II Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

Acts 2:42-47
Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Pt 1:3-9
Jn 20:19-31

Today will go down in history as “the day of four popes.”  Two popes – one reigning and one emeritus – raising to the altar (canonizing) two other popes.  It is truly a great time to be Catholic; to be followers of Christ.  Some of you lived during the time of Pope (now Saint!) John XXIII and he is known by the faithful as “the Good Pope” for his pastoral and gentle heart – and I would probably also say his sense of humor.  One of my favorite quotes from him was when he was asked by a reporter how many people worked in the Vatican he said, “About half of them.”  He was a man of humility, only wanting his whole entire life to be “a simple country priest.” But the Holy Spirit had other plans and being led by Him, St John XXIII was the one that convened the Second Vatican Council and forever changed the course of the Catholic Church.

He did not seek this calling, but rather the Lord called him. Often being heavily burdened with his responsibilities and working long hours, he reportedly said, “Well Lord, it’s your Church. I’m tired and I’m going to bed.”  Isn’t that what our faith is all about?  To totally and fully give ourselves over to the will of God and work for Him; and letting Him handle the rest?  It does not matter if we are in the pew or in the sanctuary, every one of us are all called to holiness; we are all called to be saints – to follow and abandon ourselves to His Providence.

Nine years ago, before I even entered the seminary, I was chaperoning a retreat in Ft. Worth with my high school youth group.  This retreat was always held on the weekend following Easter – called Divine Mercy weekend.  I was college grad, with a steady job, and doing my young professional adult thing (whatever that was…).  We were having breakfast at our hotel and we watched the news reports on the deteriorating condition of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II.  Pilgrims from all over the world were filling St. Peter’s square in prayerful vigil.  It was an incredibly moving sight to see… thousands of people from all over the world at the Vatican, praying together, hoping that the Holy Father would pull through.  One of his last words, which I always remember and still moves me is: "I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you." Such holiness and humility even on his death bed; preaching and teaching us how to suffer and find joy and gratitude in God!

It was about three or four in the afternoon on Saturday in the middle of a retreat talk (I don’t even remember what the priest was saying), when he was interrupted by one of the staff saying that the Holy Father had just died. Immediately we all knew what to do!  We all got on our knees and started to pray – something incredible was happening….there was absolute silence, except for those who were quietly weeping, myself included.  Nearly a thousand people at this retreat. And we were in the best place we could be to receive this kind of bad news: right in front of the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament. I will never forget this memory. A sober look at this experience may think my reaction was a big strange.  How could someone I had only seen photos of or seen from a great distance move me to such grief and tears?? I don’t consider myself an incredibly emotional person, but yet I felt such emptiness at that moment.  I felt like my own father had just died!  I did not realize what an impact he had on my life at the time, but now I understand and very much attribute the life and witness of St. John Paul II to inspiring me to seek my vocation – the Call of God.  He helped me to open my heart to God’s will, he helped me to embrace holiness in suffering, and ultimately he was the one who told me… “Be not afraid!”

This canonization is fitting because we have just experienced the resurrection of Christ last week and now we see such an abundant fruit coming from an event that happened two thousand years ago.  When we study the history, we see many events in the Church.  But unlike the history of the United States or the history of the world or any other historical record, there is a unique and personal connection that we as Catholic Christians have – or at least we *should* have.  When we put the canonization today next to our Gospel reading, I cannot but feel intimately connected.  The story recounts the very beginning, the very “embryonic” infancy of the Church, OUR Faith!  This isn’t just another “story” that we are hearing, but this is our story!  This is our heritage!  These scriptures connect us in such a spiritual way that not even the stories of our great grandparents and ancestors can match this intimacy.  This Gospel is talking about the original disciples of Jesus Christ – the very Apostles! – handpicked by our Lord to carry out the mission of evangelization to the rest of the world.  I don’t know about you, but this gives me goosebumps: the unbroken past made immediately and experientially present in the events of today.

Within one week after our Lord had died and risen from the dead, our disciples are found hiding away, locked behind closed doors, and scared of the world and for their lives.  The Apostle Thomas, who wasn’t present at the first apparition, wanted physical proof of the resurrection by sticking his fingers in the wounds of the hands and feet of Christ.  Though he got the name “doubting Thomas”, let us not forget that he traveled the furthest in evangelizing the Gospel to India, and some even speculate as far as South America!!  This just shows how much one can be transformed by the faith – from doubt to the long distance runner for God!  After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit moved all of the apostles to really begin the evangelization and spreading the Gospel, as we hear in the first reading,

“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers…Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together….praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” 

And now look two thousand year later, the successor of the Apostle St. Peter, Pope Francis, reaching out and engaging the world with a message of God’s love.  The Gospel is being preached to all the continents and to all the corners of the world, being broadcasted through the wonders of modern technology; centuries influenced and inspired by what was been handed down and from the Apostles in an unbroken lineage.

Sometimes the Gospel message – the Divine Revelation that we have received from God – is difficult to really bring into our hearts.  In an age and a world that struggles with belief in the Good and inflicts such suffering on one another; where sin and the devil seem to be prevailing, the good Lord has given us this gift of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; and today, these holy saints St. John XXXIII and St. John Paul II to help us and inspire us to not lose hope and to not be afraid!  Yes it’s a great day to be Catholic and today is the day to rejoice in the Lord.  This is truly the springtime of our Faith!! Let us be invigorated and inspired by these new saints to pursue holiness in our lives and to grow in love with our rise Lord!

Easter Sunday, Cycle A

Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Col 3:1-4
Jn 20:1-9

In recent memory, I can’t say that we have not had a more beautiful Triduum! The weather has been just incredibly spectacular.  I think it’s one of the silver linings of having a late Easter in Texas – it really feels like Spring instead of doing all four seasons in one week.  The trees are green, the grass is green – at least for the next four weeks – and Spring is really in the air.  The neighbors are outside working on their lawn – finally raking those leaves that they left there since last Fall.  People are planting, gardening, and really just bringing new life into their landscape and gardens.  It’s just really beautiful.

In this spirit, I would like to reflect on a particular subject: the Garden of Eden – and it has, if you will excuse the pun – been quite fruitful for me.  When we reach Easter Sunday – the day of our Lord’s Resurrection – and we look back at the beginning of Creation to the Garden of Eden we see something quite fascinating.  We all know what happens in the Garden of Eve – it was paradise right?  Where it is all lush and green and creation was found to be just brimming with life; untainted. And there stood in the garden two trees: Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Of course we remember clearly what happens in this garden because it was also in this wonderful garden that mankind fell.  Out of pride and disobedience, our first parents colluded with the devil and ate the forbidden fruit.  In this little garden: this is where sin entered the world and our first parents were banished from paradise.

Let’s fast forward to the Last Supper, of this past Thursday.  You have to remember the details here because it is the second half of Mass.  However, what I want to focus on is what happens after the Last Supper… what does our Lord and His disciples do?  They go to the Mount of Olives and to another garden: the Garden of Gethsemane.   It was there that our Lord prayed His most intimate prayer to His Father that this “cup would pass from His lips”, yet He was resigned to the Father’s will, “Not my will but Thine be done.”  And finally it was there that He was betrayed by a kiss from Judas.  Again, we find the betrayal of our Lord, this heinous sin carried out in a garden.  You might see now where this is going.

The following day, our Lord suffers persecution; is scourged, shamed, and finally crucified, suffering a cruel and horrible death.  But here’s the interesting twist: the Gospel of John notes that at the place where He was crucified there was a garden (cf. Jn19:41) and in this garden there was a tomb, where He was put to rest only to rise on the third day…TODAY!

I believe that it is no coincidence that the setting of our salvation occurs in a garden because it was in a garden that sin entered the world.  God has a way of making things round out like that!!  But I believe that we can go even further in this meditation.  And the reason this theme has been on my mind was because the week before Ash Wednesday at the very beginning of Lent, Fr. Glen Sudano, CFR gave our three-day Parish Mission.  And he gave this analogy for ourselves: that we are a house with a courtyard in the middle of the house and in this courtyard is a garden.  We can dress up this house of ours and make it beautiful inside and out.  We can make it pleasing to the senses for ourselves and for other people to see, and it may seem all well and good.  But what really counts is this little garden that is growing in the middle of our house – at the very depths of our being.  This garden represents the state of our spiritual soul and reflects whether we have really cared for it, nurtured it, and fostered its growth.  This garden can be very beautiful or it can be neglected, with weeds, vines sprawling around uncontrolled, filled with rotten stinky fruit, and other undesirable things.

Isn’t it true that even today, we can put on our Sunday best, we can put on a smile and a happy face for our friends and family, and yet inside we find a rotten and derelict garden of our soul?!?  Sin enters through the garden, but it is also in the garden where our Lord saves us.  It was there that paradise was lost because of the sins of our first parents, but it is also there that we can be led to something even greater by the Cross of our Savior.  Now we not only have redemption, we have a relationship with our heavenly Father – which is greater and more important than anything else in our lives!  The early Church also latched on the theme of the garden too.  In an ancient homily it was preached:

The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I, [the Lord,] will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The…banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared…. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity. 

We are ultimately destined to go out from our earthly garden and into the heavenly banquet that the Lord has prepared for us.  He has not only restored and healed our gardens for us, but He calls us to something even greater.  We are called to share in a heavenly banquet with Him.  And what are we going to eat at this heavenly banquet?  [You can bet this is going to be a potluck] and the dish that you bring are the fruits cultivated from your garden in this life.  Take a look at the state of your garden and take the necessary steps to cultivate it.

All of our gardens require a certain tree – that is the Tree of Life.  Not the tree of life from the garden of Eden, but the Tree of Life that is the Cross of Jesus Christ!! Why is it the Tree of Life? From the wood of the Cross, from the side of Christ there flowed blood and water, the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.  Let us celebrate the fact that the Tree that represents sin and death is now the Tree that brings us new life in the Eucharist.  He was hung on a Tree for our sins and died for our sins, so that we may look upon this wondrous Cross and marvel in His love for us.  If you cannot look upon our crucified Lord and be moved from sorrow, to gratitude, and finally to joy… I’m sorry, your Christian conversion is incomplete and you will have trouble really celebrating the Resurrection.

In order to truly celebrate Easter, we must start at the Cross that is planted in our garden.  There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.  Easter – the Paschal Mystery – means to remember it all: not just His Resurrection, but also His Passion and Death.  I pray that you and your family have a very blessed Easter.  Today, I hope that you can take some time to examine your own garden – look deep within your soul to see where your garden needs work.  Easter is upon us.  Spring is here and our gardens are ripe for work and cultivation, let us strive to truly celebrate this Easter season in the Resurrected Christ!  Today is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad!! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!! 

Good Friday, Cycle A

Is 52:13-53:12
Ps 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25
Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9
Jn 18:1-19:42

When one struggles to make sense of the world in all its problems, we have only to look at the Cross to know that He’s suffered through it all.  He has suffered the full brunt of hatred and evils that one could ever experience: violated, shamed, abused, beaten, spat at, scourged, and crucified. The words of the prophet Isaiah rings true:

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured… he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins… Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter… he gives his life as an offering for sin… and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

When we come face to face with the Cross of Christ, we often ask the question of “why?”  Why did He go through all of this suffering for us?  Why did He endure three hours of excruciating pain with His hands and feet nailed to a piece of wood, exposed for all to see?  Why did He endure the scourging at the pillar, the beatings, the constant mockery, the heartless ridicule, and all the false accusations?

It seems so unnecessary and troublesome… why couldn’t He just forgive us, why did He have to go through all that?  Out of love for us… He did this.  But again, the question is why?  From the outside, the world sees us Catholics go through this almost barbaric ritual every year – crucifying Him “again.”  The Last Supper, the Veneration of the Cross, and the Easter Vigil.  Everybody knows what will happen and yet we go through this act every year and we never tire of it.  Do we just love pain and the suffering so much?

It seems that we do – we are the people who rubber-neck at a car accident on the road, the one curious to see why everyone is crowded around something – we are drawn into the spectacle of it all.  But what was morbid curiosity is now at this moment necessary for us to realize that WE are the cause of such suffering – all of humanity, whether you are the aggressor or the victim, all sin was and is borne upon the shoulders of this Man.

The lashes of the whip, the jeering, and mockery… all of those ugly images of our Lord’s Passion is a necessary reminder; not just an intellectual “oh yeah He did that” reminder that Jesus died for our sins, but rather a reminder that one is called to relive, enter into, and remember.  The Jewish Passover and hence our Eucharist is an anamnesis – the calling out of and making present the ONE action, not just in history but for all eternity.  In the same way, the Triduum – the Three Days – is where we bring the past present and into the action existing within the stream of eternity; timeless.  What Christ has done, is doing, and will do is made present and real to us.

And so the suffering that Christ bore then in history, He bears now in the present, and will bear onwards for us.  We are drawn into His Passion – with compassion – to suffer with Him as He suffers for us.  To realize that we are the inflicting Him with this pain and suffering with our sin and at the same time, we are the receptors of His redemption and love for us.

It was not necessary for Him to suffer as He did, but it is necessary for us to enter into what He did so that we can know the cost of our redemption, the price of our salvation.  So that we can know that the sins we commit is made real and present each time we visit the Cross in the Sacrament of Reconciliation asking for forgiveness.  So that we can know that the atonement for mankind’s sin is through this Passover sacrifice of the Holy Eucharist in which His Body and His Blood is offered for us.  So that we can know that since the fall of Adam we have been waiting for this moment so that we can once again have a relationship with God, whom we can now call Him: Our Father!

It was not necessary for Christ to do this, but He did it this way for our benefit: that we do not only have that statement of forgiveness but a constant reminder and sign for His love for us.  Therefore when we are faced with the wounds of Christ, the pain and suffering that He bore, we do not see pointless and senseless suffering, but rather the beautiful means by which our lives are touched, healed, and lifted up through forgiveness, freedom, redemption, and relationship with our heavenly Father.

Palm Sunday, Cycle A

Is 43:16-21
Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Phil 3:8-14
Jn 8:1-11

As we enter into the holiest of weeks, the liturgy – that is, the work in which we are engaged at this moment – tends to unfold and speak for itself.  There is not much that I can add when it’s already all been said.  My only desire is for you is to meditate and ruminate on what this Gospel means – not only for yourself, but for all of humanity.

As we divide out the parts of this Gospel into all the different parts, the irony is that you stand there, holding your palms while you are yelling, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”  If you haven’t noticed, this is gut-wrenching.  At the beginning of the Mass there was a joyous welcome of the Son of David – Hosanna in the highest!  The palm branches laid before Him in peace and homage to the King.  It is a joyous celebration on the one hand and not more than five days later you stand there demanding Jesus’ death.  The Jews didn’t crucify Jesus, we did!  This is not a mean trick to point fingers, but for us to realize the hypocrisy of our lives and that we are all sinners. Every. Single. One of us.  Do a good examination of conscience with your palm branches – are you welcoming the Christ as your Lord and Savior with that palm branch or are you brandishing that palm like a sword about to stab Him in betrayal?  Or do you prefer the kiss of betrayal like Judas?

This is to help us realize that the unrepentant Christian, the uncompassionate Christian are the real hypocrites in this story and are no better than those who – in the name of “righteousness” – crucified an innocent man.  As much as I know how bad I am or how sinful I am, it is salt in the wounds when someone calls me out.  You and I am guilty; guilty as sin.  But guilt is not to keep us down, but to lift us out of our faults and failings; it is to reconcile you with our Lord so that you can continue to walk with Him.

Until then, today’s Mass “begs the question” – or rather it begs a response, our response: to realize that we are all sinners in need of a Savior; that even though we can claim to love God, every time we sin we are slapping Him in the face and kicking Him in the gut.  Fortunately, this is not the end of the story.  The events today unfold in real time this week.  On Monday, we have our Lord’s preparation for burial with Mary anointing our Lord at Bethany with costly perfume and drying it with her hair.  On Tuesday, our Lord predicts that one will betray Him and another will deny Him. And on Wednesday before the celebration of the Last Supper, Judas plots to hand our Lord over to the authorities.  The path is set, the trajectory is to the Cross where He will suffer and die – only to rise again Easter Sunday.

I want to challenge you today to make a commitment to come to the holiest three days of the year starting with Holy Thursday here at Seton.  I guarantee you Easter Sunday will have a whole new meaning in your life.  You cannot go to these three days if you haven’t gone before without it changing your life.  Ask anyone around you who goes to the Triduum every year why they go and they will tell you.  Unlock your heart and bare your soul to Him who has died for you and let us celebrate the Resurrection in His glory.