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Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) A
Prayers
this week: Hosanna to the Son of
David, the King of Israel. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
(Mat. 21:19)
Almighty, ever-living God, you have given the human race Jesus Christ
our Saviour as a model of humility. He fulfilled your will by becoming
man and giving his life on the cross. Help us to bear witness to
you by following his example of suffering and make us worthy to share
in his resurrection. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
(March 16)
St. Clement Mary Hofbauer (1751-1820)
Clement might be
called the second founder of the Redemptorists, as it was he who
carried the congregation of St. Alphonsus Liguori to the people north
of the Alps. John,
the
name given him at Baptism, was born in Moravia into a poor family, the
ninth of 12 children. Although he longed to be a priest there was no
money for studies, and he was apprenticed to a baker. But God guided
the young man's fortunes. He found work in the bakery of a monastery
where he was allowed to attend classes in its Latin school. After the
abbot there died, John tried the life of a hermit but when Emperor
Joseph II abolished hermitages, John again returned to Vienna and to
baking. One day after serving Mass at the cathedral of St. Stephen, he
called a carriage for two ladies waiting there in the rain. In their
conversation they learned that he could not pursue his priestly studies
because of a lack of funds. They generously offered to support both him
and his friend, Thaddeus, in their seminary studies. The two went to
Rome, where they were drawn to St. Alphonsus' vision of religious life
and to the Redemptorists. The two young men were ordained together in
1785. Newly professed at age 34, Clement Mary, as he was now called,
and Thaddeus were sent back to Vienna. But the religious difficulties
there caused them to leave and continue north to Warsaw, Poland. There
they encountered numerous German-speaking Catholics who had been left
priestless by the suppression of the Jesuits. At first they had to live
in great poverty and preached outdoor sermons. They were given the
church of St. Benno, and for the next nine years they preached five
sermons a day, two in German and three in Polish, converting many to
the faith. They were active in social work among the poor, founding an
orphanage and then a school for boys. Drawing candidates to the
congregation, they were able to send missionaries to Poland, Germany
and Switzerland. All of these foundations had eventually to be
abandoned because of the political and religious tensions of the times.
After 20 years of difficult work Clement himself was imprisoned and
expelled from the country. Only after another arrest was he able to
reach Vienna, where he was to live and work the final 12 years of his
life. He quickly became "the apostle of Vienna," hearing the
confessions of the rich and poor, visiting the sick, acting as a
counsellor to the powerful, sharing his holiness with all in the city.
His crowning work was the establishment of a Catholic college in his
beloved city. Persecution followed him, and there were those in
authority who were able for a while to stop him from preaching. An
attempt was made at the highest levels to have him banished. But his
holiness and fame protected him and the growth of the Redemptorists.
Due to his efforts, the congregation, upon his death in 1820, was
firmly established north of the Alps. He was canonized in 1909.
Clement saw his life’s
work meet with disaster. Religious and political tensions forced him
and his brothers to abandon their ministry in Germany, Poland and
Switzerland. Clement himself was exiled from Poland and had to start
all over again. Someone once pointed out that the followers of the
crucified Jesus should see only new possibilities opening up whenever
they meet failure. He encourages us to follow his example, trusting in
the Lord to guide us.
(AmericanCatholic.org)
click on centre arrow for video
Scripture: Matthew 21:1-11; Isaiah
50:4-7; Psalm 21; Philippians 2: 6-11; Matt 26:14-27:66
As they
approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives,
Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, Go to the village ahead of
you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by
her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you,
tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.
This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet: Say to
the Daughter of Zion, 'See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding
on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' The disciples went and
did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the colt,
placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd
spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him
and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! When
Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, Who is
this? The crowds answered, This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in
Galilee. (Matt 21:1-11)
Our Gospel passage
is that of the Palm Sunday procession before the beginning of Mass
(Matt 21:1-11). It narrates our Lord’s triumphant Entry
into Jerusalem as the Messiah King, and is followed during the Mass by
St Matthew’s Gospel long account of the passion and death of our Lord.
As the long awaited Messiah he entered the holy
city so
beloved by God in order to die for his people and for all mankind. He
entered amid acclaim in order to die amid rejection and by that
rejection he would fulfil his messianic mission. Between five and six
centuries before, the prophet we now call Deutero-Isaiah had foretold
that the Messiah would be God’s Suffering Servant. He would fulfil
God’s plan for his people and for the world by his obedient suffering:
“I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore
at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.”
(Isaiah 50). Our Lord was entering the City as its promised King,
“humble and riding on a donkey” as Zechariah (ch.9) had foretold, to
follow this divinely ordained path and so enter his glory, opening the
door to glory for all who choose to believe in him. As he told Pontius
Pilate, our Lord’s messianic kingship was of God and not of this world.
He did not use armies to gain his triumphs. His weapon was obedient
suffering, the Cross. By contrast, let our imagination pass to the
region of Arabia east of Jerusalem. We are six hundred years after
Christ, and we find ourselves in the city Mecca, long regarded as holy
because of its sacred black stone in the temple of Kaaba. Muhammad is
marching on this his own native city with an army of 10,000 and the
leading citizens come out to meet him and formally submit to his
authority. He enters and imposes Islam as the religion of the city. How
contrary was the way of Isaiah’s prophecies and their fulfilment in
Christ to the way of the conquering Muhammad! Christ enters the holy
city of Jerusalem as Messiah to die for the sins of mankind and within
a week of his Entry he rises from the dead to a new life. Muhammad
enters the holy city of Mecca, and two years later dies back in his
adopted city of Medina. There his remains still lie.
The Entry of Christ
into the holy city of Jerusalem reminds us of many things, but two in
particular. Firstly, we are reminded that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s
promised Messiah for the whole of mankind. He is the one who brings
salvation to all. He is the one in whom mankind is called to place its
hopes. Whatever be the hopes man places in this or that kingdom or
utopia, the one hope that will not disappoint is our hope in Christ. As
he makes his way humbly seated on the donkey to the acclaim of those
who accompany him, let us also acclaim him in our hearts. He is the
Lord of all lords and the King of all kings. To him has been given all
authority in heaven and on earth. Let not our hopes be like many of
those who acclaimed him as he entered his city. Let our hopes lie
entirely in him and in what he offers. He offers life in abundance, the
gift of holiness, a share in eternal life here on earth and forever in
heaven. He offers the grace to live in him always. Let us resolve to
place our hope in his very person asking him to guide us to a true and
generous following in his footsteps, and to keep us from all other
paths. He alone is our King, and he is the King we bear witness to
before all others in our everyday life. That is the first point. The
second follows upon it. Christ on entering Jerusalem will show the true
path to glory. We remember Christ’s rebuke to Simon Peter who wished to
dissuade him from the path of suffering. Christ said to him, “Get
behind me, you Satan!” Mysteriously, the path to true glory lies in the
renunciation of earthly glory. As St Paul writes in his Letter to the
Philippians (ch 2) Christ’s “state was divine” yet he “emptied himself
to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are” and “humbler
yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” That is the divinely
ordained path to true glory, and if any one wishes to be his disciple
he must deny himself, take up his cross every day and follow him.
Christ is our Light and his way is very different from that of the world.
So then, what to
do? Let us in spirit accompany Jesus as he makes his way gently and
humbly, yet fully conscious of the King and Lord he is and of the
boundless significance of what he is about to do. We accompany him,
praying to have the grace to love him fully and to accompany him to the
end. Let us ask for the grace to follow in his footsteps in everyday
life, doing the will of God in our daily duties, and being glad in our
stead to suffer in union with Jesus if God so pleases.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I have no need of miracles: there are more than enough for me in the
Gospel. But I do need to see you fulfilling your duty and responding to
grace.
(The Way, no.362)
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Serialization of the Encyclical Letter of Pope Benedict XVI God
is Love (25 Dec. ‘05)
“Eros” and “Agape” –– difference and unity (cont)
5. Two things emerge clearly from this rapid overview of the concept of
eros past and present. First, there is a certain relationship
between love and the Divine: love promises infinity, eternity—a reality
far greater and totally other than our everyday existence. Yet we have
also seen that the way to attain this goal is not simply by submitting
to instinct. Purification and growth in maturity are called for; and
these also pass through the path of renunciation. Far from rejecting or
“poisoning” eros, they heal it and restore its true
grandeur.
This is due first and foremost to the fact that man is a being made up
of body and soul. Man is truly himself when his body and soul are
intimately united; the challenge of eros can be said to
be truly overcome when this unification is achieved. Should he aspire
to be pure spirit and to reject the flesh as pertaining to his animal
nature alone, then spirit and body would both lose their dignity. On
the other hand, should he deny the spirit and consider matter, the
body, as the only reality, he would likewise lose his greatness. The
epicure Gassendi used to offer Descartes the humorous greeting: “O
Soul!” And Descartes would reply: “O Flesh!”.[3] Yet it is neither the
spirit alone nor the body alone that loves: it is man, the person, a
unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves. Only when both
dimensions are truly united, does man attain his full stature. Only
thus is love —eros—able to mature and attain its
authentic grandeur.
Nowadays Christianity of the past is often criticized as having been
opposed to the body; and it is quite true that tendencies of this sort
have always existed. Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is
deceptive. Eros, reduced to pure “sex”, has become a
commodity, a mere “thing” to be bought and sold, or rather, man himself
becomes a commodity. This is hardly man's great “yes” to the body. On
the contrary, he now considers his body and his sexuality as the purely
material part of himself, to be used and exploited at will. Nor does he
see it as an arena for the exercise of his freedom, but as a mere
object that he attempts, as he pleases, to make both enjoyable and
harmless. Here we are actually dealing with a debasement of the human
body: no longer is it integrated into our overall existential freedom;
no longer is it a vital expression of our whole being, but it is more
or less relegated to the purely biological sphere. The apparent
exaltation of the body can quickly turn into a hatred of bodiliness.
Christian faith, on the other hand, has always considered man a unity
in duality, a reality in which spirit and matter compenetrate, and in
which each is brought to a new nobility. True, eros
tends to rise “in ecstasy” towards the Divine, to lead us beyond
ourselves; yet for this very reason it calls for a path of ascent,
renunciation, purification and healing.
(Continuing)
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Scripture today: Isaiah 42: 1-7; Psalm
26; John 12: 1-11
Six days before the
Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had
raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honour. Martha
served,
while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then
Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured
it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was
filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But one of his disciples,
Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, Why wasn't this
perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's
wages. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because
he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to
what was put into it. Leave her alone, Jesus replied. It was intended
that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will
always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.
Meanwhile a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and
came, not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had
raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus
as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to
Jesus and putting their faith in him. (John
12: 1-11)
Mary and
Judas
There are several actors on the stage of our Gospel scene today. There is
Jesus, there is Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead, and there are
Martha and Mary the sisters of Lazarus. There is also Judas. Finally there are
the crowds and the chief priests. 
I
think we could say that apart from Jesus, the two main ones are Mary the sister
of Lazarus and Judas who would betray him. Let us consider what each of these
two do in respect to Jesus, and what their actions suggest. The context of our
scene is a banquet put on in Jesus’ honour, probably in the home of Lazarus and
his two sisters, for we are told that Martha is serving. Jesus had worked an
astounding public miracle, calling his friend Lazarus forth from the tomb after
his having been dead four days. Mary enters holding a quantity of “pure nard,”
a very expensive perfume and goes with it before Jesus. She pours it all out on
his feet and wipes his feet with her hair. What is she doing? She is doing all
she can to honour him. In her eyes, there is no one like him on earth. He is
beyond compare and in her action we surely see the action of the Church of the
ages to come. Jesus Christ is not just the greatest of teachers of religion, he
is not just the greatest of prophets, he is not just the one who has exercised
the greatest of miraculous powers. He is the Lord. He is God, God the Son
become man and as such is to be worshipped. No other man, no other person in
all of history is to be worshipped even though many of the great have arrogated
to themselves this divine prerogative. The full sense of this would come home
to his disciples especially after his resurrection from the dead, and we see a
great instance of this in the response of Thomas when the risen Christ showed
him his wounds. “My Lord and my God!” he cried. Our Gospel scene today,
occurring not long before his Passion, constitutes a pointer to it. Mary’s
action embodies and symbolizes the worship that is due to Christ.
By contrast we have the response of Judas, one of the Twelve. He had been
privileged to be called to be one of Christ’s constant companions, to be with
him and to be sent out to preach. Christ had called him to be one of the twelve
foundations stones of his Church which would be the bearer of his Kingdom. He
had been blessed with the unique calling to be an intimate of Christ and to see
for himself the grandeur of his person. Mary saw it, Judas became blind to it.
What was the difference between the two? Mary loved Jesus, Judas had gradually
lost his love for him and became culpably blind to who he was. In our Gospel
scene today (John 12: 1‑11) we see how
greatly disaffected Judas had become and we sense also the gentleness and tact
with which our Lord had treated this traitor within his own company. At the
time of our Lord’s announcement of the doctrine of the Eucharist at Capernaum
(John 6) when so many of his disciples left him, our Lord said that one of his
chosen was a “devil”, and John informs us that he was referring to Judas. Here,
when Judas sees the perfume being poured over the feet of Christ, he grumbles.
He appears to dislike Christ and to resent honour being accorded him. His
attitude is, we might say, an enormity and it is cloaked in a hypocritical
interest in the poor. Christ corrects him and insists on the appropriateness of
this action for him by one of his disciples, and his correction appears to be
the trigger occasioning Judas’s final apostasy. The person of Christ is at the
centre of this scene and, indeed, of Christian discipleship and by her action
Mary acknowledges this. Judas resents Christ being at the centre and criticizes
the honour accorded him. By abandoning Christ he loses all. In this whole
sequence of events we are surely reminded that Jesus is at the pinnacle and at
the heart of the world, and that life is to be found not just in his teaching,
but more fundamentally in his person. He is the object of our worship and love,
and we show our love and worship of him by living according to his word.
Let us linger in the thought of Mary’s action of pouring her most precious nard over the feet of Jesus and wiping them with her hair. That is the attitude we ought bring to all our activities during life. All our actions, all our efforts to fulfil our daily duties ought be informed with the attitude of Mary. Whatever we do ought be done for Jesus as the Lord. He is the Lord of our life, and all that we do ought be done in order that he be glorified and honoured the more.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Disappointment. You're downhearted. Men have just taught you a lesson!
As long as they thought you did not need them, offers came pouring in.
The possibility that they might have to help you with hard cash — a few
miserable pennies — turned their friendship into indifference.
Trust only in God and in those who, through him, are united with you.
(The Way, no.363)
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Scripture today: Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71:1-2, 3-4a, 5ab-6ab, 15 and 17; John 13: 21-33.36-38
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and
testified, I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me. His
disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he
meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next
to him. Simon Peter motioned to
this
disciple and said, Ask him which one he means. Leaning back against
Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, It is the one to
whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.
Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of
Simon. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. What
you are about to do, do quickly, Jesus told him, but no-one at the meal
understood why Jesus said this to him. Since Judas had charge of the
money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for
the Feast, or to give something to the poor. As soon as Judas had taken
the bread, he went out. And it was night. When he was gone, Jesus said,
Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is
glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify
him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You
will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where
I am going, you cannot come. Simon Peter asked him, Lord, where are you
going? Jesus replied, Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you
will follow later. Peter asked, Lord, why can't I follow you now? I
will lay down my life for you. Then Jesus answered, Will you really lay
down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the cock crows, you
will disown me three times! (John 13: 21-33.36-38)
Christ’s
choice
Islam rejects the whole notion of Christ’s Cross, considering that it is against
reason for Allah to save man through such a means. It regards as defying logic
the notion that in God’s plan Christ “had” to suffer. It is senseless that one
who could raise the dead and heal all illnesses would willingly submit to such a
death and fail to put an end to those who sought to put an end to him.
Therefore Christ the prophet could not have been crucified — it had to be
someone else. So thinks Islam, and so indeed, I suppose we could say, runs
natural wisdom.
The
Cross of Christ, as St Paul puts it, is foolishness to the world but in reality
it is the power of God. This is at the heart of Christ’s revelation, and so is
at the core of the Christian Way. Let us consider the attitude of Christ as it
is presented in our Gospel today. Christ is engaged in his Last Supper with his
disciples and a great burden presses on his heart. He is “troubled in spirit”
because one of his very own, one to whom he gave his friendship, one whom he
called to be part of his life and mission in an altogether special degree, has
turned against him and is to betray him. He knew all this with crystal clarity
and yet he has not expelled Judas from his company. He does not take back his
gift. Judas had been progressively disliking the gift and is preparing to cast
it out of his life in exchange for something else. But Christ continues to
accept his presence, and here at the last moments he not only shares with his
beloved disciples his burden, but in the process undoubtedly intends to invite
Judas to think again of what he is doing. He loves Judas and for this reason he
had given to Judas his vocation as an apostle. Christ is confidentially asked
by John his beloved disciple, who is it to whom you are referring? Our Lord
indicates who it is by his gesture of offering Judas the morsel of dipped
bread. I tend to imagine our Lord offering the bread with a gentle smile as a
final invitation of friendship and as an invitation to turn back from his sinful
and catastrophic course (John 13: 21‑33.36‑38).
The point, though, is that our Lord does not himself turn back from the
suffering that is coming upon him. He does not publicly expose Judas and outwit
and foil his enemies — as he could so easily have done. He advances towards his
sufferings and freely embraces them. How mysterious and how contrary to the
wisdom of the world! It is understandable that Islam rejects it. But such was
the path the Father laid out for his divine Son. Thus he would take away the
sin of the world — not by a mere divine decree but by God himself suffering for
sin in his human nature. And so the Last Supper continues. As soon as he
offers Judas the piece of bread Christ sees that Satan enters him. Judas has
accepted Satan and has turned his back on him. All this was clear before the
profound gaze of the Lord. Nothing more could now be done. Judas has placed
himself in the camp of the prince of this world. So Jesus directs Judas to do
quickly what he is to do. He no longer has a place during this the first Mass.
He is in mortal sin. The tone of voice and the manner of saying this, suggests
to those who hear Christ that he is simply directing Judas to get something for
the Feast or to give something to the poor. Christ is allowing and indeed
embracing his course of suffering. Could Judas clearly see that Christ
understood exactly what he was about? We are not explicitly told in this
account, but in Matthew’s Gospel, Christ intimates to Judas that he knows (Matt
26:25). So he left the Lord and went out into the night, a night of utter
darkness within him. Christ had said that he was the Light of the world and
that the one who refused to walk with him walked in the darkness. Judas was now
in the darkness. But let us here keep our gaze on Christ and the path he was
treading. It was the path of the Cross. He did not flee it. He did not reject
it. He did not simply accept it as an unavoidable set of circumstances. He
embraced it. Mysteriously it was the divine path to glory and he was blazing
the trail ahead of us.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Ah, if you would only resolve to serve God 'seriously', with the same zeal with which you serve your ambition, your vanity, your sensuality!..
(The Way, no.364)
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Scripture today: Isaiah 50: 4-9; Psalm
69:8-10, 21-22, 31 and 33-34; Matthew 26: 14-25
Then one of the
Twelve— the one called Judas Iscariot— went to the chief priests and
asked, What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you? So
they counted
out for
him thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity
to hand him over. On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Where do you want us to make
preparations for you to eat the Passover? He replied, Go into the city
to a certain man and tell him, 'The Teacher says: My appointed time is
near. I am going to celebrate the Passover with my disciples at your
house.' So the disciples did as Jesus had directed them and prepared
the Passover. When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with
the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, I tell you the truth,
one of you will betray me. They were very sad and began to say to him
one after the other, Surely not I, Lord? Jesus replied, The one who has
dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me. The Son of Man
will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who
betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been
born. Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, Surely not I,
Rabbi? Jesus answered, They are your own words.
(Matthew 26: 14-25)
Triumph
through betrayal
Our Gospel passage today places before us the figures of Jesus on the one hand
and Judas on the other. The account opens with Judas going to the chief priests
and asking “what will you give me if I hand him over to you?” They gave him
thirty silver coins. Let us place ourselves in the mind of Judas as he forms
his plan and approaches the chief priests. A great corruption of his heart and
person is occurring. He is turning away from the Lord of life and doing so with
full freedom. Nothing has forced him to come to this pass. He
has been tempted by Satan, just as Christ was tempted at the beginning of his
public ministry and presumably on other occasions. Undoubtedly Satan tempted
others of our Lord’s disciples, and we remember how during the Last Supper our
Lord told Simon that Satan had sifted him like wheat. Christ could see with the
utmost clarity what had been going on around him, both among his choicest
disciples and among the people. Some time before, in the synagogue of
Capernaum, our Lord had announced publicly that his flesh was to be eaten and
his blood was to be drunk and that this was to be the path to possessing eternal
life. Very many of his disciples then left him and he could see that among the
Twelve there was a change. “One of you is a devil”, he said to the Twelve.
Judas had his failings and was giving in to them — he stole from the common
purse, we are told. But Fulton Sheen, the great American preacher,
intellectual, and writer, once said that Judas’s departure from Christ began not
with his pilfering from the common purse, but from his rejection of Christ’s
teaching on the Eucharist. Yes, Judas was being tempted, and he was consenting
to the temptation. Satan had striven to disaffect our Lord’s closest associates
and he was having signal success with one of them. The example of Judas shows
that Satan is, as St Peter writes in one of his Letters, like a lion seeking to
devour his prey. His object is to lure, to trap and then to destroy. Judas
allowed himself to be undone and ruined.
Our prayerful gaze turns to Jesus who is fully aware of what is happening within
his own circle. How did Jesus know these things? He did not have informants.
By his profound human intelligence and his divine gaze he could see the hearts
of men and he knew the frightful consequences of sin for his very own. He had
chosen Judas and loved him, and solemnly warned the group “The Son of Man will
go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of
Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” He even took the step
of warning Judas himself: “Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said,
Surely not I, Rabbi? Jesus answered, They are your own words”
(Matthew 26:14‑25). However, it was done.
The next point to remember is that this entire tragedy was taken into account by
the divine plan. Satan had pulled off his victory by corrupting even one of the
Twelve and orchestrating the capture and death of his great Enemy, the Holy One
of God, as the demons had called him. But God, from the apparent ruins would
draw an immense victory for the world. In all the distress that our Lord
displays at the course Judas had chosen to follow, he manifests his serene
awareness that despite the trail of sin all is, as we might say, according to
plan. But it is God’s plan, not any human plan. Our Lord’s appointed time was
near. His hour was approaching and the salvation of the world was at hand. It
would be accomplished within the very circumstances set in motion by Satan, by
Judas, by the chief priests and all those who rejected him and his message and
who wanted to do away with him. What an extraordinary surprise in the history
of the world! Who would have imagined or conceived of such a method of
salvation! Who would have imagined that one would appear with the mission of
taking away the sin of the world, and then of achieving this precisely through
betrayal, rejection, a horrible passion and death and the seeming triumph of
sinners! But such was the surprise of God.
Let us make make our choice as, in our hearts, as we gaze on the scene of our Gospel. Let us take our stand with Jesus and give our hearts and our loyalty to him. Let us resolve to follow his way, asking for the grace to go the whole distance with him. Let us resolve to reject all temptations to prefer other things to him, no matter how small. Judas preferred the silver coins. Let us never allow ourselves in the slightest sense to be following such a paltry path. Christ and Christ alone is our choice.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you feel the urge to be a leader, let this be your aim: to be last
among your brothers; and among others, the first.
(The Way, no.365)
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Holy Thursday — Mass of the Lord’s Supper
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Scripture today: Exodus 12:1-8.11-14; Psalm 116; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-15
It was just before
the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave
this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the
world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal
was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot,
son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus
knew that
the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come
from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off
his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he
poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying
them with the towel that was wrapped round him. He came to Simon Peter,
who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied,
You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.
No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, Unless I
wash you, you have no part with me. Then, Lord, Simon Peter replied,
not just my feet but my hands and my head as well! Jesus answered, A
person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body
is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you. For he knew
who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was
clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes
and returned to his place. Do you understand what I have done for you?
he asked them. You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord', and rightly so, for
that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your
feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an
example that you should do as I have done for you.
(John 13:1-15)
A humble
Lord
Our Gospel scene today tells us many things about Jesus and about God, but I
would especially like to highlight one or two. Let us begin by thinking of the
very titles that our Lord accepts from his disciples. He tells them that he is
their Lord and their Teacher.
“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and rightly so, for that is what I am.” The
title “Lord” is especially significant. As Messiah he was their King, the King
who was to come. But more, John the Baptist had testified that he was the Son
of God, and Simon Peter when asked by our Lord who they, his own disciples, said
he was, professed that he was the Messiah and the Son of the Living God. So he
was the Lord, and Thomas, after Jesus rose from the dead and appeared before
him, exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” So Jesus was their very Lord and it was
thus that his disciples addressed him. As the Lord, he was also their Teacher.
We remember when our Lord was transfigured on the Mount, the Father said of him
that he was his own Son, and that they were to listen to him. He, his divine
Son, was their Teacher. When many of his disciples left him after he taught the
doctrine of the Eucharist in the synagogue of Capernaum (John 6), our Lord asked
the Twelve if they too were going. Simon Peter answered, “Lord to whom would we
go? You have the words of eternal life, and we believe.” He was their Lord and
their Teacher. Even then, though, one was turning away — Judas. Our Lord said,
“Have I not chosen you? And yet one of you is a devil!” Christ is at the
pinnacle of mankind and he possesses all authority and power, being addressed as
Lord and Teacher. These titles he accepts, but he uses his power and authority
humbly and gently, winning the allegiance of men by the witness of the truth.
But now, look at his actions! He bends down and humbly washes the feet of his
disciples, and insisting that he do this. Simon Peter objects, and Christ
replies that communion with him requires that he be allowed to wash their feet.
This action is surely of immense significance for our very image of God. When
God called Abraham to leave his country and do as he was bidden, God acts as, we
might say, the High and Mighty One who loves the one he has called. He
commands, and his chosen one obeys. God loves but as one who is very much the
Lord. He calls Moses to him and treats him as, we are told in Exodus, one
treats a friend. Still, He is the Lord God who commands. We notice a
progressive revelation of God’s love in the prophets, and God speaks of himself
as the husband of his people, ever forgiving and ever awaiting the fidelity of
his spouse. It is as if God is progressively descending to the level of his
people, coming down to them as he helps them to understand his love. But in
Christ he puts aside his glory, as St Paul writes, and becomes as men are, and
humbler still, even to death on a cross. He actually becomes man. The
extraordinary humility of God is being revealed. This is a very different image
of God from that of the Allah of Islam. Our Lord told his disciples that he who
sees me, sees the Father. The Father and I are one, he said. St Paul writes of
Jesus that he is the image of the unseen God. Well then, in our Gospel passage
today our Lord “got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a
towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to
wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him”
(John 13:1‑15). Let us remember that it is
the divine Son of the living God who is doing this, Yahweh God the Son. The God
who called Abraham out of his own land, the God who summoned Moses in the
Burning Bush and sent him to lead the children of Israel out of slavery, the God
who spoke on various occasions through his prophets, this same God — though not
the Father — bent down to wash his disciples’ feet. This is what God is like.
As the Lord and the Teacher he is humble and full of love.
Just as Jesus was, so is the Father, and both Father and Son do what they do by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ came to serve and he serves humbly. In this he reveals the Father. So the Father is the God who serves and saves humbly. The spirit of all this is the divine Spirit of God. So there we have it. That is what God is like, and our Lord tells us that we should act in like manner with one another and with all others. God washes our feet, and so we should do the same with others. By the grace of the Holy Spirit let us strive every day to be like the one only God who has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus Christ.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Let's see: do you feel slighted in any way because 'So— and-so' is more
friendly with certain persons whom he knew before or to whom he feels
more attracted by temperament, profession, or character ?
Nevertheless, among yourselves, carefully avoid even the appearance of
a particular friendship.
(The Way, no.366)
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Scripture: Isaiah 52:13- 53:12; Psalm
31; Hebrews 4:14-16.5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42
So Pilate went back
into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the
King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have
others told you about me?” Pilate
answered,
“I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you
over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not
belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my
attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the
Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him,
“Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I
was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to
him, “What is truth?” When he had said this, he again went out to the
Jews and said to them, “I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom
that I release one prisoner to you at Passover. Do you want me to
release to you the King of the Jews?” They cried out again, “Not this
one but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a revolutionary. Then Pilate took
Jesus and had him scourged. And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns
and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak, and they
came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they struck him
repeatedly. Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am
bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in
him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple
cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests
and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no
guilt in him.” The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that
law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” (John 18:1-19:42, part thereof)
The sovereign
Christ
St Thomas Aquinas writes that the Passion and Death of Christ offers lessons for
all aspects of the Christian life, and indeed for any life.
On
Palm Sunday and on Good Friday, the Church publicly reads the entire account of
the Passion of Christ, but those two days ought not be the only occasions we
read this account. A very good practice would be over the course of Lent each
year, which is to say between Ash Wednesday and, perhaps, Palm Sunday, to read
slowly and prayerfully each of the four Gospel accounts of the Passion and Death
of Christ. The account that is read publicly on Good Friday is that of St
John. Let us notice immediately how, with such a terrible series of sufferings
enveloping him, Jesus appears to be free and sovereign. Consider the way he
speaks to Pilate, the representative of the vast Roman Empire and the one who,
in his own words, has the power to spare his life or to put an end to it.
Christ is serene, respectful but altogether sovereign. As we think of the
course of mankind’s turbulent history, we also think of the immense number of
human lives that have been simply lost. Vast numbers have died by the sword,
vast numbers in natural disasters or whatever. Waves of adverse circumstances
have rolled over untold numbers of persons and their lives have been simply
washed away, as if in some irresistible tidal wave that ebbs and flows taking
with it whatever is within its reach. But Christ did not simply lose his life
and succumb to circumstances and sufferings. He was sovereignly free at every
point, and we gain a sense of this in the account of the passion in Gospel of St
John. Christ offered his life. He did not lose it. He freely gave it. His
suffering and his death was a freely chosen gift of himself and it was made on
our behalf. As St Paul writes in one of his Letters, Christ loved me — me! —
and gave himself up for me — for me! Man refused to give himself in obedience to
God. Christ, on our behalf, freely gave himself in obedience to the will of the
Father and did so unto death. In his sufferings he was burdened with the sins
of us all and he embraced this freely.
What
this reveals is that suffering and death is not just a sad and helpless loss of
all that is precious. In Christ it can be a very great gain. The key to it is
not just suffering and dying, but doing so with Christ and, as St Paul puts it,
with his mind. Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, he writes.
Let us observe the principal reason for Christ being delivered up to his
Passion. It was because of who he claimed to be. He was handed over to Pilate
by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin as one who claimed to be the King of the
Jews. It was a title our Lord had never used because of its political
connotations, but its Scriptural expression was the Messiah. That, indeed,
Christ claimed to be. He was the Messiah, the King long foretold by the
prophets. The kingship of the Messiah is that given to him by God and to be
exercised in God’s kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven. It was a kingdom in this
world but not of it. That is exactly what our Lord sovereignly explains to the
uncomprehending Roman procurator. “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus
answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong
to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over
to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him,
“Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was
born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who
belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” The truth that our Lord came into the
world to reveal was above all the truth about himself, and the redemption to be
found by, and in union with him. That redemption was established precisely by
his bearing witness to this saving truth in the midst of sufferings. His
sufferings were heaped upon him because of his witness to the truth. The truth
he revealed was that he is the Messiah — the Christ — the Son of God and the
Redeemer of man. Pilate turned to his accusers and said, “Take him yourselves
and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered, “We have a law,
and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of
God” (John 18:1‑19:42). Christ has
transformed suffering and death from being a mere loss to being now a
life‑giving means of bearing witness to his truth.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The choicest morsel, if eaten by a pig, is turned (to put it bluntly),
into pigflesh!
Let us be angels, so as to dignify the ideas we assimilate.
Let us at least be men, so as to convert our food into strong and noble
muscles, or perhaps into a powerful brain capable of understanding and
adoring God.
But let us not be beasts, like so many, so very many!
(The Way, no.367)
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The Easter Vigil: The Resurrection of the Lord
Prayers
this week:
The Lord has
indeed risen, alleluia. Glory and kingship be his for ever and ever.
(Luke 24:34; cf. Revel.1:6)
God
our Father, by raising Christ your Son you conquered the power of death
and opened for us the way to eternal life. Let our celebration today
raise us up and renew our lives by the Spirit that is within us. We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Saint for Today: Click here to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are reading this reflection. Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow below to play the video:
Easter Vigil readings: Genesis 1:1-2:2 or 1:1, 26-31a; Psalm 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35; Genesis 22:1-18 or 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18; Psalm16:5, 8, 9-10, 11; Exodus 14:15—15:1; Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18; Isaiah 54:5-14; Psalm 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11-12, 13; Isaiah 55:1-11; Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6; Baruch 3:9-15, 32(4:4); Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 11; Ezechiel 36:16-17a, 18-28; When baptism is celebrated: Psalm 42:3, 5; 43:3, 4; When baptism is not celebrated: Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6;
Epistle: Rom 6:3-11; Responsorial Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Gospel Matthew 28:1-10
After the Sabbath,
as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other
Mary came to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an
angel of
the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and
sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was
white as snow. The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like
dead men. Then the angel said to the women in reply, “Do not be afraid!
I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he
has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the
dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’
Behold, I have told you.” Then they went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples. And
behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached,
embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not
be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will
see me.”
(Matthew 28:1-10)
Risen in
his body
It is quite natural to fear death. I remember reading years ago a great
Australian novel and at one point the main character of the novel was at the
bedside of a dying relative named John. Around his bedside were other members
of the family. As death approached, the main character stepped forward and said
to the dying person, “have no fear of death, John!” It was a dramatic
intervention in the novel and I have always remembered it.
It had an air of courage and decisiveness in the face of the unknown, but it was
quite unreal. By this I mean that there was absolutely nothing in what the main
character said to the dying person that provided a reason for being confident in
the face of approaching death. In the history of thought and of religion death
is shadowy and the afterlife is seen as profoundly uncertain, which, naturally
speaking it is. Indeed many have thought there is no afterlife at all. Into
this situation of obscurity has come Christ’s revelation of the immortality of
the human person, as well as God’s judgment followed by heaven or hell. Of
course many do not accept this revelation but so great has been this change in
thought and culture that very many just take for granted both that the deceased
live on in their spirit and that they are happy. The point here about this is
that this instinctive acceptance of the fact of the afterlife that the Christian
religion has brought, can lead us to disregard the marvel and the critical
importance of the bodily resurrection of our Lord. We can accept our Lord’s
bodily resurrection but largely just as a notion. We can slip into imagining
the risen Jesus much in the way that we might imagine any very good person who
is now with God in happiness. That is to say, while we might never say as much,
we could think of Jesus our Lord as alive in his spirit and simply that. We
could perhaps ask ourselves if there is much difference in the way we consider
and imagine our Lord and the way we imagine any great saint. We know there is
in fact a great difference. Our Lord rose from the dead in all his physical
reality, glorious and heavenly, but in all his physical and bodily reality
nevertheless.
The empty tomb of Easter morning helps us to appreciate this. We read that
“After the Sabbath, and towards dawn on the first day of the week, Mary of
Magdala and the other Mary went to visit the tomb”
(Matthew 28:1‑10). We are told in our text that “the angel spoke,
and he said to the women, ‘There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you
are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen as he
said he would’.” So he was risen from the dead in all his bodily reality. That
is how Jesus Christ now lives. He lives glorious as risen from the dead in his
body. We do not see him but others did see him after he had risen and they saw
him after having in no way expected it, and indeed after having disbelieved
those who did see him. In the accounts of the Resurrection in the other
Gospels, we have instances of this disbelief in the reaction of the apostles to
the testimony of the women. They thought it was nonsense. We also read in the
Gospel of St John that Peter ran to the tomb, at least to verify that it was now
empty, and John the beloved disciple ran with him. Easter Sunday, the day of
the discovery of the empty tomb, was also the day of meetings with the risen
Jesus. It marks the beginning of a wonderful new era in the infant Church and
in the history of the world. Christ was seen in the flesh, alive in all his
physical person. He was seen by his disciples, by the Apostles, and indeed, St
Paul tells us, by as many as five hundred persons on one occasion, many of whom
were still alive when St Paul was writing. He became their love and their hope
and their life. It is the same risen Jesus who abides now in his body the
Church which he founded on the rock of Peter, and he will be with his Church
till the end when he comes again in glory. This risen Jesus speaks to us in his
word which is read, proclaimed and taught by the Church. He comes to us in the
Church’s sacraments and by his grace he nourishes our union with him day by day.
(E.J.Tyler)
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So you are bored? Naturally, if you keep your senses awake and your
soul asleep.
(The Way, no.368)
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Prayers
this week:
The Lord has
indeed risen, alleluia. Glory and kingship be his for ever and ever.
(Luke 24:34; cf. Revel.1:6)
God
our Father, by raising Christ your Son you conquered the power of death
and opened for us the way to eternal life. Let our celebration today
raise us up and renew our lives by the Spirit that is within us. We ask
this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the unity of the Holy
Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Saint
for Today: Click here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the
calendar day on which you are reading this reflection.
Use your
Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow below to play the video:
Scripture:
Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23; Col 3:1-4 or I Cor
5:6b-8; John 20:1-9
On the first day of
the week, Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning, while
it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran
and
went to
Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they
put him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the
tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and
arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths
there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went
into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had
covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a
separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had
arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed. For they did not
yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.
(John 20:1-9)
Jesus has risen!
Our
Gospel passage narrates the news of Christ’s empty tomb. Jerusalem is asleep
and it is very early on the Sunday morning, still dark. Jesus of Nazareth,
mighty in his works and in his teaching, had been put to death on the Friday two
days before. The chief priests had told Pilate that by their Law, Jesus had to
die for he had claimed to be the Son of God. Our Lord had repeatedly told his
disciples that it would come to this and such was the plan of God.
By this path he would fulfil his mission as the Messiah. On the third day he
would rise again and so enter his glory, and take with him all those who are
united to him. But his disciples who loved him so much did not yet understand
his words, nor the drift the Scriptures. And so with his final rejection and
terrible death they thought it had all come to a sudden end. The body of their
Lord and Teacher lay in the tomb awaiting its burial anointing and, once done,
there it would remain. Any thought of his resurrection, despite his repeated
telling them, was absent from their minds. We read that Mary of Magdala “saw
the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the
other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from
the tomb, and we don’t know where they put him” (John
20:1‑9). The assumption of all on seeing and learning of the empty
tomb was that “they” — presumably the authorities — had taken the body away
somewhere. Indeed, on their part the Jewish authorities — who knew that Christ
had claimed he would rise (Matthew 27:63) — had it circulated that the body had
been taken away by his disciples. So the body had gone, the body of their
precious and beloved Lord and Teacher. Simon and John set out running. Let us
imagine the love and anxiety filling their hearts as they ran. The love that
filled their hearts is a lesson for every disciple down the ages and is a lesson
to us. Jesus was their love, the love of their life, and we are invited to make
him the love of our lives too.
John the younger outstrips Simon in his run. They forget one another as they
run. Each is thinking only of Jesus, their beloved Jesus whose body had been
placed in the tomb. John is “the beloved disciple” of his Gospel, the one with
whom in some way our Lord had a special closeness and understanding. But in
some way too, Jesus expected and undoubtedly received greater love from Simon,
because when risen from the dead and breakfasting with his disciples on the
shore, he asked Simon if he loved him more, more, than the others. He expected
Simon to love him more, and we can assume that he did. So as they run, their
hearts are burning with love. At the entrance of the empty tomb Simon enters
first and observes the way the burial cloths are positioned. The arrangement of
the cloths, and in particular that “the cloth that had covered his head” was
“not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place,” was very
significant. Then John entered. Perhaps Simon who had seen the position of the
cloths first, pointed this feature out to John. We can imagine how they stood
there in wonder at what they saw. John, the author of the Gospel account, then
adds what dawned on him. He saw, and he believed. In some sense and perhaps
vaguely and confusedly, it dawned on him that the body had not been taken away
but that Christ had risen in accordance with the Scriptures. Undoubtedly their
dawning perception needed a great confirmation and that confirmation was soon to
come. Indeed it would come with resounding clarity that very day and that very
evening. They would soon see and speak with Christ risen and in the flesh
again, the very same Jesus in all his bodily and tangible reality, but now
glorious with the glory that was his as God. They deeply loved him and their
love was about to be rewarded with the marvellous experience of being with him
in a way that would never end. They would be with him and see him on various
occasions after he rose from the dead, but their union with him would never end
and would find its full consummation in heaven for ever.
(E.J.Tyler)
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The charity of Jesus Christ will often lead you to make concessions.
That is very noble. And the charity of Jesus Christ will often lead you
to stand your ground. That too is very noble.
(The Way, no.369)
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Monday in the Octave of Easter A
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Scripture today: Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16:1-2a and 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11; Matthew 28:8-15
Mary Magdalene and
the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce the
news to
his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted
them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then
Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to
Galilee, and there they will see me.” While they were going, some of
the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had
happened. The chief priests assembled with the elders and took counsel;
then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, telling them, “You
are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we were
asleep.’ And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy
him and keep you out of trouble.” The soldiers took the money and did
as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews
to the present day. (Matthew 28:8-15)
One of the many
distinctive characteristics of the Christian religion is that it
originated in hard facts. The most significant fact is that Jesus rose
from the dead. I remember — and I have referred to it before — years
ago watching on television an interview with a then very prominent
Australian politician. He was asked if he regarded himself as a
Christian. He said that inasmuch
as being
a Christian depends on accepting that Christ rose from the dead, he
could not thus regard himself because he did not accept the
resurrection. He did not go on to indicate why he refused to accept it,
but undoubtedly he had his reasons because he was an intelligent and
very well-read man. He could see that the resurrection was pivotal in
the Christian claims. Islam refuses to accept Christ’s resurrection
because, of course, it refuses to accept that Christ was crucified and
died. He was not placed in the tomb in the first place, so the “empty
tomb” has no significance. But of course this position is utterly
gratuitous and has not the slightest basis in fact. It is untenable. It
is the plainest fact of history that Jesus suffered under Pontius
Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. The next plain fact is that
at the earliest opportunity to return to the tomb after his death and
burial late on the Friday afternoon, namely very early on the Sunday
morning after the great Feast (of Saturday) was over, his tomb was
discovered to be empty. Our Gospel account today (Matthew
28:8-15) reports that the guards were aware (not only of
our Lord’s very death of course, but) of the disappearance of the body.
It had vanished. The chief priests and elders also knew of it. The tomb
had been seen and the body had gone. No one was known to have removed
it, but the chief priests knowingly concocted or presumed that it had
been spirited away by his disciples. Again, a gratuitous assertion
without any basis in witnessed facts. The fact was that the body had
gone, and the next fact was that on that very day he was seen and
spoken to alive and in the flesh again. The hard fact is that there
were very many witnesses to the resurrection.
What this means in
terms of daily life is that the one who believes in Christ bases his
entire life on a great hard fact, namely the living risen Jesus. An
acceptance of the fact of the resurrection means a full acceptance of
the reality of the risen living Jesus. The same Jesus who walked the
paths of Palestine two millennia ago and who founded his Church on the
Apostles with Peter at their head, this same Jesus in all his personal
and bodily reality, is now alive but glorious and heavenly. He is
alive, and not only in heaven at the right hand of God his Father. He
abides within his body the Church and is ever so near to each of his
disciples. They live in him and share in his risen life by grace, a
share which will reach its eventual culmination in their own full
resurrection from the dead. What happened to Christ in rising from the
dead, the Christian will experience at the end. That is at the end, but
also right now day by day the Christian shares in the risen life of
Christ by grace and that wonderful gift enables him to follow Christ in
his obedience to the will of the Father. This entire prospect is based
on the hard fact that the historical Jesus is still alive and
intimately near to each of his disciples. He is no longer bound by the
very human condition into which he was born and within which he
fulfilled his mission, suffering and dying on the cross. No, he now
lives beyond that and in power, power proper to God, the God he is. But
the point here is that it is the same Jesus in his very body and not
just in his spirit. In his body he lives glorious and in his body he
gives us a continual share in the life of the Holy Spirit, grace upon
grace. Where is he? He abides in his body the Church. He speaks to us
in his Word which is read, taught, preached and explained by the
Church. He nourishes us with the gift of his grace especially through
the Church’s sacraments, beginning with Baptism and reaching their
culmination in the Eucharist. In all this we are speaking of the hard
fact of the living bodily Jesus now in glory and serving us his
brothers in the life of the Church.
Let us place
ourselves in the scene of today’s Gospel and together with the women
meet Jesus as they leave the empty tomb to go to the disciples. “And
behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached,
embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not
be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will
see me.” (Matthew 28:8-15) The
testimony of the disciples and the testimony of the entire Church down
the ages is to the greatest and hardest of facts, that Jesus, this same
Jesus, is alive and with us.
The fact
of the Resurrection
One of the many distinctive characteristics of the Christian religion is that it
originated in hard facts. The most significant fact is that Jesus rose from the
dead. I remember — and I have referred to it before — years ago watching on
television an interview with a then very prominent Australian politician.
He
was asked if he regarded himself as a Christian. He said that inasmuch as being
a Christian depends on accepting that Christ rose from the dead, he could not
thus regard himself because he did not accept the resurrection. He did not go
on to indicate why he refused to accept it, but undoubtedly he had his reasons
because he was an intelligent and very well‑read man. He could see that the
resurrection was pivotal in the Christian claims. Islam refuses to accept
Christ’s resurrection because it refuses to accept that Christ was crucified and
died. He was not placed in the tomb in the first place, so the “empty tomb” has
no significance. But of course this position is utterly gratuitous and has not
the slightest basis in fact. It is untenable. It is the plainest fact of
history that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was
buried. The next plain fact is that, at the earliest opportunity to return to
the tomb after his death and burial late on the Friday afternoon, namely very
early on the Sunday morning after the great Feast (of Saturday) was over, his
disciples discovered his tomb to be empty. Our Gospel account today (Matthew
28:8‑15) reports that the guards too were aware (not only of our
Lord’s very death of course, but) of the disappearance of the body. It had
vanished. The chief priests and elders also knew of it. The tomb had been seen
and the body had gone. No one was seen to have removed it, but the chief
priests knowingly concocted or presumed that it had been spirited away by his
disciples. Again, this was a gratuitous assertion without any basis in
witnessed facts. The first fact was that the body had gone. The next fact is
that various disciples were utterly certain that on that very day they had seen
and spoken to him, alive and in the flesh again. The hard fact is that there
were very many witnesses to the resurrection.
What this means in terms of daily life is that the one who believes in Christ
bases his entire life on a great hard fact, namely the living risen Jesus. An
acceptance of the fact of the resurrection means a full acceptance of the
reality of the risen living Jesus. The same Jesus who walked the paths of
Palestine two millennia ago and who founded his Church on the Apostles with
Peter at their head, this same Jesus in all his personal and bodily reality is
now alive, but glorious and heavenly. He is alive, and not only in heaven at
the right hand of God his Father. He abides within his body the Church and is
ever so near to each of his disciples. They live in him and share in his risen
life by grace, a share which will reach its eventual culmination in their own
full resurrection from the dead. What happened to Christ in rising from the
dead, the Christian will experience at the end. While this culmination will
happen at the end, the Christian right now, and day by day, shares in the risen
life of Christ by grace. This wonderful gift of grace enables him to follow
Christ in his obedience to the will of the Father. This entire prospect is
based on the hard fact that the historical Jesus is still alive and intimately
near to each of his disciples. He is no longer bound by the very human
condition into which he was born and within which he fulfilled his mission by
suffering and dying on the cross. No, he now lives beyond that and in power, a
power proper to God, the God he is. But the point here is that we are speaking
of the same Jesus in his very body, and not just in his spirit. In his body he
lives glorious and in his body he gives us a continual share in the life of the
Holy Spirit, grace upon grace. Where is he? He abides in his body the Church.
He speaks to us in his word which is read, taught, preached and explained by the
Church. He nourishes us with the gift of his grace, especially through the
Church’s sacraments, beginning with Baptism and reaching their summit in the
Eucharist. In all this we are speaking of the living bodily Jesus now in glory
and serving us his brothers in the life of the Church.
(E.J.Tyler)
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If you're not bad, and yet appear to be bad, then you are stupid. And
that stupidity — source of scandal — is worse than being bad.
(The Way, no.370)
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Tuesday of the Octave of Easter A
Saint for Today: Click here to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are reading this reflection. Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
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Scripture today: Acts 2:36-41; Psalm 33:4-5, 18-19, 20 and 22; John 20:11-18
Mary Magdalene
stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into
the tomb and saw two angels in
white
sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of
Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She
said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they
laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus
there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why
are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the
gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where
you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She
turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher.
Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended
to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my
Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’" Mary went and
announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported
what he had told her.
(John 20:11-18)
Master!
This
Gospel scene today is surely among the most beautiful scenes of the Gospel. All
is quiet and Mary Magdalene is lingering outside the tomb, weeping. The body of
Jesus has gone, presumably taken away. There she is, with, we might say, a
heart near to breaking. Jesus her Lord and Master had suffered and died a
terrible death, and had been buried in the tomb. All this was mystery enough
that such a thing had come to pass. But now his very body has gone.
She looked again into the tomb and saw two persons inside, seated where the body
of Jesus had been laid. They spoke to her, asking why she was weeping. They
have taken away my Lord, she said, and I don’t know where they have put him.
Her reply does not indicate astonishment on her part to see them there, perhaps
because she was overwhelmingly preoccupied with the thought of Christ’s missing
body. She could think of little else. She simply gave her answer. Her only
thought was, who had taken him, and to where? Suddenly she saw another nearby
who was perhaps the gardener, and she turned to him. He spoke, asking the same
question as had the two angels seated in the tomb. “Woman, why are you
weeping?” Then he added a further question, “Whom are you looking for?”
(John 20:11‑18) At various times in the
Gospels our Lord asks questions of a person when he knows exactly what they want
and need. He is drawing them out to present their petition. He wants us to ask
him for what we need, all the while knowing what we need before we ask him. At
the same time our Lord is very human and even playful. I am convinced that we
think too little of our Lord’s ready smile and laughter. I am sure that a smile
played frequently on his face and that in his holy fashion he smiled and often
laughed. We see traces of it in some of his sayings. On one occasion he warned
against noticing the splinter in the other person’s eye while not noticing the
beam of wood in one’s own. I am sure that sayings like this evoked peals of
laughter, with himself smiling as he said it. Well, I like to imagine a smile
and a twinkle in the eye of the risen Jesus as he asked Mary his two questions.
Those two questions Christ asked of Mary Magdalene could be said to be the
questions he asks of mankind down the ages. Why are you weeping? He wants us to
tell him of our sorrows. He wants us to direct our petitions to him. Come to
me all you who labour and are overburdened, he said once, and I will give you
rest. He is the one who takes us to the Father. He is the Way, the Truth and
the Life. Sin, the root cause of our sufferings and our plight, he has taken
upon himself. He the Son of God entered into solidarity with sinful man and by
his death he expiated for the sin of the world. Why are you weeping? he asks
us. But there is also the second question, which he directs to Mary and through
her to all of us his brothers down the ages: “Who are you looking for?” He
directs that all‑important question to our heart and he wants us to answer it
with our gaze on him, the risen Jesus, just as Mary answered it with her gaze on
the living Jesus. “Master!” she said. “Rabuni!” He, Jesus of Nazareth risen
from the dead, he who is the Lord and Master, he who is the Son of God made man
and Redeemer of the world, he it is whom we are seeking. Our hearts were made
for him. As St Paul writes, before the world was made, God chose us, chose us
in Christ to be holy and full of love in his sight. We were chosen in Christ.
The holiness and love that we are called to live is attained through the person
of Jesus. This holiness he brings about in us through his gift of the Holy
Spirit. This Gift too is obliquely alluded to in our Lord’s next words. He is
ascending to the Father, he tells Mary, and he directs her to go and tell this
to the brothers. It may imply that, having only just risen from the dead, he is
now about to go to the Father. He wants the Apostles to know this, and he may
be implying that he will soon return to bring them the divine Gift. It is the
gift of the Holy Spirit whom he will confer on his Apostles. That very evening
he appears to the Apostles in the upper room and breathes on them the Holy
Spirit, establishing them as the foundation of his Church and empowering them
for their mission and for their work of forgiving sins. It is an initial
instalment of what will be granted to the Church at Pentecost after his final
ascension the Father.
Let us place ourselves in spirit outside the empty tomb with Mary and gaze together with her on the smiling face of the risen Jesus. He is going to the Father. Together with the Father, he will send the Holy Spirit to abide with the Church forever. By the power of his Holy Spirit, he too will remain with his Church to the very end. He abides with us now. He is our source of hope and is the hope of the world. Let us address him from the heart as the Lord, and let us live every day accordingly.
(E.J.Tyler)
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When you see people of uncertain professional standing acting as leaders at public functions of a religious nature, don't you feel the urge to whisper in their ears: Please, would you mind being just a little less Catholic?
(The Way, no.371)
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Wednesday of the Octave of Easter Sunday A
Saint for Today: Click here to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are reading this reflection. Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow below to play the video:
Scripture today: Acts 3:1-10; Psalm
105:1-4, 6-9; 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.
(Luke 24:13-35)
Unseen
Jesus
When we think of the cultures of the world as they have unfolded over the
millennia of human history, we cannot help but think of the place in them of
religion. In general, man has been religious. Man has generally taken for
granted the reality of the invisible world, and the unseen powers with whom he
deals in his religion. But in this, our modern Western age is markedly
different — perhaps because of its striking scientific achievements.
We
moderns tend to be sceptical about the reality of the Unseen. For us the real
is what can be held in our hands and seen and in some way tested empirically.
You say it is real? Then let me see it! I remember watching a television debate
about forty years ago and a person in it said he would believe in the Devil
provided he could actually see him. Well now, this cultural and philosophical
assumption that only the empirical is real, very obviously and in the nature of
the case, profoundly affects modern man’s response to the Church’s witness to
Christ. Why? Plainly, the reason is that the Christ whom the Church proclaims
is not seen or touched or heard — that is, he is not now seen. He has gone from
sight. This means that now, perhaps more than in the past we must immerse
ourselves in the Gospel accounts of those who did see and hear Christ,
especially after he rose from the dead. He had suffered and died and so had
gone. His dead body was in the tomb. He could not be seen any longer alive in
the flesh — but then, lo! He was seen and touched and heard in the flesh again.
He was fully alive, more fully alive than ever before, with a life beyond the
reach of anything of the touch of death. The incident narrated in our Gospel
passage today is a case in point. The two disciples walking to Emmaus from
Jerusalem were downcast. Christ had gone. But unbeknown to them, the stranger
who now joined them was he. So profound was their preoccupation with his death
that they did not recognize him. In a quite different sense we may perhaps
liken it to the modern secular reluctance to recognize the Unseen. Our
characteristic supposition is that if something is not to be seen, that thing is
not to be recognized.
But as our Gospel account demonstrates, the mere fact of their not recognizing
him in no way meant that our Lord was not there in their presence
(Luke 24:13‑35). Indeed he accompanied them
along the entire journey without being recognized. He questioned them and drew
forth their attitudes and questions. Then he proceeded to instruct them and did
so at length, still without their recognizing him. The Church’s constant
witness down the ages is that the same thing in one way or anther continues to
happen for those who turn to the Good News of Jesus Christ. That is to say he
has gone from sight but he abides with us still in all his living and bodily
reality, risen from the dead and unseen. The question is, where, then, is he?
He is both in heaven at the right hand of his heavenly Father and he also abides
among men in his body the Church. The same Jesus, who at the end of many days
of appearances following his resurrection from the dead, then ascended to the
right hand of his heavenly Father, abides with us now. Before ascending to the
Father he charged his Apostles to go to the whole world and make disciples of
all the nations. I will be with you till the end of the world, he said. In
speaking to his disciples, he is speaking to his Church, the Church which he
founded on the Apostles with Peter at their head. In this sense Christ has made
for himself a locale. He has, so to speak, a House here on earth in which he
dwells and from which he continues to work, bringing his salvation to men. That
dwelling place is his Church. From and in that spiritual House he instructs his
faithful, just as he instructed the two on the way to Emmaus. He does so in and
through the Church’s proclamation of the Gospel. From and in his body the
Church he nourishes his faithful with divine grace through the Church’s
sacraments and ministry. Christ is the great Presence in the Church and the
Church’s whole raison d’être is to make him present to all. He,
unseen, abides in the Church his body.
Let us ponder on the failure by the two disciples to recognize the risen Jesus, who approached them and then accompanied them on their way to Emmaus. They were unable to recognize him, but he was there instructing and empowering them to believe. This same living Jesus is with us still and he abides in his body the Church founded on the Apostles and which bears constant witness to him. It is there that we can approach him and be nourished by him on our way to heaven. Let us then choose to walk with him and open our hearts to his grace. He, the unseen Saviour, will take us to heaven.
(E.J.Tyler)
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f you have an official position, you have also certain rights which
arise from the practice of that office, and certain duties.
You stray from your apostolic way if you use the opportunity — or the
excuse — offered by a work of zeal to leave the duties of your position
unfulfilled. For you will lose that professional prestige which is your
'bait' as a 'fisher of men.'
(The Way, no.372)
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Thursday in the Octave of Easter A
Saint for Today: Click here to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are reading this reflection. Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow below to play the video:
Scripture today: Acts 3:11-26; Psalm
8:2ab and 5-9; 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.” (Luke
24:35-48)
Risen in
the flesh
If something extraordinary happens which is witnessed by some, the way others
will learn about it is by the witnesses passing on the news of it to them. To
possess a settled knowledge of it one must then accept the witness to it that
they give. Of course, the witness has to be trustworthy, but the mere fact of
its being extraordinary and beyond normal experience is no reason in itself for
simply refusing to accept it — provided the witnesses are truly trustworthy.
This is not the place to discuss the trustworthiness of the witnesses to
Christ’s resurrection.
I would simply observe that many who refuse to accept the reality of the bodily
resurrection of Christ do so primarily because they choose to regard it as being
too far beyond the ordinary to be admissible. Their refusal is similar to that
of many of our Lord’s disciples who rejected his doctrine of the Eucharist which
he preached in the synagogue of Capharnaum (John 6). They refused to accept it
and no longer went with Jesus. What he said was too much. They did not bear in
mind who it was who had announced it. They did not accept his authority. By
contrast, when Christ turned to his Apostles and asked if they too were going to
go, Simon Peter answered, “To whom would we go? You have the words of eternal
life, and we believe!” Christ was utterly trustworthy and so whatever be the
apparent impossibility of what he was saying, they believed — as does every
Christian. The Christian accepts the testimony of the Gospels and of the Church
as to Christ’s resurrection from the dead, as being entirely trustworthy.
Modern man ought beware of being disposed to refuse credence simply because of
its apparent impossibility. With man, such may be impossible, but with God all
things are possible, and Christ is God become man. So then, let us approach the
Gospel accounts of our Lord’s resurrection with mind and heart open to a fresh
conviction of the fact that he has risen in his body from the dead.
The facts as reported in the Gospel are simple and wonderful. On the very day
Christ’s tomb was discovered to be empty he stood in the midst of his
disciples. They were discussing the news of his encounter with the two
disciples on the way to Emmaus earlier in the day. There he was in their midst!
There he stood, perhaps smiling on them! He was very, very physical. Then he
spoke. “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. (Luke 24:35‑48). They saw him, they
heard him, they touched him and indeed felt his wounds. He showed them his
hands and his feet with their marks from the nails. This happened not just with
one person, but with a whole group who in no way expected what they were now
seeing and experiencing. Jesus was no less tangible and concrete now than what
he was before his Passion and Death. Now, however, he was in the glory proper
to his divinity while being still the man he had become at his Incarnation. He
had risen in the flesh and was being seen in the flesh. They spoke to him and
they even saw him eat some fish before their eyes. He took it, chewed it and
swallowed it before them in order to show them that he had truly risen from the
dead and was not merely the ghost of the Jesus whom they had known, in much the
way a ghost may appear. A thousand years before, Saul had gone to the witch and
she had called up Samuel from the dead. Samuel spoke to Saul as a ghost. It
was the spirit of Samuel that told him he would be defeated and would die.
Christ came back from the dead to prove to his disciples that he was alive in
his body — and he had good news to tell. It was that the redemption of man had
been effected and they were to bring this redemption to the world.
The redemption of man from sin and his subsequent sanctification come from entering into union with this same Jesus who suffered, died and rose again and then ascended into heaven to the right hand of God his Father. He abides here on earth still and does so in his body the Church, of which he is the head. We become united to him by our faith and baptism. This redeeming and sanctifying union with him is deepened during the years of life by our fidelity to him in daily life, by accepting his word and partaking of his sacraments as they come to us in the life of the Church. Let us then take our stand with Jesus, God and man, risen from the dead and now in glory.
(E.J.Tyler)
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I like your apostolic motto: 'To work without rest.'
(The Way, no.373)
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Friday in the Octave of Easter A
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Scripture today: Acts 4:1-12; Psalm
118:1-2 and 4, 22-24, 25-27a; John 21:1-14
Jesus revealed
himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberias. He revealed
himself in this way. Together were Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus,
Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee’s sons, and two others of his
disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to
him, “We also will come with you.” So they
went out
and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. When it was
already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore; but the disciples did
not realize that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, have you
caught anything to eat?” They answered him, “No.” So he said to them,
“Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find
something.” So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of
the number of fish. So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It
is the Lord.” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in
his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea. The
other disciples came in the boat, for they were not far from shore,
only about a hundred yards, dragging the net with the fish. When they
climbed out on shore, they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and
bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.” So
Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred
fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not
torn. Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.” And none of the
disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they realized it was
the Lord. Jesus came over and took the bread and gave it to them, and
in like manner the fish. This was now the third time Jesus was revealed
to his disciples after being raised from the dead.
(John 21:1-14)
All so
real
During what the Church calls the season of Easter, or Eastertide, we have the
opportunity to appreciate in an ever new way the reality of the resurrection of
Jesus from the dead. It is a time when we read with fresh attention the Gospel
accounts of Christ’s bodily appearances to his disciples and perhaps the most
vivid accounts are those presented in the Gospel of St John. In our Gospel
passage today it is all so simple and real. St John gives plenty of detail,
beginning by stating that this appearance occurred at the Sea of Tiberias.
At the end of the passage he tells us that it was the third appearance of Jesus
after being raised from the dead. Perhaps St John means that it is the third
appearance of Jesus to several of his Apostles as a group, and included among
them are Peter, James and John the future “pillars” of the infant Church. We
are in chapter 21 of the Gospel, a chapter that is very largely about Christ and
Simon Peter, with John himself getting a notable mention. Putting it another
way, the chapter looks to the coming Church and shows Christ laying its
foundations. Christ is there on the shore and it is dawn. It is all so simple
and, let us emphasise, so very real. There is nothing ethereal about it. It is
a lovely morning by the Sea of Galilee, a dawning day by the shore. The weary
fishermen are in the boat with nothing to show for all their night’s work. All
is still and quiet, and the slight sound of the water and the movement of the
boat is all that breaks the silence. There may have been the sound of a gull.
The figure on the shore is seen and his voice is heard. Have you caught
anything? No, nothing at all. Throw the net to the other side and you’ll catch
something. And so it was, and what a catch! John immediately recognized who it
was on the shore. Perhaps he remembered that similar occasion of the catch of
fish in Simon’s boat. It occurred at the beginning of our Lord’s ministry when
he, James and Simon were called by our Lord to follow him. In this appearance
there is a strong sense of simple, concrete reality to everything.
(John 21:1‑14)
They hurriedly arrive at the shore and Simon is there with Jesus, having gone
ahead of the others in the water on foot. Jesus has prepared breakfast which he
invites them to have. Again, it is simple, real, so very much part of ordinary
life. Christ is back with them in the flesh and joining them in the things that
make up everyday life. They hear his voice, they sit with him, they are served
by him, they engage in conversation with him and they watch him eat with them.
They sense his special love for them. He has returned from the dead and here he
is before them, showing them his friendship and his special consideration. They
are his friends, his disciples and the ones who will share in his mission as the
risen Messiah and Redeemer. So then, not only do we sense the very reality of
the resurrection, but we sense the love Christ has for them and their special
bond with him. Jesus is now in glory but he is still among them as their
brother — Lord and Master, yes, but as their brother nevertheless. Now, what he
is doing for them here he does for every one of his disciples down the ages in
unseen fashion. That is to say, he is continually with each of us, caring for
us, remaining with us in all our difficulties and in all our joys. He is on the
shore with us, as it were, and serving us breakfast, so to speak. Let us shift
our gaze to Simon. Firstly, it is evident from the start that, despite Simon’s
failure during Christ’s passion, he loves Christ deeply. As soon as John told
him that the figure on the shore was “the Lord” Simon jumped into the water and
went ahead of the others to meet Jesus. He loved Jesus more than the others —
and the hint is that he loved Christ even more than the “beloved disciple.”
Moreover, as the rest of the chapter not here included shows, Christ expected
him to love him more than the others. That love of Simon for Christ is an
example to us all. We are called to love Jesus because he has loved us and has
given himself up for us. Like Simon we are called to love Christ passionately
and to be part of his mission of bringing him to others.
Let us place ourselves on the shore with the risen Jesus as he prepares a simple breakfast. Let us gaze on him, the Son of God made man and risen from the dead. By his death and resurrection he has redeemed mankind from the power of sin and wishes to offer all a share in his own risen life. This share will come from entering into union with him by faith and by baptism into him and his Church. This Church is founded on Peter and the Apostles gathered with him on the shore of the Lake. The Holy Spirit will soon be sent to bring it to birth. Let us make Christ our love and our life.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Why that rushing around? Don't tell me that it is activity: it is
thoughtlessness.
(The Way, no.374)
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Saturday in the Octave of Easter A
Saint for Today: Click here to find information about the Saint(s) of the calendar day on which you are reading this reflection. Use your Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
Click on centre arrow below to play the video:
Scripture today:
Acts 4:13-21; Psalm 118:1 and 14-21; Mark 16:9-15
Jesus
rose early on the first day of the week. He appeared first to Mary
Magdalen out of whom he had cast seven devils. She went and told his
disciples who were mourning and weeping. Hearing that he was alive and
had been seen by her, they did not believe. After that he appeared in
another way to two of them walking on their way into the country. They
went back and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them
either. Later he appeared to the eleven as they were at table, and he
upbraided them with their incredulity and hardness of heart, because
they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen again.
He said to them: “Go into the whole world, and preach the gospel to
every creature.” (Mark 16:9-15)
Realize
it!
There is one aspect of the series of events following our Lord’s appearances
after rising from the dead that stands out in St Mark’s account. It is the
incredulity of our Lord’s disciples at the news of his resurrection. St Mark
tells us that our Lord first appeared to Mary Magdalen (which harmonizes with St
John’s account) and that she went and told the disciples who were still
overwhelmed in their despondency. But they did not believe her.
Nor did they believe, according to Mark, when the two who met Jesus on the “way
into the country” returned to tell them the good news. Their subsequent
conviction about the resurrection was certainly not the product of hopes and
expectations born of optimistic dreams. It was due to the fact of it being
unavoidable, despite their prior incredulity. Christ appeared to them in all
his concrete reality and proceeded to reprimand them for “their incredulity and
hardness of heart.” That is to say, their incredulity in the face of several
reliable witnesses was culpable and due to a faulty disposition of heart. In
writing this account and in stressing both their reluctance to believe in the
face of reliable testimony and our Lord’s condemnation of their attitude, St
Mark is surely drawing a profoundly important lesson for his readers down the
ages. On the one hand, he is saying that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from
the dead is a most certain fact authenticated by numerous reliable witnesses.
On the other, he is also warning against a sinful hardness of heart. Moreover,
he is implying that this most certain fact is of great significance for
mankind. Christ did not just rise to life from the dead in the sense in which
he had raised some people from the dead during his public ministry, to give them
a few more years still. No, he had risen from the dead in his body to glory,
and in doing so had opened up for mankind the same doorway to glory. He is “the
Way.” Just as he had risen to a new life beyond the limitations of this life, so
too he gives us a share in the same life. He is “the Life.” Our share in his
life begins with our baptism and grows with our friendship with Christ. It
reaches its fulfilment in the life hereafter. That good news, that Truth which
he himself is, our Lord tells his disciples to bring to the whole world.
All this is to say that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not just an
interesting and even arresting proposition. It is not just a singular event in
the story of mankind, yet another miracle. It is a new beginning for the human
race. Christ is the new Adam, we might say. The first Adam disobeyed God and
brought death to himself and his posterity. It was a terrible legacy to hand on
to his children. He squandered all his great wealth and worse than this, he
used his precious power of choice to disadvantage profoundly and positively his
descendants. All were left crippled and morally impoverished. But a new Adam
arrived and the situation was wonderfully changed. He transformed the death he
had inherited from the first Adam into the great means of unending life. His
resurrection from the dead was the grand beginning of this changed situation.
During the movie “The Passion of the Christ” produced by Mel Gibson, Christ is
shown speaking to his holy mother as he carries his cross to Calvary. He tells
her that he is now in the process of making all things new. It is a new
beginning for mankind. To die in Christ is now the means of living in Christ
forever. The new beginning for all is made concrete and embodied in his risen
person. He is the bearer of this new and divine life intended for all mankind,
and the Church, represented by and founded on the Apostles, has the charge of
bringing the good news and gift of Christ to the nations. He said to them: “Go
into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature”
(Mark 16: 9‑15). The Church brings him to
the nations, and in bringing him to the nations it brings every heavenly
blessing. The Church has one great treasure to offer the world and it is the
person of Jesus, the risen Jesus, the Jesus who appeared to the women and to the
Apostles as narrated in our Gospel passage today. Christ is our life. Union
with him is the all‑important thing. He is the pearl of great price, the
treasure in the field we must sell all in order to gain.
Every Christian ought ask God for the grace to realize the fact of the resurrection. In the case of many I suspect that their belief in the resurrection is largely notional — the resurrection is not realized as something objective. Their attitude to it is the attitude they have to a mere story rather than to a fact that touches us all. The living Jesus to whom the Christian prays is real and alive in the flesh, the same Jesus who suffered and died and rose again. Let us gain this realization so as to be able to introduce others to it and so find life in his name.
(E.J.Tyler)
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Dissipation. — You slake your senses and faculties in whatever pool you
meet on the way. And you can feel the results: unsettled purpose,
scattered attention, deadened will and quickened concupiscence.
Subject yourself once again to a serious plan that will make you lead a
Christian life: or you'll never do anything worth while.
(The Way, no.375)
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Second Sunday of Easter A (Divine Mercy Sunday)
Prayers this week:
Like newborn children you should
thirst for milk, on which your spirit can grow to strength, alleluia.
(1 Peter 2:2)
God of
mercy, you wash away our sins in water, you give us new birth in the Spirit, and
redeem us in the blood of Christ. As we celebrate Christ's resurrection increase
our awareness of these blessings, and renew your gift of life within us. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Saint for Today: Click here
to find information about the Saint(s) of the
calendar day on which you are reading this reflection.
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Internet browser's "back" arrow twice to return to this reflection.
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Scripture today: Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John
20:19-31
Now in the evening of that same day, the first of the week, the doors were
closed where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews. Jesus
came and stood in their midst and said to them: Peace be to you. When he had
said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were
filled with
joy when they saw the Lord. He said to them again: Peace be to you. As the
Father sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and
said Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven them;
whose sins you retain, they are retained. Now Thomas, one of the twelve (called Didymus) was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples said to him: We
have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Unless I see in his hands the print of
the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into
his side, I will not believe. After eight days again his disciples were within,
and Thomas with them. The doors were closed and Jesus came and stood in their
midst. He said: Peace be to you. Then he said to Thomas: Put in your finger
here, and see my hands; and bring your hand here, and put it into my side. Be
not unbelieving, but believe. Thomas answered, My Lord, and my God. Jesus said
to him: Because you have seen me, Thomas, you believe: blessed are those who
have not seen, and yet believe. Many other signs did Jesus do in the sight of
his disciples which are not written in this book. These are written that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing this, you
may have life in his name.
(John 20:19-31)
Jesus
Christ is Lord
From the first proclamation by the infant Church that Jesus Christ is the
Saviour of the world, there has been a tension between the Church and other
religions precisely because of this proclamation. Following the cure of the
lame man and then Peter’s address, both Peter and John were brought before the
Sanhedrin.
The essence of their testimony to Christ before this highest council of the land
was that “For all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by
which we can be saved” (Acts 4:12). It is a very hard saying for other ears,
and it led to centuries of clash with the Roman Empire itself. The Empire
allowed the worship of many gods and insisted on the allowance of its own. At
times even the Emperor had to be allowed as a god. For a religion to claim that
there was only one God, and that a crucified and risen man was that living God,
was perceived as profoundly subversive of the religious foundations of the
Empire, and therefore of the Empire itself. Moreover, the Christian religion
would not stay quiet and allow other religions to live out of earshot. It was
missionary, and driving its missionary life was the conviction that the
salvation of all others depended on their hearing and accepting that Jesus is
Messiah and Lord, and then living accordingly. He is literally the one and only
Lord God, and salvation lies in him alone. These were unparalleled claims but
they came directly from Jesus himself and he accepted the full assent to them by
his own disciples. He himself taught that the one who believes this will be
saved, and that knowingly to refuse assent brings damnation. From this has
flowed the constant testimony to Christ by the Church amid the resulting tides
of persecution that have enveloped her. Our Gospel today recounts the
appearance of the risen Jesus to the Apostles gathered as a body, and this time
the doubting Thomas was with them. He saw and heard and touched the risen Jesus
in the flesh. There was no doubting now. Jesus is Lord. He is Yahweh God, God
the Son who became man to save mankind, and together with Thomas and the
Apostles this is the Church’s testimony. Hence the Church continually prays and
works that all may be saved by coming to recognize Jesus Christ as their Lord.
Our Lord had revealed his divine sovereignty by his power over nature, over
demons, over sin, over death and above all by his own resurrection. All this,
including his resurrection, Thomas saw and now he believed. In our Gospel, our
Lord tells Thomas he believes because he has seen, and that blessed are those
who have not seen and yet believe. Blessed are those who accept the Church’s
testimony and teaching about Jesus. The Christian creeds proclaim that the
power, the honour and the glory that are due to God the almighty Father also
belong to Jesus. He has been given the name which is above every other name.
He is the Lord of all things and of history and the only One to whom we must
completely submit our personal freedom. The Father and I are one, he said. He
who sees me sees the Father, he said. So who is God? The one and only God is
Jesus, just as he is the Father, and just as he is the Holy Spirit. Does the
world have a Saviour? Yes, and that Saviour is Jesus, he and only he. No one
can come to the Father except through me, he said. In the man Jesus who once
walked the earth and is now risen from the dead, is to be found the fullness of
the godhead bodily. All of this was contained implicitly in the wonderful
profession of faith of Thomas who bowed before the risen Jesus. There is a
further and most important point about the God who is Jesus. He is the
Sovereign of all things and of all history, but he put aside his pure glory and
assumed our nature, and lowered himself even more, even to death on a cross. He
loved me, each of us can say, and gave himself up for me. He took on to himself
the burden of man’s sins and expiated for them all. He is revealed in Jesus to
be all merciful and compassionate. We can then turn to him with confidence in
his mercy, knowing that if we but repent and ask him for pardon, we will receive
his loving embrace. The infinite God become man in Jesus, is a God boundlessly
rich in mercy and compassion. In showing him his wounds, this is what the risen
Jesus reveals to Thomas in our Gospel today (John
20:19‑31). With good reason the Church celebrates this Sunday as
Mercy Sunday.
Let us ask for the grace to understand something of the height and the depth, the length and the breadth of the mystery of the living Jesus, our brother and our sovereign Lord, our Saviour and our God. He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings and to him belongs all authority and power in heaven and on earth. In him is to be found the mercy of God and his surpassing compassion. Where is he? He abides in the Church he founded on the Apostles who were gathered before him in the upper room of our Gospel today. Let us give our lives over to him.
(E.J.Tyler)
Further reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church,
nos.446-451 (Jesus is Lord)
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'There's no denying the influence of environment', you've told me. And I have to
answer: Quite. That is why you have to be formed in such a way that you can
carry your own environment about with you in a natural manner, and so give your
own 'tone' to the society in which you live.
And then, if you have acquired this spirit, I am sure you will tell me with the
amazement of the disciples as they contemplated the first fruits of the miracles
being worked by their hands in Christ's name: 'There's no denying our influence
on environment!'
(The Way, no.376)
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(March 17) St
Patrick, Bishop, Apostle of Ireland (373-464)
If the
virtue of children reflects honour on their parents, much more justly
is the name of Saint Patrick rendered illustrious by the innumerable
lights of sanctity which shone in the Church of Ireland during
many
ages, and by the colonies of Saints with which it peopled many foreign
countries. The Apostle of Ireland was born in Scotland towards the
close of the fourth century, in a village which seems to be the
present-day Scotch town of Kilpatrick, between Dumbarton and Glasgow.
He calls himself both a Briton and a Roman, that is, of mixed
extraction, and says his father was of a good family named Calphurnius.
Some writers call his mother Conchessa, and say she was the niece of
Saint Martin of Tours. In his sixteenth year he was carried into
captivity in Ireland by barbarians. There he was obliged to shepherd
cattle on the mountains and in the forests, in hunger and nakedness,
amid snow, rain, and ice. The young man had recourse to God with his
whole heart, in fervent prayer and fasting, and from that time faith
and the love of God acquired a constantly renewed strength in his
tender soul. After six months spent in slavery, Saint Patrick was
admonished by God in a dream to return to his own country, and was
informed that a ship was then ready to sail there. He went at once to
the seacoast, though at a great distance, and found the vessel, but he
could not obtain his passage — probably for want of money. Patrick was
returning to his hut, praying as he went, when the sailors, though
pagans, called him back and took him on board. Some years afterwards he
was again taken captive, but recovered his liberty after two months.
While he was at home with his parents, God manifested to him, by divers
visions, that He destined him for the great work of the conversion of
Ireland. His biographers say that after his second captivity he
travelled into Gaul and Italy, and saw Saint Martin, Saint Germanus of
Auxerre, and Pope Saint Celestine, and that he received his mission and
the apostolical benediction from this Pope, who died in 432. It is
certain that he spent many years in preparing himself for his sacred
calling. Great opposition was raised to his episcopal consecration and
mission, both by his own relatives and by the clergy. They made him
great offers in order to detain him among them, and endeavoured to
affright him by exaggerating the dangers to which he exposed himself
amid the enemies of the Romans and Britons, who did not know God. All
these temptations cast the Saint into great perplexity; but the Lord,
whose Will he consulted by earnest prayer, supported him and he
persevered in his resolution. He therefore left his family, sold his
birthright and dignity, and consecrated his soul to God, to serve
strangers and carry His name to the ends of the earth. In this
disposition he passed into Ireland, to preach the Gospel where the
worship of idols still generally reigned. He travelled over the island,
penetrating into the remotest corners, and such was the fruit of his
preaching and sufferings that he baptized an infinite number of
persons. Everywhere he ordained clergymen, induced women to live in
holy widowhood and continence, consecrated virgins to Christ, and
founded monasteries, not without many persecutions. Saint Patrick held
several councils to regulate the discipline of the Church he had
planted. Saint Bernard and the tradition of the country testify that he
fixed his metropolitan see at Armagh. He established other bishops, as
appears by the acts of a council and various other documents. He not
only converted the whole country by his preaching and wonderful
miracles, but also cultivated this vineyard with so fruitful a
benediction from heaven as to render Ireland a flourishing garden in
the Church of God, and a land of Saints. He converted and baptized the
kings of Dublin and Munster and the seven sons of the king of
Connaught, with the majority of their subjects, and before his death
almost the whole island. He founded three monasteries and filled the
countryside with churches and schools of piety and learning. He died
and was buried at Down in Ulster. His body was found there in a church
of his name in 1185, and moved to another part of the same
church. (Magnificat.ca)
click on centre arrow for video
Scripture today
(for St Patrick): Jeremiah 1: 4-9; Psalm 116; Acts 13: 46-49; Luke 10: 1-12.17-20
After this the Lord
appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to
every town
and place
where he was about to go. He told them, The harvest is plentiful, but
the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send
out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs
among wolves. Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet
anyone on the road. When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this
house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if
not, it will return to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them,
'The kingdom of God is near you.' I have given you authority to trample
on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy;
nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit
to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
(Luke 10: 1-12.17-20)
The mission
Many decades ago a great and saintly pope, Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli) wrote
that an essential element of the Christian life is a sense of mission. A
Christian life fails if it is not engaged in bearing witness before others to
Christ and his revelation. With that said, let us take our Gospel scene today
and consider its implications. Our Lord was not like some distinguished
philosopher who, because of his fame finds students and disciples gathering
around him to learn from his wisdom and, if they so wish, to disseminate his
teaching to others.
No, Christ actively seeks out disciples and invites many to join him in the
prosecution of his mission to the House of Israel and then to the world. There
is a harvest to be worked, and a lot of labourers are needed. “He told them,
The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out
like lambs among wolves.” If we consider the prophets of the Old Testament, such
as Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezechiel and the minor prophets such as
Joel or Hosea, while they gathered some disciples, none of them sent their
disciples out on a nation‑wide mission, let alone on a world‑wide mission. This
great missionary thrust is one of the many distinguishing features of the life
and work of Jesus Christ. He appeared on the scene of mankind with a great
mission, which was to establish God’s Lordship in the hearts of men. It meant
founding and increasing a Kingdom. That Lordship, that Kingdom of God was
embodied in his own person, and the announcement of the presence of the Kingdom
was the announcement of the presence of Jesus himself. Entering that Kingdom
meant being truly his disciple and on his terms, accepting his teaching.
Salvation comes from union with him because God and his Lordship are found in
him. Were we there and part of his company as his disciples, an essential part
of our life in him and with him would be to do all we could, under his guidance,
to bring his person and his revelation to others.
The next thing we notice is that Jesus sends his disciples on mission with very
little to help them. There is no sword to wield, no wallet of gold coins to
hold, no horse or camel to ride. That is to say, what Christ offers the average
disciple to assist him in his daily mission is his very calling to be his
disciple. His very union with him is all that the disciple needs and is given.
He has what the providence of God has given him by way of natural gifts and
other endowments, but the special means Christ gives to be used in the work is
Christ’s own truth, the word about Christ, the word of authentic witness. “Do
not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road. When
you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there,
your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.” All this is to say
that any of Christ’s disciples can engage in the work of witnessing to Jesus in
his everyday life or in some apostolate of choice, however ordinary he may deem
himself to be. Every disciple of Christ is able, in one way or another, to
point to the person of Jesus and his word. He does this by personal example and
by taking whatever opportunities daily life presents, discreetly, prudently,
charitably and yet courageously, to introduce others to Jesus who is the
embodiment and the presence of the Kingdom of God. As St Paul writes, in Christ
is to be found every heavenly blessing. As our Lord said to his disciples on
one occasion, no one can come to the Father except through me. That is to say,
if any person at all attains access to the Father it has only been through, and
can only be through, Jesus Christ. The Christian proclamation is that salvation
is possible through one name only, that of Jesus Christ. An essential duty for
the Christian is to engage in this proclamation and it is done in his ordinary
everyday life. He shares in a great mission and does so in and under Christ who
is present in his body the Church, of which he is the Head.
(E.J.Tyler)
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How frankly you laughed when I advised you to put the years of your
youth under the protection of Saint Raphael: 'so that he'll lead you,
like young Tobias, to a holy marriage, with a girl who is good and
pretty and rich', I told you, jokingly.
And then, how thoughtful you became!... when I went on to advise you to
put yourself also under the patronage of that young apostle John; in
case God were to ask more of you.
(The Way, no.360)
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(March 31 ) Annunciation of
the Lord (2008 — Transferred to March 31 because of Octave of Easter) The
feast of the Annunciation goes back to the fourth or fifth century. Its central
focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had
decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become
human. Now,
as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces
all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love.
Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering
and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s
life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). Mary has an important role to play in
God’s plan. From all eternity God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and
closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say
that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of
Incarnation. As Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to
play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s
grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by
God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she
owes to the Trinity. She is the virgin-mother who fulfils Isaiah 7:14 in a way
that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out
the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38). Together with Jesus,
the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the
human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human
existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows
how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of
life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to
become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God.
She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us.
“Enriched from the first instant of her conception with the splendour of an
entirely unique holiness, the virgin of Nazareth is hailed by the heralding
angel, by divine command, as ‘full of grace’ (cf. Luke 1:28). To the heavenly
messenger she replies: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me
according to thy word’ (Luke 1:38). Thus the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting
to the word of God, became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself
wholeheartedly and impeded by no sin to God’s saving will, she devoted herself
totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son, under and
with him, serving the mystery of redemption, by the grace of Almighty God”
(Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 56).
(AmericanCatholic.org)
click on centre arrow for video
Scripture today: Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10; Psalm 40:7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 11; Luke 1:26-38
In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel
was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to
a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David.
The
virgin's name was Mary. The angel entered and said to her “Hail, full of grace,
the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women.” Mary was troubled at hearing
this said, and asked herself what this salutation might mean. The angel said to
her: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold you will
conceive and bear a son and will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will
be called the Son of the most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of
David his father; and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever. Of his
kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel: “How will this happen,
since I know not man?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the most High will overshadow you. Therefore the Holy One born
of you will be called the Son of God. And behold your kinswoman Elizabeth has
also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who is
called barren. For nothing is impossible with God.” Mary said: “Behold the
handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.” And the angel
departed from her. (Luke 1:26-38)
The announcement
The event described in this Gospel passage is celebrated by the Church as the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord. The coming of the Messiah is announced
by the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary and her consent to be mother of the
Messiah is requested. The angel is sent by God and he enters the presence of
the young woman, presumably early in her teens. She is a young girl, but
consider the respect with which he, this august emissary from God’ throne,
greets her. Hail, he says, you who are full of God’s grace and favour. The
Lord is with you!
(Luke 1:26‑38). There is unfeigned praise in the angel’s
simple and sober salutation. He gazes on this holy girl with love and respect
for the one so specially the object of God’s care and choice. Perhaps he is
smiling as he speaks, assuring her not to fear at hearing his momentous words.
She is, he says, filled with the favour and grace of God. Without any
qualification the Lord is with her. There is nothing in her heart and soul
which separates her from him, nothing which represents or is a cause of God’s
disfavour or displeasure. These words of pure praise come from heaven, and they
surely express the joy of God in one who has responded and will respond so
faithfully to his grace. If, through the angel, God thus addresses and
considers Mary, so should we. Hail Mary, we ought often pray. You who are full
of grace, the Lord is with you! In these simple words of the angel we are given
an inkling of the singular place in heaven occupied by the mother of the Messiah
and Son of God. How constantly, then, we ought pray to her and especially at
the hour of our death when we go before him who is our Judge! The words the
angel addressed to Mary are words we ourselves ought repeatedly address to her,
as we strive to imitate her divine Son. Not only do the angel’s words tell us
about her. Her own words in response tell us more. Once she understands what
God is asking, her obedient consent is total. In her obedience, she is our
model.
But of course the angel had come
not simply to render praise to Mary for her obedience and gifts of grace, but to
speak to her about the great One who is to come. The angel is announcing the
Gospel. He is announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ, and on God’s behalf is
doing so to the one who is to be mother of the Messiah. The Messiah is at this
very point about to come. He is about to be conceived in the virgin’s womb.
Such is the plan of the Most High and the angel has come to ask the virgin’s
consent. Does she accept? Does she accept what God has willed, with all that
this will entail in the years to come? The angel proceeds to give to the virgin
more information about him who is soon to be conceived. God has chosen his
name. She will call him Jesus. He will be “great,” great without any
qualification. He will be absolutely great, whatever might be the estimation of
men. God is great, and this One will be “great.” Indeed, he will be the “Son of
the Most High.” How great he is, then! He is the Messiah long promised and God
will give to him the throne of David. There is more still, for he will actually
rule as king forever. He will, then, be the King of kings and Lord of lords,
for of his kingdom there will be no end. Further, the Child will be “the Holy
One” — and we recall that in the Scriptures the Holy One of Israel is Yahweh
himself. It would seem to be an intimation that in this Child who is the Holy
One, God himself is coming to establish his eternal Kingdom. The revelation
then deepens. This “Holy One” is “the Son of the most High” and the “Son of
God.” There are, then, three divine persons, yet one God. There is the Most
High. There is also the Son of the Most High, and there is also the Holy Spirit
by whose power he will be born of the Virgin. The angel, then, is not only
revealing that Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God, but that the most high God
is three persons. He is the most High. He is the Son of the most High, and he
is the Holy Spirit. The angel is granting to the virgin Mary a revelation of
the mysteries of the Incarnation and of the Blessed Trinity. Mary is the first
to hear the Gospel and she totally believes. She is the model of faith and
obedience.
Let us keep before our gaze the figure of the virgin with her child. The one who is full of grace holds him who is the source of grace. The Lord God is with her, indeed he is being held in her arms. She is the first and greatest Christian, the servant par excellence of the Lord. She is his mother and he has given her to us to be our mother and model in the order of grace. She is the help of Christians. Let us pray to her repeatedly, asking her to pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
(E.J.Tyler)
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And how shall I acquire 'our formation', how
shall I keep 'our spirit'? — By being faithful to the specific norms your
Director gave you and explained to you, and made you love: be faithful to them
and you will be an apostle.
(The Way, no.377)
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