4th Easter

 This Sunday, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, points out the unique role of Jesus in salvation, because He is the one true shepherd, as God come in the flesh.  Saint Peter said today in the first reading that "there is no other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved." Jesus is the one and only savior we have, and we can only be saved through Him, whether we are aware of it or not.

G.K. Chesterton, an adult convert to Catholicism after being an atheist in his college years, and one of the sharpest minds of his day in early 20th century England, eventually came to profess the Christian faith because, as he simply put it, he believed it all to be true. Indeed it is. Our faith is ultimately a faith about the person of Jesus, about who He is and what God has revealed and established through Him and through the Church he founded. In The Everlasting Man, Chesterton describes the faith as a key, that transforms human history.

 The creed was like a key in three respects. First, a key is above all things a thing with a shape. It is a thing that depends entirely upon keeping its shape. The Christian creed is above all things the philosophy of shapes and the enemy of shapelessness…
Second, the shape of a key is in itself a rather fantastic shape. Someone who has never seen a key before would have no idea what this thing was about until they saw it put to use.  It either fits the lock and opens the door, or it does not…

And thirdly, as the key is necessarily a thing with a pattern, so this was one having in some ways a rather elaborate pattern. ...because the world had not only got into a hole, but had got into a whole maze of holes and corners…

The Early Christian (really every one of us) was very precisely a person carrying about a key, or what be said was a key. The whole Christian movement consisted in claiming to possess that key. It definitely asserted that there was a key and that it possessed that key and that no other key was like it; in that sense it was as narrow as you please. Only it happened to be the key that could unlock the prison of the whole world; and let in the white daylight of liberty. (not so narrow after all)

The only way to understand history is to understand the deepest human questions, and this faith we own is the key to unlocking the questions in our hearts.

About a month ago I was at someone's house for my day off and I went for a long run. It felt great to be out exercising but by the end of it (over an hour), I was totally worn out. The big problem I then discovered was that I had locked myself out of their house. No one was around. Huge problems immediately arose: 1 - My body needed food. 2 - I needed a shower. and 3 - All my stuff was inside. Luckily a neighbor was able to get me in: they had the key, the one answer to all the longings I had at that moment.

Every longing in our heart is answered and fulfilled by God in Christ Jesus and our Catholic faith. Jesus' resurrection is the most mysterious, peculiar, but absolutely right answer to the questions of human existence. Why do I have a longing for things that this world never fully satisfies? Why do I feel like I am my own worst enemy at times, and carry around inside me a voice that calls me to something greater than myself? Why do I feel like I can't get out of this myself and need someone to draw me further?

All of this is answered in the fact that God looks upon our fallen state with mercy, comes to us, and dies and rises for us, so that we may be raised from the dead and brought into the eternal life of heaven.

Our world doesn't like absolutes, and claims to truth. But Our Catholic faith is the one key answer to the mystery of our life. Other religions may have part of the naswer, but we are the ones with the whole answer. We hold this not in arrogance, but in humble submission to the truth.

Scott Hahn (who was here in the are this weekend) has a new book It is Right and Just that emphasizes the importance of worshipping God.

I've seen a lot of momentum in my lifetime and in recent years of meditation, "mindfulness" and other eastern spirituality avenues that may have some good things in them, but ultimately lack a hugely important thing: they do not put Jesus at the center, and thus they truly to not worship God as we truly should.

However, there is a solution to this that can allow you to incorporate these practices in a Christian context: The Hallow app.

homily

 Jesus doesn’t look appealing unless we realize that we need Him. The joy of Easter doesn’t mean as much unless we realize the situation we are in.

About a year ago I was worried about my heart. I was experiencing some tightness after exercise but only every once in a while. I had known in the past that I needed to be exercising regularly, but I had wondered if I was doing it right or if I was setting myself up for some kind of tragedy. Ultimately, after a couple stress tests, the doctors said things looked fine, which gave me great joy as I can go back to the wild ride of coffee once again.

But if I never experienced these symptoms and got them checked out, both eight years ago and this past year, then I would never have thought to look into it. It could have meant something very different, and I don’t think I would like the end of that story as much.

Our world sometimes looks over the fact of our weakness and brokenness. While it isn’t good to dwell only on our problems, it also doesn’t help to ignore them or to pass all the blame onto things outside of us.

Saint Peter’s message of the Good News must include the reality of what the people did to Jesus. But we should not think that being born in a different time and place means that we have nothing to regret in our lives and are just peachy-keen with Jesus. Our consciences are always tuned to tell us to do good and avoid evil, even if they are malformed and get some things wrong, and even if we try to rationalize away our culpability.

But getting back to the start of this homily: if we don’t realize we need a savior, then why look to Jesus? If he is just a self-help guru, then we can run to many others for self-fulfillment and self-actualization. There’s all kinds of life¬-coaches out there.

No, the only point of talking about Jesus is because we need a savior, and that means we need to be saved from something. Let’s not fall into the trap of the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable with the tax collector, who thinks the only thing he needs to be saved from is this fallen world of messed up people. When you can face something, you can deal with something. We need to face our sinfulness and let Jesus deal with it as he desires so much, like we heard last week on Divine Mercy Sunday.

A popular mentality in our world today is to affirm our entire selves along the lines of “I’m okay, your okay… It’s all good… Nothing wrong here, nothing to see…” whereas the reality is “I’m not okay, and you’re not okay, but that’s okay.” The reason it’s okay is because Jesus chases into our lives as He did in the upper room and brings His mercy and peace. He will help us to heal. We just need to admit our brokenness. He will forgive us. We just need to face our sins and repent.

Jesus doesn’t look appealing unless we realize that we need Him. The joy of Easter doesn’t mean as much unless we realize the situation we are in.

Living in real freedom is available to us. It’s not easy; it’s scary a lot of the time; but it is worth it.

If you haven’t been to Confession in a long time or have been holding back something from the Lord, ask the Holy Spirit for the courage to show your wounds to Jesus, so He can show you His and set you free.

Divine Mercy

 As we conclude the Easter octave today with Divine Mercy Sunday, the message of mercy that was revealed trough St. Faustina about 100 yrs ago in a very particular way, the image she had painted to her approval (of how Jesus appeared to her) is a reminder to us of this day.

We continue our Easter joy, unfolding the mystery of the Lord Jesus’ resurrection and what it means for all of us.

One thing it shows us is how different God is from all of us. If one of us were in Jesus shoes, we may come back very different than Jesus did; unjustly condemned, horrifically murdered and shamed, betrayed by your disciples. You may come back a little angry. We all can sense the temptation in our hearts to return with vengeance and wrath. But what does Jesus do? He returns with mercy, to put an end to evil, pain, suffering, scapegoating, and sin. To put an end to death.

This is the g greatest message of mercy that we can receive. We are also called to live this as well. We are called to put this into practice.

Jesus speaking to the apostles to day says “receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Whose sins are retained are retained.” This is certainly first and foremost a sign of the sacrament of Confession where through the priest we can receive the forgiveness and mercy of the Lord Jesus through the priest. I the words of absolution, we know it is the Lord Jesus saying “your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.” But also, as Jesus gives that spirit not only to the apostles but to every single one of us through baptism and Confirmation, we are called as well in some way to participate in that ministry of mercy, of reconciliation, of restoring the unity of the human family under Christ the king.

In the 1st reading we see the early christians doing this and living this in a very concrete way. They were “of one heart and mind” the reading tells us, and they had “everything in common” to take care of each other, to support and lift up each other. In order to be of one heart and mind among sinful people, that means being people of mercy and forgiveness.

So we must do the same in our world today. How do we live this out? Jesus never says forgiveness is easy, but he does say we must do it. When we pray the Our Father, that is one of the most important things that we pray for: that we may be forgiven in the same way that we forgive others. It is a challenge and a great demand that is renewed every single time we come to Mass and pray the Our Father, and receive the Lord Jesus i the Eucharist and profess to be like Him, and promise to be worthy vessels of His body blood soul and divinity.

If we think that forgiveness is something that we must do solely on our own, we will certainly fall short. But if we rely on the Lord, on His Holy Spirit to help us, then we will be able to be people that, along with Jesus, put an end to the cycle of pain, of hurting others with sin and evil.

For us to be able to do so, we must follow the example of the apostles today. They were terrified but transformed by Jesus. The only reason they are able to witness to the world is because they have met Jesus, alive and full of mercy.

Today, Thomas, the week after Easter, meets Christ. Jesus invites him to put his fingers in the nail marks and hand into His side. We will find, brothers and sister, the healing that we need to strengthen us to forgive and reconcile, through the blood of Jesus and encountering His wounds. Imagine yourself in Thomas’ shoes, imagine yourself encountering Christ, meeting him alive and still bearing his wounds. Imagine placing your fingers into His nail marks and putting your hand into His side. Remembering not only what happened, but why it happened, and what it means, what came from that for all of us.

Jesus died for us when we were sinners, not when we were perfected by our own powers.

After we encounter the living Jesus, and let His blood wash over us, then we will be ready to forgive, ready to be vessels of Jesus’ mercy in our world, which everyone needs.

We all of us, have someone in our life that we need to forgive. We all have a relationship that needs deeper reconciliation. Think right now what relationship(s) right now in your life needs that, and bring it to the Lord Jesus in this Mass, asking for His merciful healing and strengthening of your own heart, so that you can go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit that He breathes upon, to be an instrument of that mercy in our world today. That transformation of your own heart and in your own actions, is how the world will know that Jesus is very much alive today.

Easter

 At the Easter Vigil last night, the Church celebrates the most joyous and solemn of all celebrations.  At the Easter Vigil we spend over an hour reading from Sacred Scripture, beginning with creation, and the faith of Abraham, and the deliverance from Egypt through the Red Sea, and the words of the prophets that foretell of Jesus the bridegroom, the abundant life he offers in living springs of water, the new covenant He will write on our hearts when He sprinkles clean water upon us. We reflect on all God has done since the beginning, because this is a cosmic event. Today something has happened that transforms everything.
Last November I went on a retreat and watched the sun rise I think every day. It was a thrilling experience. The world seems to completely transform. At first all I could see were the beautiful stars over the desert of Arizona. Then as the anticipation grew, the light became stronger and stronger. But never does it get anywhere close to the power and splendor of the light that shines from that sun when it finally comes over the horizon. It’s power is unmatched, and our eyes cannot even bear to take it in - we must look at it through a veil or shadow, or special sunglasses - lest we go blind. And while the desert was freezing at 6am, it is scorching by noon and beyond. Every day the desert is transformed by the sunrise.

The Easter Vigil liturgy is meant to keep us up late into the night, for sometime before dawn the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. The Incarnate Son of God triumphed over death and sin in the silence and darkness of the early morning. For the Jewish people, a new day begins (theologically) when the sun sets, as we hear repeated over and again in the story of creation: “evening came and morning followed, the first day / second day, / third, etc.” The new day of creation for us Christians is this day, which is a reprise of creation at a higher pitch. Today God’s words “Let there be light,” ring out anew, not simply in the natural light of sunrise or the flames of our candles that burn in this church: but rather in the deeper spiritual light that these lights symbolize.

At the Easter Vigil we continue the tradition we have practice from the earliest centuries of baptizing new adults into the faith. It is only in this cosmic dimension of the liturgy that our baptism takes on its full meaning. It is worth attending to remind us each year of what our Baptism means as we see it lived out so radically in the newly baptized.

In the newly baptized, we witness the truth: our Lord’s Resurrection has transformed our life’s destiny as radically as when the sun rises over a world covered in darkness. Everything changes. Everything takes on a new brilliance in the radiance of that light. The warmth of that sun transforms us.

I’m reading a book that speaks about Things worth dying for. The author, a bishop in his seventies, is contemplating the deepest questions that we humans must face, especially as our mortality becomes a daily companion - something we are all familiar with.
One of the most important messages of the book is what stems from the central events of our faith which we have just celebrated: God thinks you are worth dying for. He is happy to give Himself for you.

Discovering what is truly worth dying for actually determines how we should live: we find in them the things worth living for. Thus our daily lives then take on a direction and a measure, a gauge or a test by which we can decide how to live and what to say “no” to, and what to say “yes” to.

We cannot domesticate Jesus and his gospel. He bursts out of the tomb. The stone and the soldiers cannot hold Him in. “Comfortable Jesus” is not the real Jesus. Along with this fake version of Jesus as something easy to live with and control, we also witness among us the corollary perversion of the Gospel into self-help and private pursuit. Neither of these things are worth dying for.

Holy Thursday

 6-8 March 1941 (Concerning marriage and discovering one’s spouse) Out of the darkness of my life so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament. … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth, and more than that: Death: by the divine paradox, that which ends life, and demands the surrender of all, and yet by the tease (or foretaste of which alone can what you seek in your earthly relationships (love, faithfulness, joy) be maintained, or take on that complexion of reality, of eternal endurance, which every man’s heart desires.

romance - for it is the bridegroom who pursues the bride and pledges Himself to her forever. glory - for it is the God who is so great that He can accomplish the ultimate victory by apparent defeat. honor - for no honor is greater than to be the precious spouse of the greatest king. fidelity - for in this sacrament Jesus’ promise is fulfilled that He “will be with us, even until the end of the ages.” true way of our loves upon earth - for any real human love is measured not by feeling nor by results, but by whether it matches the gift of Christ and His Cross. death - because love on earth, even God’s love revealed in Jesus, means dying.

The essence of fallen world is that the best cannot be attained by free enjoyment, or by way is called ‘self-realization’ (usually a nice name for self-indulgence, wholly inimical to the realization of other selves); but by denial, by suffering.

The Eucharist makes demands on us. The Latin word MANDATUM (“Maundy” Thursday) means commandment, for by a “new commandment” the Lord Jesus demands something big from us: specifically, to foretaste death, which is what love means in this life. The new commandment is simple to say but hard to live: love one another as Jesus loved us, and in fact as He still loves us, for His cross is not simply a thing of the past for us, but breaks into our lives through the Eucharist. God who is beyond all time brought all of our lives, our past present and future, all into the present of the person of Jesus Christ. His entire life is present to all of us, always.

Thus the mandate from the Eucharist comes directly from the lips of Jesus at every Mass: love one another.

When he gives this commandment, Jesus is speaking specifically to the twelve, and thus especially to the priests whose ordination finds its source in the words “Do this in memory of me," and to His disciples. They must love each other with that profound love. But beyond that even, we do not close the circle of Christ’s love within ourselves. We follow the example of Him who loved sinners, who welcomed anyone who would “repent and believe in the Gospel” and “take up their cross and follow after Him.” Furthermore, we cannot ignore His charge to “love our enemies” and “pray for those who persecute us.” Thus we wash the feet of all, but even more so for the family of faith, just as the early Christians were known to others by the way they loved one another.

Perhaps the two most important ways of living the Christian life are found in these two questions: Do I give my entire self to Jesus in the Eucharist, laying down my life for Him? and Do I give my entire self to Jesus in the poor and broken, the “least of these” that He identifies Himself with? If I lose one of these, then I lose the power of the Gospel, which only transforms the world by the deep relationship of love that we have with Jesus in the Sacraments, represented by these holy oils and above all in the Eucharist.

This is why the washing of feet so important to us: Because it is the best symbol of “the greatest thing to love upon earth: the Blessed Sacrament.” The Eucharist, being the true presence of Our Lord, makes present to us His entire Paschal Mystery that we begin to embark upon with this evening when He is betrayed and arrested. In the Eucharist we have Jesus dying for us as the sacrificial lamb, and at the same time we meet Jesus arisen, revealing the wounds in his hands, his feet, and his side that have conquered death and open eternal life to us. This is why we give our entire lives to the gift of gifts, God Himself truly present.

The washing of feet helps us to remember what Jesus did for us: that one so great would stoop to do something so lowly, to enter into our mess and purify it, to make clean the filth that covers us from our sins. May every Christian cherish the memory of this ritual that helps us to see the full beauty of our greatest love. May all of us, priests and faithful, who have all been configured to Christ by baptism, live from our true identity seen in this Mass, and fulfill the new commandment that Jesus reveals in His Paschal Mystery.