Second Sunday of Easter
We have been celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ for the past
week. Today we celebrate one particular aspect of the Resurrection:
Divine Mercy. We see divine mercy at work in the appearances of Jesus.
First the angel announced his Resurrection, but no one believed. Then he
himself appeared to Mary Magdalene. She believed, but no one believed
her. Then he appeared to Cleopas and another disciple, perhaps his wife,
in Emmaus. Then he appeared to Peter. Then he appeared to a group
including nine other apostles.
Only Thomas was left out now. With all these people testifying to the Resurrection, surely he will believe. No. He claims that he will not believe until he puts his fingers in the holes made by the nails and his hand into the side opened by the spear. He does not want to believe in a ghost or a con man. He thinks everyone else might have been fooled, and he is not willing to be fooled along with them.
As a side note, there is someone else left out, someone whom Jesus never appeared to: his mother, Mary. When Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”, he meant her above all. She receives every blessing in Scripture, and this is no exception. She first saw Jesus again after she was taken into heaven, decades later, but she believed in the Resurrection before anyone else. She did not even go to the tomb on Easter morning. She knew that no one was there.
It says in the Gospel that one week passed before Jesus appeared again. That must have been an uncomfortable week. Thomas was still sad, still mourning the death of Jesus; everyone else was celebrating the Resurrection and wondering. Perhaps Thomas thought that everyone was playing some elaborate (and not particularly funny) practical joke. Everyone must have seemed crazy. Thomas could not leave in case Jesus appeared again, but it must have been very hard to stay when everyone around him was celebrating what he thought was a mass delusion.
God is merciful. Not only does Jesus appear to Thomas, but he tells him to put his finger in his hands and his hand in his side. Whatever it takes, Jesus is willing to do, but Thomas was wrong. He did not need to touch Jesus to prove to himself the reality of the Resurrection. As soon as he sees Jesus, he falls down and says, “My Lord and my God.” Nevertheless, Jesus was willing to undergo any humiliation Thomas needed.
This is mercy. Our God is not aloof. He does not stand far off and tell us to make the arduous journey to him. He comes right down to us. He stands inches away and asks us to take one step. We have to make the journey, but he will be with us every step of the way. He will not put up with us living in sin, but he will do everything he can to help us out.
Mercy does not take away justice. What is right is right. Consider the case of a child with a filthy room. A good mother will not allow him to live in filth. He must clean the room. This is justice. It would not be merciful for her to let him live in filth. It would not be merciful to clean the room for him. He must clean his own room; it is only just. But once justice is satisfied, mercy comes in. As soon as the child begins cleaning, his mother comes and helps.
God will not let sinners into heaven. He will not let unbelievers into heaven. It would not be just. If heaven was full of sinners and unbelievers, it would be a lot like earth, which is not exactly perfect. If heaven is going to be perfect, all the people in heaven have to be perfect. It would not be merciful if God made an exception and let someone bad into heaven; it would ruin heaven. Instead, he does everything in his power to make us good.
Jesus tells the apostles, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” He gives this immense power to them for one reason: because we need forgiveness. They do not receive this power to increase their importance. They passed this power on to their successors and assistants, the bishops and priests. Even today, every priest in the world can forgive sins. How amazing! Life would have been terrible if we had been saved but there were no forgiveness. Only small children would go to heaven. We would lose our salvation as quickly as Adam and Eve.
God has made it so easy to have our sins forgiven. We do not need to climb Mt. Everest or slay a dragon. We only have to go to one of the half a million priests in the world and confess our sins. Maybe you would prefer killing a dragon. Satan wants us to be afraid of Confession. Jesus has made it so easy, but Satan tries to scare us away. We do not need to climb Mt. Everest, but we have to climb over our pride, which might be harder. Only we can get in our own way.
But when we do get in our own way, Jesus will help us find our way again. If Thomas does not believe, Jesus will appear on Thomas’s terms. If we commit sins, Jesus gives his priests the ability to forgive sins. Who knows what secrets are contained within the mercy of God! We cannot imagine what he might have done for those who do not believe in him. We cannot imagine what how far he has gone to forgive an unrepentant sinner. Who knows what has been accomplished in the last second of life!
We must not question God’s justice or imagine that he would be unjust. God is never going to let anything slide. He will not ignore the smallest fault in our souls. God’s justice is perfect, but so is his mercy. We should not imagine any limit to the mercy of God. If we love someone, God loves them more. If we wish someone could go to heaven, God wants it more.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The whole world was in trouble. If we look around nowadays and worry about where things are headed, it is nothing like 2100 years ago. Life was hopeless. There was no solution. Then God, in his mercy, did what no one expected, what no one had dreamed of, and thereby changed the direction of the world forever. Mercy has done amazing things, and mercy will yet do more.
Only Thomas was left out now. With all these people testifying to the Resurrection, surely he will believe. No. He claims that he will not believe until he puts his fingers in the holes made by the nails and his hand into the side opened by the spear. He does not want to believe in a ghost or a con man. He thinks everyone else might have been fooled, and he is not willing to be fooled along with them.
As a side note, there is someone else left out, someone whom Jesus never appeared to: his mother, Mary. When Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe”, he meant her above all. She receives every blessing in Scripture, and this is no exception. She first saw Jesus again after she was taken into heaven, decades later, but she believed in the Resurrection before anyone else. She did not even go to the tomb on Easter morning. She knew that no one was there.
It says in the Gospel that one week passed before Jesus appeared again. That must have been an uncomfortable week. Thomas was still sad, still mourning the death of Jesus; everyone else was celebrating the Resurrection and wondering. Perhaps Thomas thought that everyone was playing some elaborate (and not particularly funny) practical joke. Everyone must have seemed crazy. Thomas could not leave in case Jesus appeared again, but it must have been very hard to stay when everyone around him was celebrating what he thought was a mass delusion.
God is merciful. Not only does Jesus appear to Thomas, but he tells him to put his finger in his hands and his hand in his side. Whatever it takes, Jesus is willing to do, but Thomas was wrong. He did not need to touch Jesus to prove to himself the reality of the Resurrection. As soon as he sees Jesus, he falls down and says, “My Lord and my God.” Nevertheless, Jesus was willing to undergo any humiliation Thomas needed.
This is mercy. Our God is not aloof. He does not stand far off and tell us to make the arduous journey to him. He comes right down to us. He stands inches away and asks us to take one step. We have to make the journey, but he will be with us every step of the way. He will not put up with us living in sin, but he will do everything he can to help us out.
Mercy does not take away justice. What is right is right. Consider the case of a child with a filthy room. A good mother will not allow him to live in filth. He must clean the room. This is justice. It would not be merciful for her to let him live in filth. It would not be merciful to clean the room for him. He must clean his own room; it is only just. But once justice is satisfied, mercy comes in. As soon as the child begins cleaning, his mother comes and helps.
God will not let sinners into heaven. He will not let unbelievers into heaven. It would not be just. If heaven was full of sinners and unbelievers, it would be a lot like earth, which is not exactly perfect. If heaven is going to be perfect, all the people in heaven have to be perfect. It would not be merciful if God made an exception and let someone bad into heaven; it would ruin heaven. Instead, he does everything in his power to make us good.
Jesus tells the apostles, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” He gives this immense power to them for one reason: because we need forgiveness. They do not receive this power to increase their importance. They passed this power on to their successors and assistants, the bishops and priests. Even today, every priest in the world can forgive sins. How amazing! Life would have been terrible if we had been saved but there were no forgiveness. Only small children would go to heaven. We would lose our salvation as quickly as Adam and Eve.
God has made it so easy to have our sins forgiven. We do not need to climb Mt. Everest or slay a dragon. We only have to go to one of the half a million priests in the world and confess our sins. Maybe you would prefer killing a dragon. Satan wants us to be afraid of Confession. Jesus has made it so easy, but Satan tries to scare us away. We do not need to climb Mt. Everest, but we have to climb over our pride, which might be harder. Only we can get in our own way.
But when we do get in our own way, Jesus will help us find our way again. If Thomas does not believe, Jesus will appear on Thomas’s terms. If we commit sins, Jesus gives his priests the ability to forgive sins. Who knows what secrets are contained within the mercy of God! We cannot imagine what he might have done for those who do not believe in him. We cannot imagine what how far he has gone to forgive an unrepentant sinner. Who knows what has been accomplished in the last second of life!
We must not question God’s justice or imagine that he would be unjust. God is never going to let anything slide. He will not ignore the smallest fault in our souls. God’s justice is perfect, but so is his mercy. We should not imagine any limit to the mercy of God. If we love someone, God loves them more. If we wish someone could go to heaven, God wants it more.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The whole world was in trouble. If we look around nowadays and worry about where things are headed, it is nothing like 2100 years ago. Life was hopeless. There was no solution. Then God, in his mercy, did what no one expected, what no one had dreamed of, and thereby changed the direction of the world forever. Mercy has done amazing things, and mercy will yet do more.
Wednesday of Easter Octave, 23-4.2014
Luke 24:13-35
The Appearance on the Road to Emmaus
Jesus in today’s gospel is not recognized by two of His disciples on
their way to Emmaus. Actually they were disappointed by the tragic end
of the Lord. His death scatters and shatters their hopes and dreams. And
Jesus explains the Scriptures to them and tries to put sense to the
confusing events that happened in the holy city. He explains to them
again the meaning of the prophecies about the Christ that He needs to
suffer and dies for sins. St. Paul says that there is no Christ without a
cross. He says: “I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no
longer I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:19).
What makes them difficult to recognize Him? St. Augustine (5th cent
church father) answered by saying: “They were so disturbed when they saw
Him hanging on the cross that they forgot His teaching, did not look
for His resurrection and failed to keep His promises in mind,” (from:
Sermon 235.1). He continued: “Their eyes were obstructed, that they
should not recognize Him until the breaking of the bread. And thus, in
accordance with the state of their minds, which was still ignorant of
the truth, ‘that the Christ would die and rise again,’ their eyes were
similarly hindered. It was not that the truth Himself was misleading
them but rather that, they were themselves unable to perceive the
truth,” (from: The Harmony of the Gospels, 3.25.72).
And it is only in the breaking of the Bread, that the two disciples
recognize Jesus. In our case, we are called to recognize Him in the Holy
Eucharist through our faith. You know what Holy Scriptures and the Holy
Eucharist are the two best ways of knowing Christ. It is because it is
also by knowing Jesus in the “Word” that leads us to know Him fully in
the Mystery of His Body and Blood which is the culmination of His love.
Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that the Eucharist is the
‘making present and the sacramental offering’ of Christ (no. 1362). By
His presence in the Eucharist He walks for us, with us in our life, and
waiting for us.
Somebody said that the Holy Eucharist is all the following:
- Act of thanksgiving — for God’s works of creation, redemption and sanctification.
- Mystery of faith; Heart of the Church’s mystery (Ecclesia de Eucharistia, John Paul II)
- Breaking of the bread (Acts 2: 42, Luke 24:21)
- Memorial of the Lord’s passion and resurrection
- Holy Sacrifice because Christ is giving Himself to the Father and then to all of us.
- Sacrament of love: St. Ephrem wrote that Jesus filled the Eucharist with His Spirit.
- St. Augustine wrote: A Sacrament of devotion, sign of unity, bond of charity!
- Paschal banquet: Bread of life; Cup of eternal salvation
- Gift par excellence: Christ’s person and his saving work.
- Cosmic Act: “uniting heaven and earth and permeating all creation.” (John Paul II Letter on the Eucharist # 8)
- Pledge of eternal glory: Eucharistic devotion goes beyond being a memorial of the Passover, for through our communion at the altar we are filled with heavenly blessing and grace. Now the Eucharist is an anticipation of the heavenly glory.
- Promise of Christ’s return: Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! (Rev. 1:4, 22:20)
- Divine Liturgy (Mass) — “The work of the people” under divine guidance. This is entry into the Heavenly liturgy where God will be all in all. (1Cor 15:28)
Do we recognize the Lord in His Word and in the Breaking of the Bread, the Eucharist?
Easter Octave, Wednesday, 23.4.2014
It might sound strange to hear this, but in order to recognize the Risen Christ, our eyes must be opened by Him.
It's just like what we heard in the gospel, that the eyes of the two disciples were opened at the breaking of bread and they recognized Jesus.
Even from the other gospel accounts, the Risen Christ was not immediately recognized.
To Mary Magdalene, He was a gardener. To the disciples in the upper room, He was a ghost. To the disciples at the lake of Galilee, He was a stranger on the shore. To the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, He was a lonely traveller.
But after their eyes were opened, the disciples saw every situation and every experience as a "risen" situation. In other words, every situation and experience was filled with the presence of the Risen Lord.
In the 1st reading, Peter and John saw that the crippled man needed more than just financial assistance. In fact they may have none to give him.
But out of the mouth of Peter came these precious words - I have neither silver or gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!
We have come and gathered at the altar of the Lord to hear His Word and to have our eyes opened again at the breaking of bread.
May our hearts burn with God's love and may we see the presence of the Risen Christ in every person, experience and situation.
And in the name of Jesus Christ our Risen Lord, let us walk on in faith and bring His love to others.
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Thursday of the Octave of Easter
Luke 24:35-48
The Appearance to the Disciples in Jerusalem
The renowned artist Paul Gustave Dore (1821-1883) lost his passport
while travelling in Europe. When he came to a border crossing, he
explained his predicament to one of the guards. Giving his name to the
official, Dore hoped he would be recognized and allowed to pass. The
guard, however, said that many people attempted to cross the border by
claiming to be persons they were not.
Dore insisted that he was the man he claimed to be. “All right,” said
the official, “we’ll give you a test, and if you pass it we’ll allow
you to go through.” Handing him a pencil and a sheet of paper, he told
the artist to sketch several peasants standing nearby. Dore did it so
quickly and skillfully that the guard was convinced he was indeed who he
claimed to be. His work confirmed his word! (From Our Daily Bread, January 6, 1993)
In today gospel passage, Jesus appears to His eleven apostles and
wants to reassure them at great lengths that He is not a ghost. He
emphasizes His bodily resurrection. He asks them to “look” at His
wounds, to “touch” Him and finally, like a final proof of his being
truly risen, He asks them for something to eat. He explains how the
scriptures foretold His death and rising. St. Jerome comments: “As he
showed them real hands and a real side, he really ate with his
disciples; really walked with Cleophas; conversed with men with a real
tongue; really reclined at supper; with real hands took bread, blessed
and broke it, and was offering it to them….Do not put the power of the
Lord on the level with the tricks of magicians, so that he may appear to
have been what he was not, and may be thought to have eaten without
teeth, walked without feet, broken bread without hands, spoken without a
tongue, and showed a side which had no ribs.” (From a Letter to
Pammachius against John of Jerusalem 34, 5th century)
Particularly, we know that Jesus in His glorified body does not need
to eat. He eats for the sake of His apostles. He eats, not so much for
the material aspect of eating, but for its social dimension. For us
human beings, because we are not pure spirits, practically almost
everything that comes to us has to pass a humanizing process, even our
most fundamental bodily needs. Even the noblest things, like our faith
in God, reach us through our senses because somebody has told it to us
or has shown concrete witnessing about it. God has given to us the
things we want not through a magic or fairy tales but also through a
human means. There is a philosophical adage that says, “Nothing is in
the mind that was not first in the senses.” That is why, somebody had
commented, we eat not just to fill ourselves and be satisfied. We should
also see the human aspects of eating. For example, when we eat as a
family, bonds are strengthened. When we eat with friends, we get closer
to them. It’s good to enjoy the meal, but it’s even better to enjoy the
company.
By means of this thing Jesus did we can say and understand why we use
images of saints and other visible signs to express our Catholic faith
too. The use of images is not idolatry. It is because idolatry is
divinization of a creature in place of God; the substitution of
someone/thing for God; worshiping a creature (even money, pleasure or
power) instead of the Creator (CCC no. 2112). We are not doing this. We
are not substituting God with anyone/anything. It is because images are
referred to God and His special friends, the saints in heaven. Images
emphasize the reality of the incarnation of Christ. And Canon Law (no.
1171) adds: “Sacred objects set aside for divine worship by dedication
or blessing are to be treated with reverence. They are not to be made
over to secular or inappropriate use, even though they may belong to
private persons.”
Friday of the Octave of Easter
John 21:1-14
The Appearance to the Seven Disciples
Today’s gospel account is about Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus appears to
His disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. If we are to compare this
appearance with His other previous appearances, Christ shows Himself
when His disciples are in a solemn assembly, maybe in a religious
worship during the Lord’s day or when they are all together, perhaps
expecting His appearance. Some of His post-Resurrection appearances
also, even in today’s gospel passage, revolve around the theme of eating
or a featured meal as their setting. This is good because as what the
Catholic Digest, (March 2000; Phil. ed., p.57) had said: “There is
something holy and sacred about eating together, about calling down
God’s blessing before and after meals. We nourish our bodies so they can
do God’s work. We share food and friendship.” And the reason for this
meal gathering is maybe to remind His disciples and us that He is
present in the Eucharistic Meal.
But today’s appearance He shows Himself even during weekdays when
they are employed in common business like fishing. In other words,
Christ has many ways of making Himself known to His people even in the
ordinariness of life and not only in the breaking of the Bread. He is at
work in our lives. What He needs from us is to trust Him at all times.
He has provided us all the means to fulfil such task.
But there are also people who have personal experiences of Jesus in their lives describe His presence in these ways:
To the artist He is the One Altogether Lovely.
To the architect He is the Chief Cornerstone.
To the astronomer He is the Sun of Righteousness.
To the baker He is the Living Bread.
To the banker He is the Hidden Treasure.
To the biologist He is the Life.
To the carpenter He is the Sure Foundation.
To the doctor He is the Great Physician.
To the educator He is the Great Teacher.
To the farmer He is the Sower and Lord of the Harvest.
To the judge He is the Righteous Judge.
To the jeweler He is the Pearl of Great Price.
To the editor He is the Good Tidings of Great Joy.
To the philosopher He is the Wisdom of God.
To the Printer He is the True Type.
To the servant He is the Good Master.
To the student He is the Incarnate Truth.
To the Sinner He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
To the Christian, He is the Son of the Living God, the Savior, the Redeemer and Lord!
And in our case how do we describe His presence in us and our
knowledge of Him? Our personal experience of Him will tell us. Let us
reflect these words from Helen Mallicoat: “I was regretting the past and
fearing the future. Suddenly my Lord was speaking: “MY NAME IS I AM.”
He paused. I waited. He continued, “When you live in the past, with its
mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not I was.
When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I
am not there. My name is not I will be. When you live in this moment, it
is not hard. I am here. My name is I AM.”
Saturday of the Octave of Easter
Mark 16:9-15
The Appearance to the Disciples
Fr. Denny Lucas, SVD, in his homily (Bible Diary 2008), said: “A
person can read the whole Bible, study the best of theologians and
listen to the most persuasive of preachers without coming to faith.”
Today’s gospel passage contains only seven verses but it mentions
‘faith’ for four times. Particularly, Jesus scolds his apostles because
of their unbelief and stubborn hearts. And so therefore let us reflect
about faith. Jesus gives us the gift of faith to know Him more
personally and to understand the mystery of His death and resurrection.
But is faith something you ‘have’ or something you ‘do’? Many of us may
think we have faith because we were born to Catholic parents who saw to
it that we were baptized as infants. Faith doesn’t appear to be
difficult because we use this so fluently and so often. But try to look
at it and tell me what it means. If I ask no question about your answer,
we may think the matter is clear but if I ask a second or a third
question we are both in the depths. It is because our faith is
unfathomable. It is a fact that God cannot be our ‘possession’ like we
possess other things. It is the other way around, we are possessed by
God.
Today is Saturday and we are about to end the first week of Easter. I
will ask you to focus our attention to the mission that Christ has
given to us as His Church. He says: “Go into the whole world and
proclaim the gospel to every creature,” (v.15). He commissions us first
when we were baptized, later when we received the Sacrament of
Confirmation and other moments more specifically to be the ones to go
into the “whole world.” It is because we are not parasites that simply
absorb the grace coming from God without any apostolic zeal. Our
apostolic work is our ‘payment’ for the space that we have occupied in
this world. We exist to evangelize. Somebody said that we pray so that
we can give all of the received graces back to souls in the form of
love: to our family and friends and all those people whom God may put in
our path. Pope Benedict XVI gives us guidance too about being sent into
the world and proclaimed the gospel. In his homily for the Conclusion
of the Year of the Eucharist (Oct. 23, 2005), he says: “Eucharistic
spirituality must be the interior motor of every activity and no
dichotomy is acceptable between faith and life in the mission of
spreading the spirit of Christianity in the world.”
But first we must believe in order to give witness and pass on the
Gospel to others. There are obstacles to our own living of faith. One
could be our pride. Like the disciples, they give little importance to
Mary’s words that she had seen Jesus alive after His death because she
is just a woman and noted for her demonized living and above all because
of their pride. Other one could be self-pity that always closes us off
from the openness of faith and therefore very few can reach us. In this
sense only very few souls can be reached by us. And the other one is
that our charity must have been gradually weakened. It is because when
love fails, we become more attached to ourselves, to our own desires and
less willing to trust. Do we make excuses or limit what we do to
proclaim Christ to others?
At the end let us reflect too these words from St. Augustine. He
said: “Faith is to believe what we do not see and the reward of faith is
to see what we believe.”
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