Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter
Acts 4:32-37  +  John 3:7-15
April 10, 2018

The community of believers was of one heart and mind….

One of the greatest tensions in the spiritual life is between individual concerns and communal needs.  Given our modern secular culture, we tend to the former.

We can be lulled into nurturing our spiritual life as something that’s “just between me and God” or a “me and Jesus relationship”.  A relationship with God certainly lies at the heart of the Christian life, but our lives are not given to us for our sakes alone.

Everything God graciously gives us, including our relationship with Him, is given to us for the sake of others. The graces that God pours into our lives are meant to overflow from our lives into the world through the Church.

The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Risen Jesus in the world today.  It is through the Church that we live our spiritual lives:  both in receiving the sacramental graces that build us up, and in giving these graces to others through our vocation.

The Christian’s vocation is the hinge between the individualistic and the communal:  each of us is called to be an individual for the sake of others.  We reflect on this aspect of the Mystical Body of Christ throughout the Easter Season as we prepare for the celebration of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit descends from Heaven to strengthen the Church, and each of us who are her members, to carry out the saving mission of the Church.

The Annunciation of the Lord
Isa 7:10-14;8:10  +  Heb 10:4-10  +  Lk 1:26-38
April 9, 2018

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.”

Nine months before the Church celebrates the Nativity of the Lord, she celebrates His conception within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We should not be distracted by the fact that this solemnity of the Annunciation falls each year during either Lent or Easter.  Rather, we ought to reflect on the relationship between today’s feast and the holy seasons of Lent and Easter.

How is the Lord Jesus’ conception related to His Death and Resurrection?  Are they no more than ends of a spectrum?  In fact, both are about new life.  They draw out, and celebrate, the unity of the person of Jesus Christ.  They celebrate the unity of His humanity and divinity in His divine Person.

Yet consider also a related parallel:  the relationship between the Annunciation and the Day of Pentecost.  Both the Annunciation and Pentecost are about new life.

Both the Annunciation and Pentecost are feasts which reflect on the act of accepting the Holy Spirit in humble submission to the will of God the Father.  Mary is the proto-type of the Church:  she is our mother and the Mother of the Church.  She, who after questioning says “Fiat”, accepts the Holy Spirit and bears the Body of Christ within her own body.  She is the model for us who will pray repeatedly throughout the Easter Season:  “Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest, and in our hearts take up thy rest.”

Divine Mercy Sunday [B]
Acts 4:32-35  +  1 Jn 5:1-6  +  Jn 20:19-31
April 8, 2018

“As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

As today’s Gospel passage begins, three things have taken place.  Both Peter and John have seen the empty tomb, John has believed in the Resurrection, and Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus had appeared, has told the apostles of His appearance.  Yet despite all this, “the disciples had locked the doors of the place where they were for fear of the Jews.”

Consider a very simple question:  why were the disciples afraid of the Jews?  Why weren’t they out on the streets, preaching boldly the Good News of the Resurrection, shouting “Alleluia!” to everyone they met?

The story of St. Thomas’ unbelief in today’s Gospel passage seems to condemn him.  But this passage in fact condemns all of the apostles:  either for not believing in the Resurrection, or for not proclaiming their belief in the Risen Jesus.

The Season of Easter—which began last Sunday and lasts for seven weeks—is a season which lets us reflect on the Resurrection.  At the same time, we need to ask ourselves what our lives should look like because we believe in the Risen Jesus.

A simple description of the Church in her infancy is given in the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles:  “The community of believers were of one heart and one mind”:  that is, they possessed the heart and mind of Christ.  “With power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great respect was paid to them all.”

A simple description of the life of the Christian is given in today’s Second Reading from the First Letter of Saint John:  “The love of God consists in this:  that we keep his commandments. … It is the Spirit who testifies to this and the Spirit is truth.”

The world has problems, and each of us who lives in the world has problems.  There is a lot in our lives to distract us, to tempt us to think that the sin and evil around us and within us is nothing of importance.  But the Holy Spirit whom we wait for during these fifty days of Easter leads us to face our own difficulties and the difficulties of the world squarely, looking them in the eye through the light of Christ.

When Christ appeared to the apostles, what did He say to convince them who He was?  Did He work a miracle?  No.  He showed them the wounds in His side, hands, and feet:  the battle scars from His fight with death.

Christ, the victor over death, shows us the evidence of His Divine Mercy.  He invites us to share in the strength of His Body and Blood, and invites us to share fully in the life of His Holy Spirit.  Yet these invitations serve a larger purpose.  God wills that each of us might courageously proclaim the Good News about the Risen Jesus.  But our proclamation must begin with our extending Jesus’ Divine Mercy to our debtors as willingly as we have accepted Divine Mercy for our own debts.

Saturday within the Octave of Easter
Acts 4:13-21  +  Mark 16:9-15
April 7, 2018

I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me.

Throughout the Blessed Virgin Mary’s life, humility marked her approach to her Lord.  Humility is not a virtue that one can ever spiritually outgrow.  Whatever graces God gives us, they are given for the unfolding of His plan, which often remains to us a mystery.  Even as we apply these graces in our lives, we must do so with humility, as day by day, another aspect of the mystery of our vocation is shown to us.

Even at the foot of the Cross, Mary prayed in humility.  It was with humility that she rejoiced at the sight of her Son risen from the dead.  Seeing Jesus on that first Easter Sunday, she would not have known exactly how He was preparing His disciples—through the power of the Holy Spirit—to form a Church.  Nor would she have known exactly how Jesus’ words to her from the Cross—“Woman, behold your son”—were about to flower with new meaning, when she became the Mother of the Church on the day of Pentecost.

If you do not already know it by heart, take the opportunity to learn the prayer Regina Caeli, the traditional Marian prayer of Easter:

V. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia. / R. For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.

V. Has risen, as he said, alleluia. / R. Pray for us to God, alleluia.

V. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. / R. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Friday within the Octave of Easter
Acts 4:1-12  +  John 21:1-14
April 6, 2018

He revealed Himself in this way.

What does St. John the Evangelist mean when he reports to us that the disciples “dared” not ask Jesus “Who are you?”  After all, the Beloved Disciple had told Peter that this was the Lord.  Today’s Gospel passage suggests some unresolved ambiguity.  While the miracle of catching 153 fish convinced the disciples who He was, there was still some reason for them to ask His identity.  His miracle convinced them, but His appearance did not.

So the Risen Jesus, in His glorified Body, was the same person, yet somehow different.  He had the same two natures—human and divine—yet He was somehow different.  The Resurrection narratives demonstrate some of the ways in which Jesus was different after His rising from the dead:  most famously—as we will hear this coming Sunday—the Risen Lord had a physical body that could pass through solid matter.

The point here is that in His Risen Body, Jesus looks different to His disciples.  He looks different enough to cause some confusion in their minds:  at least enough confusion for them to be tempted to “dare” ask Him “Who are you?”  For ourselves, regarding both our meditation and our speaking to the Lord in prayer, we should ask:  do we expect the Lord to appear to us in some certain way?  How might God want to surprise us in making Himself known to us, and in showing us His love?

Thursday within the Octave of Easter
Acts 3:11-26  +  Luke 24:35-48
April 5, 2018

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.

It is only in “the breaking of the bread” that the disciples come to know Jesus, and it is only in this that they become more than disciples.  Only in the Eucharist do we share in the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, and become members of Christ’s Body.  This is the goal of our lives as Christians:  not merely to learn about Jesus, but to enter into His life and saving mission.

On the day of the Resurrection, Jesus is preparing the apostles for the day of His Ascension.  After He leaves the earth, it will be up to them to act in His name.  First, they must preach penance for the remission of sins, and then suffer inevitably for standing up for what is true.

In all of this, the waves of impact from the news of the Resurrection continue to spread throughout the world that God created, bringing peace to His people on earth and glory to God in the highest.  Throughout history and throughout our own lives, it is our calling to continue to be faithful witness to the news of the Resurrection.  Yet only Christ’s Holy Spirit can sustain us in offering ourselves for such witness.  So for this calling we pray during the Easter season for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in abundance.

Wednesday within the Octave of Easter
Acts 3:1-10  +  Luke 24:13-35
April 4, 2018

But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.”

Easter Monday we heard the chief priests and the elders respond to the news of the Resurrection by covering their tracks with lies.  Yesterday, we heard Mary Magdalen respond to Our Risen Lord when He called her by her name.  She cried out, “Teacher!”  Yet we are called to recognize in Christ much more than simply a teacher.

Today we hear of more events which took place on the day of the Resurrection.  The word “disciple” means “one who learns”, and the two disciples of today’s Gospel passage are obviously devoted to learning.  Undoubtedly they asked themselves what all these amazing events could mean.

We are told that Jesus joins them in their journey, though the disciples, like Mary Magdalen, do not recognize who He is.  Jesus preaches to them the meaning of the Scriptures, which help them learn.  These Scriptures help them learn the meaning of what had happened over the previous few days.  But still, they do not recognize Jesus.

Only in “the breaking of the bread” do they come to know Jesus, and only in the Eucharist do we Christians become more than disciples.  Only by sharing in the Sacrifice of Christ’s Body and Blood can we begin to imitate Him in our lives as He wills.

Tuesday within the Octave of Easter
Acts 2:36-41  +  John 20:11-18
April 3, 2018

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.

On the day of Pentecost, Peter boldly proclaims to the Jewish people:  “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”  The response of these Jews is pretty easy to guess.  Acts tells us that “when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they asked Peter and the other Apostles, ‘What are we to do…?’”  You can almost imagine what they, in their fear, expect Peter to reply.

But Peter delivers to them Good News:  “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts then tells us that there were two groups in that crowd:  there were those who accepted this Good News—some 3,000 persons—and there were those who did not accept this Good News.

Here is the first lesson of the Church’s life and saving mission.  Unfortunately, it’s a difficult lesson to put into practice.  We need to choose to be in that first crowd, the crowd of 3,000.  We need to accept the Good News about the love that God wants to give us.  This is the love that Jesus, from the Cross and in the Holy Eucharist, is dying to give us.

Monday within the Octave of Easter
Acts 2:14,22-33  +  Matthew 28:8-15
April 2, 2018

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed….

During most of the liturgical year, the First Reading at Holy Mass comes from the Old Testament.  But Easter is different.  During Easter, we hear first from Acts of the Apostles.  Why is this?  There are plenty of apostolic letters that could be proclaimed:  Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 John, Jude, and so on.  These New Testament epistles preach about the Resurrection.  So why do we hear, each and every day of the Easter Season, from Acts of the Apostles?

The answer is that what the apostles were about throughout Acts is what God is calling us to throughout Easter.  In a phrase, this answer is:  forming the Church.  The Church was conceived, so to speak, from the water and blood that poured forth from the side of Jesus crucified.  But the Church was born some fifty days later, on the feast of Pentecost.  The story of Acts is the first history of the Church:  going forth, out into the world, to proclaim in word and action the saving mystery of Jesus, crucified and Risen.  This Church has lived on earth for some 2000 years, and each of us is called to share in her life and saving mission.