Author: admin

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Gospel: John 20: 19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Twelve years ago, Jorge Mario Bergoglio – the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires – was elected pope. From the moment he walked out onto the balcony overlooking Saint Peter’s Square vested in white, he embodied the name he had chosen: Francis.

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I was living in Rome at the time, studying for the priesthood. I remember it was a grey, rainy evening. As the time for the next round of voting inside the conclave neared, I rushed from class and headed straight to Saint Peter’s.

The square looked like a tent city with a canopy of umbrellas keeping us dry. Closing my umbrella, rolling it tight, I wiggled my way to the very front row. 

Suddenly, a plume of white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Habemus papam! We have a pope!

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When Francis emerged, two things happened: mysteriously, the rain stopped on a dime, as nearly everyone wondered, who is this?

Fortunately, a group of pilgrims from Argentina stood close behind me. They declared to the incredulous crowd, “That’s our bishop!” 

Now, he was pope.

As Francis was handed a microphone to make his first public statement, he began with two simple words, “Buona sera.” [Good evening].

What followed was a gesture of great humility, which was admired around the world.

Francis bowed and asked for our blessing.

It struck me to the heart. Humbled, I raised my hand towards the balcony above me, and prayed for our shepherd.

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Twelve years later, the Church came full circle. 

A frail Francis, just hours from his death, was wheeled out onto the same balcony where he first appeared as pope. There, he spoke his final five words in public.

“Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter.” 

Raising his feeble hand, he made the sign of the cross, blessing his flock.

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Francis can be understood through simple gestures like that – blessing a crowd hours before his death, kissing a grossly disfigured man’s face covered in sores, washing the feet of prisoners, traveling to the poorest places on earth.

Even forsaking the Apostolic Palace, where popes have traditionally lived, residing in the Vatican guest house, instead. There, the head of the Church ate lunch in the same cafeteria with the rest of his staff, from Cardinals to janitors.

He was a pope of the people who communicated through gestures of humility, love, forgiveness, and inclusivity. 

Gestures which anyone can emulate.

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Perhaps one of the most beautiful, and ironic, aspects of his papacy is how it ended. 

His death has not only garnered international attention and positive press, but also – and more importantly – Francis has drawn the world into the mystery of Christianity, and the beauty of the Catholic Church.

Over the last few days, hundreds of thousands of people have passed through the Jubilee Doors of Saint Peter’s Basilica, one of the most remarkable houses of worship ever built. 

Some, perhaps, never having entered a church before.

Upon entering, they pass by Michelangelo’s Pietà, a marble baptismal font, tombs of popes, altars for Mass, the Blessed Sacrament chapel, masterful mosaics proclaiming the life of Christ, light emanating through high windows, seemingly from heaven.

At the very center of Saint Peter’s Basilica is one of the largest domes ever built. High up, inside the inner rim, the words of Jesus are proclaimed in letters seven-feet tall: 

“You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”

Directly below stands the main altar where Francis celebrated Mass, where his body was lying in state this past week. Far beneath him rest the bones of Saint Peter, the first pope, the rock of the Church, whose authority flowed directly from Christ down to Francis.

As the world watched on Saturday, our shepherd was commended to our heavenly Father. It looked like a paradox – the death of our pope in the Easter season. But that very event speaks to the heart of what we believe. Christ has been raised from the dead!

In the words of Saint Paul, “O death, where is your victory? Where is your sting?”

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Francis was a pope of the periphery. He pushed boundaries only to make more room for souls desperate for God’s love. He cast the net of the Church far and wide, crying out, Todos, todos, todos.

Everyone, everyone, everyone.

May we continue to stretch our own hearts and minds, opening doors, making room for all seeking God’s love. For God so loved the world that all who believe in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

Eternal rest grant unto Francis, O LORD, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

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Image credits: (1) IMDb (2) USA Today (3) Vatican News

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Gospel: Luke 24: 35-48

The disciples of Jesus recounted what had taken place along the way,
and how they had come to recognize him in the breaking of bread.

While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have.”
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.

He said to them,
“These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled.”
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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There are seven recorded resurrection appearances in the Gospels, one being the Road to Emmaus, which we heard in yesterday’s Gospel. 

Today the two disciples whom Christ appeared to on that road have returned to the rest of the community mixed with mourners and budding believers, who are hiding somewhere in Jerusalem.

As they share their mysterious encounter with the Risen Christ, how they could see him, but not really see him, he appears in their midst, saying, “Peace be with you.”

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Everyone is baffled. Could this be a ghost? A dream? A hallucination?

The Jesus of the resurrection is not the same Jesus of Good Friday. 

On Good Friday, he was beaten badly, scourged, spit upon, mocked, then nailed to a tree with a nameplate tacked embarrassingly above his head. There could be no case of mistaken identity there.

Jesus of Nazareth died.

His resurrection, however, is largely based upon rumored sitings. Think about all of the others – those whom Jesus healed, touched, and forgave – who are not in this room where the Lord suddenly appears. Are they to resurrect their crucified hope?

Even those standing right in front of him struggle to believe.

Yet the Lord speaks to them. He breathes upon them. He offers them his peace. Then he does the one marquee thing that assures them, in the words of John, “It is the Lord.”

He shares a meal.

He did it after blessing five loaves and two fish, feeding thousands. He did it on the night of his betrayal, hours before his death. He did it on the road to Emmaus. He did it on the shores of Galilee over a charcoal fire, reconciling Peter with himself.

And he does it again in today’s Gospel: Jesus breaks bread.

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This is the same way the Risen Lord appears to us today, “in the breaking of the bread.”

May the Lord give us all the eyes of Easter, allowing us to see him in the Eucharist, bread broken for the life of the world.

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Image credits: (1) Icons and Imagery (2) Testing Table (3) The Catholic Thing

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Gospel: Luke 24: 13-35

That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus’ disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
“What are you discussing as you walk along?”
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?”
And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”
They said to him,
“The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his Body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see.”
And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?”
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, “Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
“Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the Eleven and those with them who were saying,
“The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!”
Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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The Christ of Easter leaves us with two choices: We can either plead with him to stay … or change.

Mary Magdalene tries the first approach when she encounters the Risen Lord that first Easter morning. Her face is dampened by tears of grief as she looks for a dead Jesus. 

“They have taken my Lord, and I do not know where they laid him,” she laments to the angels at the empty tomb.

Suddenly, the Lord appears to her, and she falls at his feet as if her body can chain him to the ground. But Jesus gently rebukes her, saying, “Stop holding onto me… Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and to your Father.” 

Christ has changed… and so must Mary. She must change her understanding of life’s greatest mysteries, because Christ has conquered death!

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Two of Jesus’ other disciples try the same approach in today’s Gospel as Mary did.

After unknowingly sharing their sorrows with the Risen Lord, whom they mistake for an aloof stranger from Jerusalem, Jesus opens the scriptures and “breaks the bread,” a likely reference to the Eucharist.

When their eyes are opened, their hearts burn within them as they beg for Jesus to stay with them. But he has changed. So must they.

So, he vanishes from their midst, telling them, like Mary, to go.

Go back to Jerusalem, back to the site of Christ’s crucifixion, back to the community in mourning, and share the Good News.

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We, too, must change.

We cannot cling to Christ any more than we can bring our pope back to earth. No, we are all destined for life in abundance in our Father’s house.

This Easter, may we set our sight on the things that are above and share the Good News. For He is Risen! Alleluia!

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Image credits: (1) Cru (2) National Gallery of Art (3) Saint Anthony Parish, Sacramento