A Homily – The Third Sunday of Easter (Year C)

First Reading - Acts 5:27-32,40-41 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 29(30):2,4-6,11-13 ©

Second Reading - Apocalypse 5:11-14 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 24:32

The Gospel According to John 20:1-19 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 The sentiments expressed by the apostle are wrong.

 It was the Romans who executed Jesus not the Sanhedrin or the leadership of Israel in Jerusalem. The leadership in Judea may have set him up, but first he was betrayed by one of his disciples and then he was to death by the Romans.

 In the cosmic sense it was not the Jews who executed Jesus, neither was it the Romans, nor was it God; it was the whole of humanity, it was our collective spirit, it was our sinful nature that was the cause of Jesus’ death…we do not need to look for anyone else to blame.

 The forgiveness we seek for that and all of our sins must come from us; we must be reconciled with ne another, to one another. It must come from us, if we are to have peace in this world.

 In order to prepare ourselves to be forgiven we must accept responsibility for the individual roles we play in the tragedy of the human race.

 Be mindful.

 Jesus is not the conduit for the forgiveness we seek, neither was his death; he was a facilitator. He preached that we are one creation, that all people are held together by the grace of the Holy Spirit…it is the duty of all Christians to speak the truth and do the same

 It is our task to speak truth to the powerful, while not allowing ourselves to be puffed up with as we do it (as the apostles often were). Pride shrouds the truth in vanity,

 Know this!

 God, the creator of the universe, God will not intervene in our affairs. God will not lift us neither will God strike us down; we know this because God made us free, which includes freedom from divine coercion. God is not angry and wrathful when we stray from the way, we know this because God loves you, and God’s love endures forever.

 Remember.

 Jesus was not a sacrificial victim; God never desired animal sacrifice, preferring mercy over the blood feast at the altar, preferring mercy to the aroma of burning fat that feeds the greed of the priestly class. Jesus was not the Lamb; God did not cal for his slaughter…his killing was a political murder.

 Jesus accepted death at the hands of his persecutors for the sake of his friends and family, as well as the broader community of his followers. If had had resisted his people would have followed him and the consequences for them would have been terrible...Jesus knew this and said, “No greater love can a person have than that they give their life for the sake of their brother or sister.”

 Jesus accepted his death sentence this in the ordinary sense, though it was an extraordinary deed; he did what he did it for ordinary reasons; he did it for love.

 What made Jesus’ death extraordinary was the way in which it has been remembered, and how the memory of that event has been transmitted from generation to generation, all around the globe, even though its natural and ordinary meaning has been lost to myth.

 Remember this!

 God, who we see in Jesus; God has no desire for power and glory, for honor and riches, God does not sit on a throne, God is not a king, and neither was Jesus…in the light of the liturgy these truths are easy to forget.

 In the years that followed the Gospel writers became confused with questions about who Jesus was, about how he (and by extension they) ranked among the prophets, about his historical connection to Moses, about the proof of his ministry that was given in the sacred text before him.

 They became confused because their vanity led them astray. In their confusion they began to make up stories that validated their claims, it was unnecessary, and it distorted the teachings of Jesus.

 Understand this.

 Jesus did not perform miracles to prove that he was a child of God, rather, he stressed the fact that we are all the children of God, even the leper and the thief, the unmarried woman and the outcast.

 Jesus did not come to work magic, or give signs and perform wonders, we know that Jesus did not come to do that because spoke the truth in his representation of God, and that is not how God works in the world.

 The key to reading the gospel for today is that his disciples “recognized him in the breaking of the bread.”

 They had the opportunity to see Jesus in the man they encountered on the road, but they did not see him in this stranger. They had the opportunity to see him in the faith of the woman at the tomb, but they could not understand it.

 They believed in their hearts that Jesus was dead, and yet the way, which Jesus personified as the living witness of God’s intention for creation, remained before them, and Jesus was still asking them to follow.

 The disciples were finally able to see Jesus, and the way, when they broke bread with the stranger whom they had previously encountered.

 They found it in community, in sharing; they found it through the selflessness of love.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today and ask yourself:

 What does it mean to be a Christian, to be a member of the body of Christ?

 What does it mean to be a disciple, to be a student in the school of faith?

 In the reading for today there are miracles and visions, there are portents and prophecies, but toward the end there is a moment of instruction.

 Jesus is with Peter; Simon by his given name. They are sitting together after breakfast in a moment of earnest talk. Jesus knows that he is handing over the leadership of his movement to this man with whom he often disagreed. Jesus had rebuked him severely in the past, even calling him Satan…the enemy.

 Furthermore, Peter had abandoned Jesus when he was arrested, and denied him in front of crowds of people; yet despite those failings, or perhaps because of what Peter had learned from them, Jesus spoke to him in a loving manner.

 Jesus beseeched Peter to be just as loving toward the community that would grow from the seeds of faith being planted there and then…the seeds of trust that the two of them had planted throughout the course of their ministry together.

 In the same way that Jesus had rebuked Peter three times, and in the same way that Peter had denied Jesus three times, Peter now confessed his love for Jesus three times, and Jesus issued the following commission three times:

 Feed my lambs. Look after my sheep, Feed my sheep.

 Jesus’ concern, then and always was for the wellbeing of the flock, never for riches, power and glory, it was for the care and feeding of the people, and Jesus was telling him that as the leader of the church these were to be Peter’s only concerns from that day forward

 Whoever does these things lives in the way that Jesus showed us.

First Reading - Acts 5:27-32,40-41 ©

We are witnesses to all this: we and the Holy Spirit

The high priest demanded an explanation of the Apostles. ‘We gave you a formal warning’ he said ‘not to preach in this name, and what have you done? You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and seem determined to fix the guilt of this man’s death on us.’ In reply Peter and the apostles said, ‘Obedience to God comes before obedience to men; it was the God of our ancestors who raised up Jesus, but it was you who had him executed by hanging on a tree. By his own right hand God has now raised him up to be leader and saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through him to Israel. We are witnesses to all this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.’ They warned the apostles not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them. And so they left the presence of the Sanhedrin glad to have had the honour of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name.

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 29(30):2,4-6,11-13 ©

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me

  and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead,

  restored me to life from those who sink into the grave.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him,

  give thanks to his holy name.

His anger lasts a moment; his favour all through life.

  At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

The Lord listened and had pity.

  The Lord came to my help.

For me you have changed my mourning into dancing:

  O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.

Alleluia!

 

Second Reading - Apocalypse 5:11-14 ©

The Lamb that was Sacrificed is Worthy to be Given Riches and Power

In my vision, I, John, heard the sound of an immense number of angels gathered round the throne and the animals and the elders; there were ten thousand times ten thousand of them and thousands upon thousands, shouting, ‘The Lamb that was sacrificed is worthy to be given power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing.’ Then I heard all the living things in creation – everything that lives in the air, and on the ground, and under the ground, and in the sea, crying, ‘To the One who is sitting on the throne and to the Lamb, be all praise, honour, glory and power, for ever and ever.’ And the four animals said, ‘Amen’; and the elders prostrated themselves to worship.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 24:32

Alleluia, alleluia!

Lord Jesus, explain the Scriptures to us.

Make our hearts burn within us as you talk to us.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Christ has risen: he who created all things, and has granted his mercy to men.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 21:1-19 ©

Jesus Stepped Forward, Took the Bread and Gave It to Them, and the Same With the Fish

Jesus showed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this: Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said, ‘I’m going fishing.’ They replied, ‘We’ll come with you.’ They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.

It was light by now and there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realise that it was Jesus. Jesus called out, ‘Have you caught anything, friends?’ And when they answered, ‘No’, he said, ‘Throw the net out to starboard and you’ll find something.’ So they dropped the net, and there were so many fish that they could not haul it in. The disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord.’ At these words ‘It is the Lord’, Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water. The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net and the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.

As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there, and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it. Jesus said, ‘Bring some of the fish you have just caught.’ Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, ‘Who are you?’; they knew quite well it was the Lord. Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish. This was the third time that Jesus showed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.

After the meal Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?’ He answered, ‘Yes Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He replied, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep.’ Then he said to him a third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and said, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.

‘I tell you most solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.’

In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, ‘Follow me.’

 

The Third Sunday of Easter (Year C)

A Homily – The Second Sunday of Easter (Year C) Divine Mercy Sunday, A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading - Acts 5:12-16 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 117(118):2-4,22-27 ©

Second Reading – Apocalypse 1:9-13,17-19 ©

Sequence – Victimae Paschali Laudes

Gospel Acclamation – John 20:29

The Gospel According to John 20:19-31 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Never mind the miracles stories that are presented here; they are not to believed. God is not a actor, God does not do tricks or violate the laws of nature.

 Understand this.

 The narrative presented in the Book of Acts concerns partisanship. At the time, the nation was lost; it was falling apart from within. The leaders of Israel disregarded the lives of the common people and so the people turned to someone new. They followed Jesus, and when he was put to death by the elite, the people gave even more support to his followers.

 Their movement quickly spread beyond Jerusalem, it spread beyond Judea, it slipped the borders of Palestine. And into the broader Roman world.

 The Jesus movement, which we call the way, contributed to the final destruction of Israel, its temple and to the diaspora that followed, amounting to centuries, nearly two millennia of suffering for the Jewish people, all because they refused to hear the message of Jesus; to love one another as God loves them.

 Consider the teaching of the psalmist!

 It is true that the God is kind, loving and merciful.

 It is true that God comes to us with love; God always comes with love, even when God is exercising judgment and administering justice...love is the law.

 Remember this.

 God has no enemies, and God does not dwell behind the wall of a city. There are no gates barring access to God who dwells in all places, at all times and in the hearts of all people. God speaks to everyone from there. God does not favor one child above another; God is a bringing of life, not death. God loves peace, not war.

 Do not confuse a personal victory no matter how great or small with the will of God. Do not confuse your suffering, or that of any other with God’s will either; God does not interfere with these things.

 Be mindful.

 When you encounter the supernatural in scripture the meaning is always metaphorical or allegorical, it stands for something else.

 Consider the nature of prophecy; in scripture the work of the prophet is never to predict the future, rather it is to make commentary on current events and how they align with justice and the nature of the good.

 In the reading from the Apocalypse, Saint John of Patmos claims a certain authority, it belongs to him insofar as he speaks the truth, but authority does not attach itself to error.

 All the saints, including the apostles and the disciples of Jesus, including those who walked with him and were closest to him, all of the erred. There is no denying it, they frequently misunderstood his mission and his teaching, and they continued to err long after Jesus was put to death.

 The central error of this passage from the Apocalypse is this: John pretends to have been given a revelation of things to come, but the future is not written; the future is never written because God has made us and the entire creation free…we are independent beings.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it is from the Community of John.

 Note well: this is not the same John who was exiled on the Isles of Patmos and gave us the book of revelations.

 The reading for today moves us for away from the ministry of Jesus, into the life of the early church. It was written roughly one hundred-twenty years after Jesus lived, and it contains some fascinating glimpses into the life of John’s community.

 John’s says that when Jesus was arrested the disciples hid in the upper room where they had been dining for fear of the Jews, indicating the deep division that had already taken place between the nascent church and the Jewish people who founded it at the time this was written.

 Remember!

 Jesus and his disciples were Jewish.

 Ninety years before John’s gospel was written Paul was active in his ministry to the gentiles, arguing with Peter about the notion that gentiles must first become observant Jews before they could join the church; at this time, virtually the entire Church was Jewish.

 Paul won that argument, and the church opened itself to a world that was eager to hear the good news. The world came in, like the nations came to the foot of Isaiah’s mountain and the character of the church changed, so much so that ninety years later a movement founded by Jesus, a Jew of Judea, would come to see the Jewish tradition and its people as anathema to itself.

 In John’s Gospel, Jesus is imagined to be a priest and depicted doing priestly things: commissioning the disciples, instantiating their office, empowering them to hold court, hear grievances and pass judgement on people, to forgive or not forgive their sins as they and their heirs saw fit.

 This flies in the face of the historical Jesus who was a man of the people and in no way a priest, though he was in in fact rabbi of the pharisaic movement, a healer and a prophet in the tradition of Isaiah.

 Jesus forgave sins and encouraged his disciples to forgive them as well, not because they had the special power to do so, but because God, the creator of the universe had forgiven all of our sins already. Proclaiming this to the people was not to be seen as belonging to the mechanism of expiation, but simply a declaration of what had already been accomplished  by the grace of God.

  When a prophet proclaims absolution, they are not exercising a an authority that they uniquely possess, they are proclaiming the will of God by announcing something that has already happened.

 Today’s reading encourages people to respond to mystical deeds and magical happenings, to ghostly apparitions and visions, as if the claim that these supernatural events took place lent some greater authority to their work…this is never the case.

 As we have already stated, God does not do magic tricks. Many are taken in by this sort of thing, but such stories are always fabrications, they might be useful as vehicles for allegory, analogy and metaphor, if they cannot serve in that capacity they are lies.

 In the final passage the gospel writers put forth the notion that Jesus’ miracles were real, they were performed so that people would believe that he was (in a special way) the son of God, and that through this belief they would come into the church named after him thereby becoming candidates for eternal life.

 The ideological construction looks like this: come to the church where the Gospel is given, learn the name of Jesus Christ and believe in it; your belief that Jesus was the Son of God is a transaction for which you receive salvation.

 The scheme of this ideology is Gnostic and  the church rejected it in the same era John’s Gospel was written…the church should reject it now.

 Understand this.

 The meaning of faith is not belief; faith means trust. We are not called to believe, but to trust in God.

 The meaning of faith is not belief, we are not called to believe in a proposition or an article of dogma; those things have their purpose, though it is limited to their imperfections.

 The structure Christian faith is not: believe in Christ so that you can be saved; it is: trust God, you are saved already.

 This is the way.

 First Reading - Acts 5:12-16 ©

The Numbers of Men and Women Who Came to Believe in the Lord Increased Steadily

The faithful all used to meet by common consent in the Portico of Solomon. No one else ever dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. So many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past. People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 117(118):2-4,22-27 ©

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Let the sons of Israel say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Let the sons of Aaron say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Let those who fear the Lord say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

The stone which the builders rejected

  has become the corner stone.

This is the work of the Lord,

  a marvel in our eyes.

This day was made by the Lord;

  we rejoice and are glad.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

O Lord, grant us salvation;

  O Lord, grant success.

Blessed in the name of the Lord

  is he who comes.

We bless you from the house of the Lord;

  the Lord God is our light.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his love has no end.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

 

Second Reading – Apocalypse 1:9-13,17-19 ©

I was Dead, and Now I am to Live for Ever and Ever

My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus; it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet, ‘Write down all that you see in a book.’ I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.

When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld. Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come.’

 

Sequence – Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

  offer sacrifice and praise.

The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;

and Christ, the undefiled,

hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended:

  combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain,

  yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary:

  say what thou didst see

  upon the way.

The tomb the Living did enclose;

I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting;

shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen:

he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen

  from the dead we know.

Victorious king, thy mercy show!

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 20:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

Jesus said: ‘You believe because you can see me.

Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 20:19-31 ©

Eight Days Later, Jesus Came Again and Stood Among Them

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:

‘You believe because you can see me.

Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

 

A Homily – The Second Sunday of Easter (Year C) Divine Mercy Sunday

A Holy Day of Obligation

Nabokov and Barrie on a Yellow Post-It ©

I found a square of paper, a sticky quadrilateral

a blank parallelogram, the golden-yellow rhombus

the empty plane of a Post-it note waiting to be filled  

I found a square of paper discarded in the trash

its tightly compressed fibers like golden-yellow net

I had a thought that fluttered-by, I captured it in script

trapped between right angels, I inked these letters there

            deep and blue with India ink

 

I thought of Nabokov, a man in love with butterflies

more than he was with the prose and poetry he wrote

he filled volumes marking the subtle variegations

the micro-changes in coloration of a butterfly’s wings

the patterns denoting their migrations, spending

more words on these than he ever did on poetry and fiction

 

as a boy I was told to be careful with butterflies

believing that the barest touch could brush the “magic-dust”

from their wings, leaving them moribund and flightless

 

a butterfly is pixie-like…floating, flying, gravity defying

 

Barrie showed us how with a sprinkle of pixie dust (and a laugh)

the heroine Wendy took flight, and took-up arms against old Hook

a pirate panicked by the tick-tock of a clock, the passing of time

Wendy leapt wingless into the sky on clouds of pixie-dust

Soaring through the ether with a pipe-playing-boy-god

a Titan named Pan

 

all butterflies bear the image of the horned-god…dancing in the wind

goat-footed Pan—god of wild places, timeless mad Pan—god of loneliness

shock and feral desire…traits all boys are taught to temper

lest they become lost in their inner child

untamed and wild

 

Nabokov loved butterflies and the metamorphosis of a worm

to witness beauty emerging from the silky creche of the chrysalis

he loved the tragedian, the anti-hero and the tragedy itself

he wrote of the old, the aging and corrupt, of youth and lament

capturing in his pages, like a poem on a Post-It

the fragile nature of longing, delicate as a butterfly…that once acquired

lives but a few moments before it expires

 

A Homily - Holy Week, Easter Sunday (Year C) A Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading - Acts 10:34, 37-43 ©

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 117(118):1-2, 16-17, 22-23 ©

Second Reading - Colossians 3:1-4 ©

Sequence - Victimae Paschali Laudes

Gospel Acclamation – 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

The Gospel According to John 20:1-9 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Hear the Easter message, follow Jesus and walk humbly in pursuit of the good; serve justice with compassion. Be merciful, like Jesus, a source of healing in the world, this is the way; place your hope in it and believe.

 The way is God’s law, it is written in our hearts. God speaks to us there, to everyone; do not doubt it. The divine law is like a living flame; look into the flames and see its truth shimmering, tongues of fire leaping from the burning coals, its smoke rising like incense.

 All human law is merely a reflection of the divine law, obfuscated and dim and corrupted by the imperfections of our nature.

 It is good to uphold the law, through right living as a blessing to everyone, in the exhibition of mercy and compassion. We are alive in the world and our faith calls on us to live as if we believed that the promise of our salvation were true, as if it were true already accomplished in full…this is the Gospel, and it means good news, the good news that Christ has risen.

 It is the essence of Christian faith to trust in this proposition, to trust in the belief that you and everyone will rise as Christ did, not in a transactional way, not as an exchange for the coin of our “belief,” but returned to life by God merely because God loves us…as an act of supererogatory grace

 Imagine the holy family, by which I mean the entirety of creation, all of the living and all of the dead and including everyone who will yet come to be; imagine all of us living in the garden now, at peace, without want or enmity, living in that place where we are able to see God clearly, a place in which our relationships with each other are more important to us than gold, political power or any other earthly treasure; imagine that and you will be seeing a manifestation of the will of heaven. When we will have achieved that heavenly state, we will have brought divine providence to creation, and it will be blessing to all.

 Celebrate the feast of Easter, take part in it and accept the way as Jesus taught us, the way he showed us through his life, through his death and resurrection as depicted in our mythology.

 Celebrate the feast, knowing that it does not matter whether our myths are literally true…or not.

 Believe in the hope that Easter represents, even in the dark times, even in times as dark as the first Sunday morning after the crucifixion, when Mary Magdala and Mary, Martha’s sister, came to the tomb.

 Remember.

 It was Mary Magdala who had anointed Jesus for burial. She and her companions, including Jesus’ mother were at the foot of the cross when he died, and Mary Magdala was the first to receive the revelation that he had risen.

 It was dark when Mary arrived at the tomb, but not completely dark, and in the dim light of morning she saw a hint of the truth that was about to unfold, with the sun rising to fill the day with light. She saw that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, she looked inside and found it empty.

 At first Mary assumed that someone had come and removed the body of Jesus, taken him and hidden him somewhere…then she received the visitation from the angel of the lord and she understood.

 Mary hurried to find the other disciples, to tell them what she had found and evangelize them. When she reached them she encountered their doubt…but when they arrived on the scene and explored the tomb for themselves, the understanding of what had transpired began to take hold among them. They saw the empty tomb and the burial garments cast aside. In that moment they realized that Jesus had been raised from the dead. It was upon this belief and on the strength of their witness that the Church was born

 Know this.

 The Church was not built on the foundation of Peter’s faith, which faltered and failed on the night Jesus was arrested. It was built on the faith of women, like Mary and Mary and Mary and Martha, the women who never abandoned Jesus, who did everything in their power to make the path that was in front of him smooth…they adhered to the way.

 Throughout his ministry it was the women among his disciples who understood his mission, it was the women who were able to fully comprehend the power of his message, including the necessity of responding to it in faith, which they did.

 Those great women, the mothers of the church, responded with trust, not with propositions and creeds but with action and their living witness.

 While his male disciples tripped over themselves, doubted him, doubted each other, vied for supremacy, betrayed him, denied him and sold him into captivity, which led to his torture, trial and execution; while all of that was going on, these women were by his side, comforting him, tending to him, doing everything in their power to ease the burden of what lay ahead of him. The women in Jesus’ company were never confused about his mission, they always understood how it would end.

 On Easter we should remember them and honor their commitment to service.

 

First Reading - Acts 10:34, 37-43 ©

'We Have Eaten and Drunk with Him After His Resurrection'

Peter addressed Cornelius and his household: ‘You must have heard about the recent happenings in Judaea; about Jesus of Nazareth and how he began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil. Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and also to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree, yet three days afterwards God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses – we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead – and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to tell them that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead. It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.’

 

Responsorial Psalm - Psalm 117(118):1-2, 16-17, 22-23 ©

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

  for his love has no end.

Let the sons of Israel say:

  ‘His love has no end.’

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

The Lord’s right hand has triumphed;

  his right hand raised me up.

I shall not die, I shall live

  and recount his deeds.

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

The stone which the builders rejected

  has become the corner stone.

This is the work of the Lord,

  a marvel in our eyes.

This day was made by the Lord: we rejoice and are glad.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

 

Second Reading - Colossians 3:1-4 ©

Look for the Things that Are in Heaven, where Christ Is

Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand. Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ is revealed – and he is your life – you too will be revealed in all your glory with him.

 

Sequence - Victimae Paschali Laudes

Christians, to the Paschal Victim

  offer sacrifice and praise.

The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb;

and Christ, the undefiled,

hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended:

  combat strangely ended!

Life’s own Champion, slain,

  yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary:

  say what thou didst see

  upon the way.

The tomb the Living did enclose;

I saw Christ’s glory as he rose!

The angels there attesting;

shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen:

he goes before you into Galilee.

That Christ is truly risen

  from the dead we know.

Victorious king, thy mercy show!

 

Gospel Acclamation – 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

Alleluia, alleluia!

Christ, our passover, has been sacrificed:

let us celebrate the feast then, in the Lord.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to John 20:1-9 ©

He Must Rise from the Dead

It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb’ she said ‘and we don’t know where they have put him.’

So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the ground, and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

 

Holy Week, Easter Sunday (Year C) A Holy Day of Obligation