This week’s memory verse: His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me! — Song of Songs 2:6
Pray the Week: Father, Through Jesus, Your Son, You showed us the depth of Your love. You hold us as the apple of Your eye, in the palm of Your hand. Help me to love as You love. Amen.
“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The eternal creating God, the just God holds us like this.
Jesus calls out a very key point we sometimes fail to grasp. We may miss it because of images like that of Jesus cradling the lamb. In calling Himself the Good Shepherd, it is natural to focus only on the image of Jesus as Shepherd. Yet, what Jesus calls us to today is focus on His Father in heaven holding us.
The Father, upon His throne, holds us in His hands. The Father declares that we are His and no one can take us away from Him.
We could liken this image to that of a father or mother holding their infant in their arms as they rock away in a chair. We, through our experiences, have all seen that image of perfect love and care, of defense and protection. Love when poured out before our eyes, is naturally understood.
Today we are called to see our Heavenly Father doing that for us. His magnificent, overwhelming, and unconditional love is poured out on us as He holds us.
Some smarty-pants people when talking about our faith, and they are usually ‘insiders,’ make ridiculous statements like love is more important than doctrine. That is because their definition of doctrine is corrupted. In this 1700th year of the Nicaean Creed which we will profess in a few moments we declare a doctrine the tells us who God is.
And this is Who He is: A Father sending His beloved Son into the world and to the Cross for us; A Father with love so great that He spent it all to bring us into His arms.
If we live what we believe we live love. If we are one with the Father and Son in the Spirit, we bear the image of our loving God.
Yesterday, we experienced the ordination of a new shepherd in the model of Jesus. Fr. Sean. Toward the end of the Holy Mass, after pledging his obedience, the Prime Bishop leaned over and gently kissed him on top of his head. The shepherd’s love in the model of the Father exemplified. I cried because God opened my eyes to see that He loves us like that.
This week’s memory verse: And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. — Luke 5:11
Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, You have called me to follow You. You have spoken to my heart and the Holy Spirit prompts me to action. Grant that I may be faithful to Your call, always pursuing those things You call me work on. Amen.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
There is an amazing amount of material and symbolism contained in today’s gospel message.
Seven of the remaining eleven Apostles have gone back to their former way of life, and their former failures. As when Jesus first called Simon, James, and John their nets were empty.
Jesus tells them to try again – meaning not just the fishing, but the ministry they were called to.
Jesus is not big on going back or backsliding. He wants us to, through the power of His resurrection, move forward, to persevere in the ministry we have been given.
After the catch and their recognition of Jesus, Peter finds himself undressed and quickly covers himself and then swims toward the Lord. Peter takes the first step in recovering himself with grace, putting on not just clothes, but the Lord.
Jesus reasserts His resurrected humanity at the campfire by the lake where He eats with them. During that meal, they are reminded of that supper they shared with the Lord before His death, and they are recalled to the ministry of that supper.
Jesus calls Simon Peter aside to reconcile his betrayals. Jesus questions him about his love. In the original Greek, Simon Peter says he loves Jesus as a ‘brother.’ Jesus is asking him if he loves Him with his whole self – just as Jesus loves us.
Even though Simon’s answer is weak, Jesus still calls him to feed and tend His followers, recalling him to ministry.
Finally, Jesus tells Peter that he will have to forego his sense of self-determination and self-control. Jesus tells him that he will learn to let go, even to the point of sacrificing his life for the life Jesus offers.
Like the Apostles that day let us hear Jesus’ call and offer Him all our love. Allow Him to take control of our lives.
This week’s memory verse: Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. — 2 Thessalonians 3:16
Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, Your great signs and wonders fill my life. I often stand unaware of their presence. Grant that by Your peace I may see all that You do for me and live in dedication to You. Amen.
Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
We all may have heard of the term ‘shock and awe.’ That term first emerged as a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight. While as a concept, the term and strategy had been around for some time, it came into the public lexicon during the Gulf Wars against Iraq.
We might perceive the day of the resurrection and its following week as a time of shock and awe. The overwhelming power of God was fully on display as the resurrected Jesus appeared to His followers over and over. God’s might was spectacularly displayed.
We would all like to think that if we were there we would get it, understand. But, that’s unlikely.
In the first hours after the resurrection Mary Magdalene understood. John the Apostle got it. The disciples on the road to Emmaus had their eyes opened and Simon Peter finally understood. The rest, well, it took them time.
As we proceed through this season of joy, we will arrive at that moment when Jesus is taken up into heaven, the Ascension. Even there, some of the Apostles did not believe. Scripture records in Matthew 28:17: When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
Jesus had appeared over and over, He ate and drank with them, built a campfire, helped them with their catch, and repeatedly offered them peace.
My brothers and sisters, it is ok to be like Thomas, like the others who still doubted. The problem comes when we persist in doubt and when doubt turns sour.
Jesus’ direction is very clear. It starts with the peace He gives us, a peace beyond the absence of conflict. It is a grace of peace that allows us to stand in the midst of conflict and still be at peace – because we have Jesus. So let us take Jesus’ command to heart: do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
This week’s memory verse: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead — 1 Peter 1:3
Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, I see the empty tomb and it fills me with hope. As You prevailed upon the disciples to remain with them, so prevail on me to always hold You close to me and live by Your Father’s vision for me. Amen.
He saw and believed.
Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Today we encounter the greatest image ever, the empty tomb.
That image is the one, beyond the cross, that God wants us to remember most.
God envisioned that empty tomb for us. It is our hope, it is our comfort. Most importantly it is our assurance, the vision God has for us resurrected and with Him forever.
On that Easter morning, Jesus encounters His faithful in varieties of ways. He greets Mary Magdalene as the Gardener. He walks with the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. He enters the upper room. In each encounter we see God’s image of how life should be, lived with Jesus’ resurrected reality and in the family of faith. There is truly nothing better than to be loved to the extent God loves us.
We concluded on Palm Sunday by remembering the totality of God’s gift of love, great grace, restoration, and His amazing promise. Today we see the reality of that fulfilled promise at the empty tomb. As the Apostle John did, let us see and believe it.
“I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
This evening, as on this evening about 2022 years ago, we gather around the table of the Lord. We take time to commemorate the great things He instituted for our benefit.
In the washing of the Apostle’s feet, Jesus instituted the sacrament of penance. As Jesus washed their feet before they gathered around the table, so we too do the same, engage in the Sacrament of Penance at the beginning of every Holy Mass.
At the table Jesus not only celebrates the annual Jewish Passover meal but He more importantly reconfigured the sacrifice and consumption of the Passover lamb around His own passion and death. He institutes a new Passover memorial. Jesus identifies Himself as the new Passover Lamb Who will be sacrificed for the redemption of the new Israel in a new exodus.
We have the privilege of living in this new exodus. We are headed across the dessert of this earthly life to God’s eternal kingdom.
As with the Israelites in the dessert, our journey to the Kingdom is a protected journey. As God went with the Israelites as a pillar of fire and pillar of cloud. This dual theophany (manifestation of God) guided the Israelites through the desert during the Exodus from Egypt. The pillar of cloud provided a visible guide for the Israelites during the day, while the pillar of fire lit their way by night.
The pillars of cloud and fire are first mentioned in Exodus 13, shortly after Moses leads the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt. When Pharaoh brought his army in pursuit of the Israelites the pillar of cloud intervened to keep the army from approaching during the night. The pillar positioned itself behind the Israelites, casting light upon their camp while leaving the Egyptian army in darkness.
As I mentioned, we have protection, and it is a far better protection than a pillar of fire and cloud. We have a lasting memorial in Jesus’ body and blood, His real physical presence with us always. The dessert of life is a far better place with the assurance and protection we have in Jesus’ eternal presence.
In penance we are reconciled over and over and work to change what negatively affects us. We are spiritually healed and brought back. Jesus assures us of his mercy and compassion for us.
In the Holy Eucharist and in receiving His body and blood in communion Jesus remains in and with us. He is always present here, in the church where we may receive Him and adore Him, where we may just sit with Him and converse with Him is a very special and privileged way because He is truly physically present just as He was this night about 2022 years ago.
The worst part of life’s dessert, of our exodus journey, is feeling alone and abandoned. Like a child, we all feel afraid of that kind of solitude. Jesus Himself cried out from the cross when He experienced it: My God, My God, why have You abandoned me!?! Jesus did not and does not want that for any one of us. So, we have tonight, and the gifts of awesome assurance, gifts so we are never alone and always protected.
This week’s memory verse: But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. — Romans 6:22
Pray the Week: Lord Jesus, As I reflect on the troubles I have lived I am ashamed. Grant that I may perceive the great sacrifice You made to wash me clean and to make me beautiful in the Father’s eyes. Amen.