and a sense of exclusive ownership continues to divide and escalate hostility. Issues of race, gender, sexuality, economics and, the always divisive reality of religion, continue to be towering complications to today’s Gospel command: “Love one another.” (John 15: 11) The immeasurable and unconditional horizons of Jesus’ teachings of love will be a never-ending test for our heart’s yearning for clear boundaries and guaranteed comfort. Jesus has given us an extremely high model of love to follow. It is Jesus’ sacrificial love proclaimed from the Cross.

In the wake of God’s call to universal love, the flawed human heart has an equally universal call: “but not those people!” We all participate in a collective prejudice rooted in fear and mistrust. It is propped up with pride, arrogance and wrapped in ignorance. It is called the human condition. It is a long trip for all of us before we can own Paul’s words: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28)

As we draw to the conclusion of the Easter Season, our task remains: to reflect on the glorious mystery of Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. It is our summons into the sea of mercy and love that is the Triune God revealed by Christ. We will do well to remember the significance of our beginning of this journey: “Repent and believe the Good News.”

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FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

John 15:1-8

Dear Friends, An important part of the Gospel of St. John is the “I am…” statements. They are pronouncements that Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Living Water, The Light of the World, the Door, the Good Shepard, the Way, the Life and the Truth and finally today’s Gospel message, the Vine. All of these statements have two common characteristics. They are rooted in the Old Testament teachings. Secondly, they show how important institutions of Judaism are being replaced in Jesus. He is now the final source of God’s revelation. Jesus is the privileged point of encounter with God for all humanity. For example, Jesus would be the temple where believers could meet God. Through these several images of transformation, Jesus is presented as the fruit and flower of Judaism.

The testimony of Jesus as the vine is the center of all true faith. We need to be imbedded in the vine to receive the new life that Jesus is bringing to the world. By ourselves we are powerless and lost. We need to be attached to the vine. We also need to be purified from all that blocks Jesus’ growth in our heart.

The Christian life is not only a real possibility for us. It is God’s most urgent desire that we stay united to Jesus. We are not alone. We are branches on the vine. We are assured of the ever-present stream of God’s grace to help us to be responsible to one another. The heart of the matter is to remain in Jesus and to live his teachings. Without this linking to the vine, there is no fruit. All is futile.

As Christians abiding in Christ the vine, we do not stand helpless as we face the evil so dominant in our world and sin so rooted in our being. Our Christiana vocation assures us we are no solitary figures like reeds blowing in the wind. We are abiding in the loving and life-giving security of Jesus as the vine. As we stay in touch with Jesus, we will be blessed with a life of good fruit and creativity in service to our brothers and sisters.

The new life of the Easter event begins when we start to live in accord with Jesus’ message. The power of love surges through us to produce the new fruit of God’s Kingdom.

What is happening in the vine is that Jesus nurtures new life in us. This new life empowers us to witness and ministry that transforms the world. The power of the Gospel is always based on the connection to the vine. All ministers of the Gospel, indeed all Christians called to be missionary disciples, are urged to be in constant relationship with the new life that comes from the vine. Prayer, sacrifice and service are needed to maintain the connection with Jesus. Only Jesus, as the source of life in the vine, can ultimately produce the good fruit that is the new reality flowing from love made most clearly manifest in the Crucified and Risen Christ.

The vine is a rich symbol for the bond Jesus came to establish between God and all people and all of creation. The Easter message of new life clearly refers to life after death. It is equally a statement of new life in the present. When there is love, there is God. The vine, that is Jesus, is the source of this love. When we continue to abide in Jesus, when we walk with our Savior, the flow of life is converted into love. We are both witnesses to the love and servants of this love for all. This is the Easter Alleluia producing the new reality. It is the Kingdom taking flesh in our service and reconciliation. As people of the Alleluia, we witness to the new life of the True Vine when we engender the good fruit of new life in love.

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

John 10: 11-18

Dear Friends,

Today and the next three Sundays of the Easter Season we are invited to ponder and pray about the mystery of the Resurrection through some passages from the Gospel of St. john. We are asked to go beyond the Resurrection stories to the deeper spiritual message that is so characteristic of John’s Gospel.

Of course, Jesus has risen, Alleluia! But what does that have to do with $4 a gallon at the pump or crazy in-laws or the exploding cost of college or the savage wars in Gaza and Ukraine?

Making the connection between the stuff of life and the Resurrection is the purpose of the Easter Season. We need to learn how to filter everything through the final victory that is offered to us in the Risen Savior. This is a long and challenging process of letting the reality sink into our grasp of life and experience.

What does it really mean for us that the final and absolutely definitive victory has already been won? The final score that counts is in. The bottom line that will withstand any adjustment is on the board. Christ has won! Jesus is the victor! Reality’s final expression will blossom in the victory of love over hate, life over death, the guidance and protection of the Good Shepherd over the fickleness of fate!

We are asked to see in the Resurrection a God whose tenderness calls us to life in the midst of all the inescapable presence of evil and conflict and confusion that fills our daily existence. The experience of hope and love that we encounter in the Risen Christ helps us to read the almost countless statements of God’s tenderness, compassion and mercy in the Scriptures with new depth and wonder.

In today’s Gospel passage we have Jesus describing himself as the Good Shepherd. As the Good Shepherd, he is a model for us of one who generously accepts his Father’s will. He is one who witnesses to the divine love. Five times in today’s Gospel reading he tells us he willingly is laying down his life for all the sheep. The message is clear. Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, is revealing to us, first and foremost, the tender and caring love of our God.

A second life-giving fact of Jeus’ words today is his statement about other sheep. This is a call to share the divine universality of love for all. There are no outsiders, no illegals in the flock. All were welcome as we have seen in Jesus reaching out to the tax collectors, prostitutes and even the Gentile pagans. All fit into the flock embraced by God’s divine grace

The image of the Good Shepherd is rooted in a consistent message of a caring and loving God. These passages from the Hebrew Scriptures are clear examples of this divine love. “God wipes away the tears of the mournful.” (Isaiah 25:8) … “God collects our tears in his bottle.” (Ps 56:9) “My name and your name are written on the palms of God’s hands.” (Isaiah 49:16) … “God holds us as a mother holds a baby to her cheek and teaches us to walk.” (Hosea 11:3-4) … “God bears us up on eagle’s wings.” (Exodus 19:4) … “God loves with an everlasting love.” (Ps 118).

So much of life is a fundamental struggle and search for the deepest hunger in our heart. We all are seeking true love. Most of us have a lifetime of illusions and broken dreams in this search. Only slowly, do we take Jesus at His word that He has come that we might have life more abundantly. The Easter Season is a new opportunity to listen to the Shepherd who promises true life if we turn and enter the gate that is Jesus Risen.

To enter into the mystery of the Resurrection is to accept the guidance and loving care of the Good Shepherd. It is our passage from death to life, a life that is abundant beyond our dreams. That is why we need to be a people of the Alleluia!

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GOSPEL CHARACTERS-6 (SAINT JOHN)

The Merchants in the Temple And Deep Personal Prayer

These various reflection on Gospel characters hopes to show the importance of deep personal prayer. In some examples, the absence of this prayer is also insightful. 

Jn 2:13-22

No doubt, the merchants in the Temple were shocked by Jesus’ astonishing attack on the commercial situation that had evolved out of the Law’s mandate to offer sacrifice. It is hard to believe that they were not baffled and blind to the corruption and distortion of faith that Jesus was confronting and exposing.

Most likely, the vast majority of the merchants started their job with a great deal of good will. Not only did they have an opportunity for a good job to support their family, they were able to express their faith and support the community of believers in professing their religious responsibilities and obligations. It surely started out for most as a win/win situation.

How did it come to the point that led to Jesus’ radical challenge: “Stop making my father’s house a marketplace.” (Jn 2:16) These activities had slowly but inevitably moved away from service to God to service for profit. The pull of the deception of easy money ate away at the spiritual foundation of their ministry in support of the most sacred place of worship in the Jewish faith.

This misrepresentation and self-deception is a common experience for those involved in religion either as professional workers or as committed volunteers. The Golden Calf never is far from the surface in the world of religion. Money has an awesome pull that misleads and betrays in the service of God and religious institutions even though committed to an exalted goal.

II

I was a pastor in a poor parish in South Central Los Angeles for twenty years. I recall two encounters with the insidious pull of the Golden Calf. I am sure there were many more.

The first was with a Development Board made up of several generous and wealthy benefactors. Their activities raised tens of thousands of dollars on a regular basis. This money supported new buildings, projects, programs and personnel. It was a great temptation to lose the focus on the basic mission of evangelization and ride the wave of material success and progress.

The second issue was a situation in a much smaller economic reality at our annual festival. It involved less than three thousand dollars. There were several groups that had sales of their ethnic food specialties at the event. At the beginning all shared the good will of working to help the parish better achieve its mission to serve the gospel. Gradually, however, a truly negative competition developed between the groups to see who would raise the most money. In the end, it ended up a long, long way from the gospel mission.

Just imagine if this was the case in a poor parish, just how much more these negative factors come into play in a “successful” parish or institution or religious TV program. There is no doubt the negative thrust of the Golden Calf is fully operative under the guise of many good causes and projects. Jesus would need more than a cord to cast out the merchants of deception if he returned to our churches today.

III

The question is, how did the merchants in the Gospel story, along with their compatriots of today, slip from the good-willed Temple workers and servants of the people to be servants of the Golden Calf and the profit motive.

The answer for the Temple workers and all of us today is the deceptive power and demands of the ego. The ego’s agenda is to make us the center of all activities. When it comes to religion and spirituality, the ego has singular powers to deceive us. It produces false motives, drawing us away from service and sacrifice. The ego has despicable capabilities to center on the selfish motives rather than God’s priorities. It has determined the way of the world since Adam and Eve ate the apple.

For centuries the Church has carried the burden of a clericalism and sexism that has been accepted as the norm. In recent times that has begun to change. It was this kind of institutional blindness that gave us the sexual abuse scandal and crisis.

It is the very nature of deep personal prayer to enlighten the forces of evil in each of us and in our culture and institutions. Self-knowledge is one of the great blessings of deep personal prayer. It slowly opens a path to freedom from the forces of darkness that support all the deceiving appeals of the Golden Calf and all other idols.

When we pray regularly there is a steady confrontation with the influences of the ego. Sometimes the conflicts are gentle and sometimes they are fierce. Faithfulness to deep personal prayer will guarantee a gradual diminishment of all factors pulling us away from God.

This is what the merchants needed to respond to Jesus’ challenge. They needed to search for the light of God’s will and to find strength in work and commitment in doing God’s will.

Any movement away from the clutches of the Golden Calf is a demanding venture. Deep personal prayer exposes the lies of the ego. It calls us to new values rooted in the gospel. It calls us to new action in the footsteps of Jesus.

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THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Lk 24: 35-48

Dear Friends, The real power and message of today’s story is not in the Alleluia. It is the account of how difficult it was for the disciples to embrace the reality of the Alleluia, the risen Lord, the Suffering Messiah’s who conquest of death.

The disciples are gathered in fear and anguish. The Emmaus travelers are enthusiastically sharing their experience. During their wild tale, Jesus appears. Luke describes the immediate reaction. It is not one of joy and wonder. The people in the room are startled and terrified. They think they are seeing a ghost. Jesus calms them down by showing them the remnants of his wounds on his hands and feet. Then he eats the fish. Luke’s invites us into the profound struggle for the disciples and the others to accept the resurrection.

The risen Jesus is in their presence. The disciples were engulfed in a total transformation of reality. It was truly difficult for them to grasp. It is equally challenging for us even after these many centuries. All the resurrection stories try to convey the necessity of a profound faith to fathom the new reality. Even with Jesus physically present, the disciples’ reaction was terror and shock.

The point for us is to avoid a superficial response to the mystery. We need to avoid an Alleluia that comes from the mouth and not the depths of the heart. Luke is telling us it is a long passage of faith from the simple information to the ultimate experiencing of reality as gracious and life-giving.

The resurrection is intimately connected to the cross. They are one event. In the two aspects of this experience, we have the full revelation of God’s love. The suffering Messiah unveils a God who does not control or coerce. Love that frees and invites is the lesson. In confrontation with the world’s evil, Jesus chose to suffer rather than to dominate and conquer. We are invited into a great mystery foretold by the prophets. It was misunderstood by the disciples and their successors down to our day.

The God who raised Jesus to the Easter victory is with us today. He conquers evil for us also. Easter shows us that God will transform danger, sorrow and suffering into new life and new freedom when we walk with Jesus.

In today’s Gospel passage, three points are highlighted by Luke. First, the Messiah was not what they or we expected: a rejected and humiliated Savior. Secondly, conversion and forgiveness are to be preached in his name. Thirdly, the message needs to be proclaimed to all the world.

Pope Francis’s statement of his vison for the Church was laid out for us in his exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel. The unifying theme of this wondrous statement is preaching the Gospel to all the world.

Francis states: “I dream of a “missionary option,” that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything. So that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation.” (The Joy of the gospel #27)

We need to enter into the Alleluia event of Easter. When we truly embrace it, we have no choice but to proclaim it with all our being. We will then follow the example of the disciples who finally made the passage to the real Alleluia and its overwhelming significance. Death has been conquered and the new creation has begun.

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THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

John 20:19-31

When you think about it, the disciples had a really devastating seventy-two hours from the washing of the feet on Thursday to the visit of the Risen Christ on Sunday evening. Of course, Peter leads the way in the trauma department.

Wash my feet! Never! Then my hands and face also! I will be willing to die rather than deny you! I do not know the man! Peter “went out and wept bitterly.” (Lk.22:62) “The doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews.” (Jn 20:19) It was a short trip from total arrogance to total devastation.

They were engulfed in shattered dreams and wrapped up in fear and pain. Slowly they realized the events of the weekend not only exposed them as losers for wasting three years of their life chasing an illusion but now they were in danger of doing time in prison and maybe even losing their lives.

Crisis management did not give them much time to let the depth of their loss sink in. Likewise, they were unable to see with any clarity the extent of their personal cowardice in their flight and rejection after three years of intimacy at the feet of Jesus. Self knowledge does take a long time!

Then in the midst of the pain, the fear, the loss and utter confusion they see Him and hear, “Peace be with you.” Jn 20:19.

They had a lot of experience with the upside down world of Jesus. However, nothing prepared them for this. In an instant defeat and failure are now victory and triumph. Darkness is now light. Abandonment leads to embrace. Sin and denial are washed away in love and healing. Indeed, “Peace be with you.”

No wonder the Church invites us to ponder and pray about this awesome mystery of the Resurrection for the next seven weeks. There is a lot to take in.

It took time, but the disciples, along with the early Christian community, realized the Resurrection changed everything. This great act of love faced death as the supreme expression of evil. This triumph was the beginning of the New Creation. Indeed, everything has is being made anew. The conquest of evil allowed the disciples and us to interpret everything Jesus did and taught through the filter of this overthrow of death. This celebration of the season of Easter is our invitation to put our life up against the great event of the Pascal Mystery, Christ Crucified and Christ Risen. We are called, especially today, to ponder the magnitude and majesty of God’s mercy present in the Risen Christ’s word: “Peace be with you.”

If we are willing to dig deep enough, we gradually will see the story of our lives in the vulnerability of the disciples. We will see the dominance and control of our fear and anxieties giving way to hope. We will see and embrace our God’s forgiveness: “Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them”. (Jn 20:23)

Indeed, Christ is Risen! Alleluia! When we enter into this deepest reality of our lives nothing will ever be the same again.

Like the disciples, we are loved in our brokenness. We are accepted in our weakness and sinfulness. Slowly we will get a glimmer of the love Jesus has for us. We will begin to see the wonder of God’s mercy. It is without limit or condition. It is a treasure we can hardly grasp. Whether we grasp it or not, the goal of our spiritual journey in life is to let the power and beauty of this loving mercy transform us into a new creation just as it did for the disciples. This is the day we so fittingly celebrate the mercy of God.

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EASTER SUNDAY

Mark 16:1-7 

Dear Friends, Among all the Resurrection stories, today’s passage from Mark is especially challenging and different. All the stories carry the fundamental message of victory over death, the restoration from the consequences of the first sin of Adam and Eve. It is clear that God had spoken and the ultimate word is not death but life, not hatred but love, not injustice and violence, but wholeness, integrity, peace and reconciliation.

In today’s passage we are given a powerful insight about discipleship: God never gives up on us!

In the three passages in Mark (8:31, 9:31, & 10:34) where Jesus foretells His journey to Jerusalem and His death, He also foretells His resurrection. “And three days after His death He will rise.” (Mk 9:31)

Each time in Mark the failure of the disciples to grasp this reality is highlighted by an event that shows their total misunderstanding of Jesus’ message.

At the Tomb, the messenger of God, dressed in white, tells the women to have the disciples go to Galilee where they will encounter the Risen Christ. This means they will be given another opportunity to enter deeply and openly into the teachings of Jesus which they totally failed to understand in the first the first time around.

Jesus has not given up on the disciples. Their failure to grasp his message, their desertion at the time of the Passion and Death, does not call forth the wrath of a vengeful God. On the contrary, we are presented with a faithful and forgiving and ever so patient God. Indeed, the reality is that God did not give up on the disciples, and especially Peter. Nor will God ever give up on us.

This invitation to return to Galilee is to enter into the Gospel message with new eyes of faith. It is a call for us to truly understand the words of Jesus to take up our cross and follow Him to Jerusalem. It is an invitation to face up to death in all its manifestations, great and small, and realize that God has spoken with the ultimate authority in our human reality. The last word is not death but life, not defeat and hopelessness but victory that unveils a graciousness and a sense of hope in all our darkest moments. God has not given up on us!

We need o return to Galilee and encounter God’s word in Jesus with new eyes opened by the reality of the Resurrection. It is, indeed, a long journey to learn that there is victory in defeat and that it is better to serve than to be served and that the first shall be last and the last first and to save our life we need to lose it! Alleluia!

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TRIDUUM

When I was young, Easter meant very little to us. The really big thing was Lent. The great time was at noon on Holy Saturday when we could eat candy and indulge in whatever else we gave up for Lent. This, this like too many religious practices over history, was an incredible distortion of the Church’s message.

Today, we have another caricature of Easter. The big day is Good Friday. For many, if not most, Easter is an afterthought in much of our popular religious practice. The point we need to understand is that we are an Easter People!!

The Church’s teaching is very clear. The Death and Resurrection are one event! We take thirteen and a half weeks to celebrate, in the most solemn and beautiful way, the central reality of our faith, the Pascal Mystery. The goal of Lent is a time of penitential preparation to enter as profoundly as possible into the mystery of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This one event includes the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ. This is the event of the Triduum, the three most holy days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil/Easter. This is followed by seven weeks of the Easter Season to further ponder this great Mystery. This same event is celebrated and experienced in every Mass.

These thirteen and half weeks are a meaningful portion of the entire Church year. The goal is much more than to recall this story. It goes far beyond a history lesson. We do not repeat history. We celebrate the Mystery and in the celebration we are present to the Mystery, the one and singular and historical event. The power of the Spirit in the Church makes us present to the saving event, the Pascal Mystery.

Here is the bottom line of all this material. The Church understands the Triduum, and the liturgy in general, in this way. It is not a reenactment. It is not simply a telling of the story no matter how solemn.

The celebration is the power and presence of God’s saving grace coming into our lives here and now. This one saving event is not broken into parts. It is the Mystery of the saving action of God in Jesus Christ. We are entering into the deepest reality of our life. We are experiencing. here and now in our worship, the presence of the saving love. It is calling us to eternal life right in this present moment. When we receive communion the minister does not say this is a remembrance of the Body of Christ. The words state the reality. This is the Body of Christ!

In the three holy days of the Triduum, we have the pinnacle of all the most sacred events in our liturgy. This is the most hallowed time to celebrate, and in the celebration not only recall, but be present to the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is what liturgy does. It brings us into the presence of the Pascal Mystery that we celebrate. We do not repeat it. We enter into the one most singular event. This is why we are Easter People! We long to encounter not only the crucified Christ but the glorious Alleluia of the Easter victory of good over evil, of life over death! It is our invitation to life eternal.

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SUNDAY PALM

Mark 14:1 to 15:47

Dear Friends, Over the centuries, we have had many different interpretations of a most basic truth of our faith: Jesus died to save us. We say in the Nicene Creed every Sunday, “for our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death and was buried and rose again on the third day.”

St. Anselm taught us that the Father was not looking for some bloody sacrifice to appease his justice. Christ was sent into the world to live perfectly as a human being. In this way, being free and perfect in His humanity, He saved us.

There were many options Jesus could have used to accomplish our salvation. There were no limits to his power. In the view of St. Anselm, Jesus chose to respond to evil in love that was expressed in his renunciation of power. This powerlessness was seen in his refusal to drawn into evil. His response was the ultimate expression of freedom. It was completely devoid of self-interest. It was the expression of humanity in its most perfect state.

What is pleasing to the Father is not the suffering and death of Jesus. It was that Jesus chose his freedom to express his full and complete sharing in the human reality to save us. The consequence of this choice was his death on the Cross.

It was love for the Father that led Jesus to the way of humiliation and total rejection of power to save us by love, mercy and self-sacrifice.

The four Passion narratives amazingly have almost no description of great physical pain. None of the Evangelists even mention Jesus was nailed to the cross. Only afterward, in John’s story about Thomas is this implied.

Likewise, none of the four Gospels tell us of the crucifixion in a complete sentence. In Matthew and Mark, the second part of the sentence is about the division of his garments. In Luke and John, it is about the two thieves.

The Gospels are a bit clearer about the psychological suffering. Jesus sees the apparent failure of his life’s work with the disciples. He had to face Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denials and the flight of the rest in fear and anxiety. Only a few woman disciples were at Golgotha to the end. He faced the total rejection of the Jewish leaders, the people’s choice of Barabbas over him and the further disgrace of being placed between the two thieves. Throughout the Passion there was constant ridicule and scorn: from the trial before the Jewish leaders, Pilate’s soldiers, the crowd, the leaders and finally the two thieves mock him mercilessly.

Likewise, there was the silence of the adoring crowd that just a few days before hailed him with the Hosannas on his entry into Jerusalem. Nor were there any defenders among the thousands he healed and fed.

In the entire panorama of suffering, physical and psychological, Jesus was faithful to his purpose, the salvation of all by his commitment to being human in the sinful reality that is our world. In every step along the way, Jesus chose not to use his power. He chose to show the power of love that surpasses each expression of evil and sin. Jesus chose, in this way, to share in the suffering and death of all people. Jesus chose in this way to reveal the power of the Father’s love as the final expression of reality, the victory of life and love over death and sin.

The Father’s love was proclaimed in Jesus’ faithfulness even to the Cross. In this event we learn that his death gives way to the Resurrection. Jesus’ powerlessness led to his sharing all manner of human suffering. Jesus invites us to share his way of love in confronting all the forces that continue to dehumanize and degrade our brothers and sisters. In our commitment to the Crucified Christ, the final word is the victory of love over hatred, justice over injustice and reconciliation over division, isolation and prejudice. God has spoken. The seeds of peace and true community have been sown in Christ Crucified and Chris Risen. The seeds will continue to blossom as we learn to die for one another in love and service.

Jesus’ rejection of power shows us that He was not above us but among us. All through the Gospel of Mark he told the people to keep the secret of the wonders he worked. Now, finally, in the total disgrace of the Cross, his true presence is proclaimed. ‘When the centurion who stood facing him saw he breathed his last he said, ‘Truly this man was the son of God.’” (Mk 15:39) We are asked to accept Jesus on the Cross as the full and decisive revelation of God.

Now we are invited to see Jesus in the totality of his truth, crucified in his complete sharing of our broken world and broken lives. This is our invitation into the Mystery of Love. Our passage is the faithfulness of heart surrendering to love just as Jesus did. This will be our death to our selfishness. In this death, we, like Jesus, will find true life. That true life begins now when we walk with Jesus in love!

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FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

John 12: 20-33

Dear Friends, This passage from John is extraordinary in many ways. First, by itself, it contains a great amount of Jesus’ message. Secondly, for a liturgical selection, it is much more far-reaching than usual.

It will help us if we read it from the context of our Lenten journey. We are trying to purify ourselves and to free ourselves to enter into the great mystery of our faith, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

In the previous chapters of John, Jesus had denied several times that his “hour” had come. Now he says the “hour” is at hand. The “hour” is his glorification in death. John’s Gospel is emphatic that the sufferings of Jesus on the cross are the means to our salvation. This connection to our salvation is captured in the term, “hour”. The sufferings of the passion and cross are central to Jesus’ “hour” as was the resurrection.

Jesus explains what is about to happen in three steps. The first is the necessity of his death. Secondly, there is the presentation of Jesus’ interior struggle. Finally, the consequences of his death and the need for our proper response to this final act of glory are set out for us.

Jesus lays it out in a simple and direct form. His death will give life. The seed seemingly dies when it is placed in the ground. However, it proceeds to produce life in the new wheat. So too with Jesus, his death, an apparent total defeat, is a source of life for every human being in the ultimate victory in the resurrection.

In a sharp break for the usual pattern for Jesus in John, there is a display of fear and confusion. This is a very human and tender moment. The text then returns to the norm of Jesus’ single-mindedness. “I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? Father save me from this hour. But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father glorify you name.” (Jn 12:27-28)

Jesus’ “hour” places the burden of decision on the faithful in their time of trial. Many other decisions will follow in the course of one’s life as the trials will never be wanting. Those who accept the suffering Messiah will be free from the domination of the ruler of this world, Satan, and his legacy of sin and death. Jesus’ “hour”, which is the glory of God, provides the gift of eternal life. Jesus, “lifted up” on the cross, will offer the gift of life and love to all.

When John uses the term “lifted up”, there is a more profound message for us. The exaltation of the crucified Christ will attract all humanity to the freedom and love of this action of saving grace. This is the highest point of revelation of God’s love for humanity and for each of us personally. Our Lenten journey, more than anything, is an invitation into that love. To accept this call to renewal, we need to abandon the relentless pull of our selfishness. The more we we place our eyes on the crucified Christ, the easier will our conversion be.

Today’s gospel, leading into the sufferings of Jesus, invites us into a new awareness. We need to see in the suffering Christ a pathway to new life. This should lead us to see in our many human struggles an opportunity. Jesus has opened the door to freedom from all the darkness in our life. A new hope and new life is always available to us in the footsteps of Jesus.

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THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

REPENT AND BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL 
(JOHN 3: 14-21)

The daily readings from John in weeks four and five of Lent

How are you doing in our Lenten intention to give up something? Have you failed a couple of times? The Church has made plans for that failure!

This is how it works. The time of Lent is a time of conversion. What you may give up is only secondary to the change of mind and heart that we are called to on Ash Wednesday: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

The daily Gospel readings of the first three weeks of Lent are all about Jesus’ calling us into a new world of love, reconciliation and service. Giving up ice cream, Miller Light or Disneyland is not the burning issues. In fact, if we fail, it can be a big help!

The failure can help us learn that we need help. We cannot do this sacrifice, and all the more, embrace the Gospel message of conversion by ourselves. We need help and we need it big time.

The Church gives us an answer. Keep your eyes on Jesus. To help us do this in these final weeks of Lent, we are presented with a new theme in the daily Gospel readings in the fourth and fifth weeks of Lent.

The readings are taken from the Gospel of John. They are actually selection from chapter four to chapter twelve that are not used in any other readings for the rest of the year.

We are called into the mystery of Jesus. We are invited to encounter Jesus as our savior. We are presented, as always, with the Gospel message of love. For in the end, it is only when we realize and embrace the reality of Jesus’ love that we can move forward on the Christian journey and have the change of mind and heart that is true conversion.

So the message of the fourth and fifth weeks of Lent is to embrace our weakness and turn to Jesus. In this way we prepare to celebrate the great wonder of our faith in Holy Week, the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

We are all invited to journey on the road to Jerusalem. We are given the daily passages from John to help us on the way. Our task is simple: “Keep our eyes on Jesus!”

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THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT

Jn 2:13-25

No doubt, the merchants in the Temple were shocked by Jesus’ astonishing attack on the commercial situation that had evolved out of the Law’s mandate to offer sacrifice. It is hard to believe that they were not baffled and blind to the corruption and distortion of faith that Jesus was confronting and exposing.

Most likely, the vast majority of the merchants started their job with a great deal of good will. Not only did they have an opportunity for a good job to support their family, they were able to express their faith and support the community of believers in professing their religious responsibilities and obligations. It surely started out for most as a win/win situation.

How did it come to the point that led to Jesus’ radical challenge: “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (Jn 2:16) These activities had slowly but inevitably moved away from service to God to service for profit. The pull of the deception of easy money ate away at the spiritual foundation of their ministry in support of the most sacred place of worship in the Jewish faith, the Temple in Jerusalem.

This misrepresentation and self-deception is a common experience for those involved in religion either as professional workers or as committed volunteers. The Golden Calf never is far from the surface in the world of religion or in any place dealing with the human heart. Money has an awesome pull that misleads and betrays in the service of God and religious institutions even though committed to an exalted goal.

The question is, how did the merchants in the Gospel story, along with us today, slip from the good-willed Temple workers and servants of the people to be servants of the Golden Calf and the profit motive.

The answer for the Temple workers and all of us is the deceptive power and demands of the ego. The ego’s agenda is to make us the center of all activities. When it comes to religion and spirituality, the ego has singular powers to deceive us. It produces false motives, drawing us away from service and sacrifice. The ego has despicable capabilities to center on the selfish motives rather than God’s priorities. It has determined the way of the world since Adam and Eve ate the apple. Of course, the ego’s power of deception is not limited to the religious sphere. All other facets of life are drawn to the deception and corruption of the Golden Calf.

Any movement away from the clutches of the Golden Calf is a demanding venture. Our Lenten tasks of prayer, fasting and almsgiving can be a great help in freeing us to walk with Jesus in new freedom and growing clarity.

There are many second and third level messages in John’s Gospel. Today one of these deeper messages is that Jesus is proclaiming a new order of worship. The cleansing of the Temple signifies a new order of worship that will center around the body of Christ. He is the new temple. Our Lenten journey is preparing us to celebrate the Pascal Mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. John’s message is beckoning us to move on from the external piety and rituals of the old temple to a more insightful and truly spiritual worship centered in Jesus Christ. The cleansing of the Temple is really about the cleansing of our hearts so we may worship with a growing integrity that highlights the person of Jesus Christ.

Our celebration of Lent aims to facilitate this cleansing of our hearts and our worship. Our religious practice will always be in need of a purification and deliverance from the corrupting power of our basic selfishness. Today’s gospel is a call for authenticity and a Lenten conversion in our life as we journey with Jesus to Jerusalem these forty holy days.

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