Help My Unbelief

Today’s Gospel is a familiar one. The doors were locked. The apostles still feared the authorities in spite of spending the last three years walking “confidently” with Jesus. So, when Jesus appeared to them, He offered proof by showing them the wounds in His hands and in His side. Peace be with you. Reassuring words! He calmed their fears and brought them peace and we hear that phrase repeated three times in today’s Gospel. Then Jesus did something which only love and trust can do. He  commissioned His weak and timid apostles to preach the Gospel and make disciples. This sending out of the disciples parallels Jesus being sent by His Father. Jesus fulfilled His mission through love and obedience and He called His disciples and us to do the same. Just as He gave His first disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, so He gives us that same Spirit who equips us with power, grace, and strength.

Jesus revealed His resurrection to His disciples gradually and over a period of time. Even after the apostles saw the empty tomb and heard the reports of Jesus’ appearance to the women, they were still weak in faith and fearful of being arrested by the Jewish authorities. But Thomas wasn’t there. Even though the others told 

him of Jesus’ resurrection and His appearing to them, he didn’t believe.  The last apostle to meet the resurrected Lord was the first to go with him to Jerusalem at Passover time. While Thomas deeply loved Jesus, he lacked the courage to stand with Jesus in His passion and crucifixion.

After Jesus’ death, Thomas made the mistake of withdrawing from the other apostles. He sought loneliness rather than fellowship in his time of adversity. He doubted the women who saw the resurrected Jesus and he doubted his own fellow apostles. When Thomas finally had the courage to rejoin the other apostles, Jesus made his presence known to him and reassured him that he had indeed overcome death and risen again. 

Thomas recognized his Master, he believed and he exclaimed that Jesus was truly Lord and truly God! Through the gift of faith we, too, proclaim that Jesus is our Lord and God. He died and rose that we, too, might have new life in him—that we might “rise from the ashes” and into the light. Yet, like Thomas, we find ourselves doubting. We couldn’t possibly “preach the Gospel” and make “disciples” of others. We doubt our abilities and we feel the job of discipleship should be left to someone else. 

Think about it. Jesus laid down His life for us. Is spreading His word too much to ask? We’re not asked to stand on a street corner. We’re asked to lead a life that reflects Christ in us so others may see that light and find hope and consolation in the Resurrected Lord.

Out of Ashes and into Light

We hear the story of the Resurrection today. The Resurrection—something without which Christianity would be meaningless. Mary of Magdala tells Jesus’ disciples, who were still unsure of everything that had transpired over the past week, that someone has taken Jesus from the tomb. Then we hear, “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 … when Simon Peter arrived after him he went into the tomb…He saw and believed.”

We all have a mental picture of this gigantic boulder rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning. We all can picture Mary of Magdala trekking to the tomb before dark followed by Peter and John. Interestingly, even the disciples had their boulders to remove—after all, they were seeking the “living among the dead.” These days we have our own boulders as well.  Many walk through life as if we were already dead. We get caught up in all the false promises of this world and find ourselves in tombs—wrapped in burial cloths of depression and fear. Yes, trapped in tombs of our own making. Sure, we all occasionally feel “entombed” by our limited human condition -its struggles and uncertainties, its frustrating search for true happiness. Unfortunately, some of us never leave the tomb.

Today, however, we get the “Big Picture” from God! Easter is our “reality check”, reminding us believers that the Resurrection is real and it spits in the face of the Death of this world’s tombs! Today, there is a great message for us–roll away those heavy stones! Leave the tombs behind! Accept the gift we have been given by Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection. Unbind the self-imposed burial cloths and walk out into the bright Light of Easter.

The time has come for us to remove all the stones that keep us away from Christ. The time has come to clear away from our hearts and minds: fear, doubt, anger, resentment, jealousies, frustrations, and even our very own sins. Look around. See all the people who gather to celebrate Easter. What faith they have—just like Peter on that first Easter morn. 

So, walk confidently in the brightness of a new Easter Day - a Day of Hope and Healing. Grab a hold of this thirst for Life that will spring up for us even in the very face of death itself! Rejoice as we now take our Lenten theme one step further—out of ashes and into Light!

Our Road to Calvary

The story of the suffering and death of Jesus that we just hear in today’s Gospel is basically a story of love –God’s love for us. Our response should be gratitude and that gratitude to Jesus should make us turn a new leaf and never go back to a life of sin. That’s what Lent is all about. 

We would be the most ungrateful people if we should continue living the sort of life that made Jesus die. Gratitude should make us keep the memory of Jesus alive. No day should pass that we should not remember the love God has for us. But, instead of focusing on Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, let’s look at our own.  Palm Sunday raises at least two important spiritual questions for us: What does it mean to be like Jesus? And what does it mean to take up our crosses, just like he did? 

First, we don’t need to go looking for our cross. Life will give us plenty of them. Whether it’s an illness or a tough family relationship or trouble in school or problems on the job, the cross will be there. The real cross is the one that we don’t want because it’s hardly a cross if we want it. 

Secondly, we are asked by Jesus to accept our crosses. Now, what does that mean? Well, first it means accepting that suffering is a reality in our lives, but perhaps more importantly, it means not passing along the bitterness that we might feel. It doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it or cry about it to others. But, our cross is our cross. It shouldn’t become someone else’s.  It does mean if we’re  angry about our boss or about school or about our family, we don’t pass along that anger or bitterness or meanness to others. 

Third, we are asked to wait for the resurrection. In every cross there will be some invitation to new life, some new way of relating to God, and that may not be immediately apparent. In other words, look for it. How will it come? Is it in forgiving someone in our family? Moving away from an unhealthy work environment or an unhealthy relationship? Letting go of something that prevented us from being more loving? Trusting in ourselves a little more? 

God’s gift of resurrection is usually a complete surprise, just like it was for the Apostles. And just as the Apostles discovered on Easter Sunday, the resurrection does not come when we expect it. It may take a long time to come and when it does come, it’s often not what we would expect it to look like. But it is our resurrection. So remember, just as the only way we possibly get through the passion and death of Jesus is by knowing the outcome of the story—the Resurrection—that may be how we get through our own crosses—knowing that resurrections in our lives do come. We have Jesus’s word on that.

Fifth Sunday of Lent

The Gospel today is a familiar one but first, let me take you back a few weeks. At the scene of the Transfiguration, Jesus’ true Godly nature was shown. We follow that with three great stories from John’s Gospel stuck in the middle of Lent—for a reason. 

First, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well. Last week Jesus gives sight to the blind man. Today Lazarus is raised from the dead. Oftentimes, we hear the beginning of these Gospels and say, “Oh, I’ve heard that one before,” and our mind wanders off in another direction. But, each time these Gospels are presented to us, we have the opportunity to learn something new; we have the opportunity to know a little more as to who Jesus truly is. Do we? Do we get the picture?  Do we see ourselves in any or all of these stories? We are the woman at the well. We are the blind man. We are Lazarus. There are no “chance” encounters with Jesus. 

So, today, Jesus calls Lazarus from the tomb. Jesus also calls us to come out from whatever tomb we are in—the tomb of our habits of sin, addiction, anxiety, despair; to come out of the tomb of loneliness, greed, drudgery, a life devoid of meaning or substance; to come out of the tomb that forces us to live small and scared, hardly daring to wonder what else might be available to us; to come out of the tomb of whatever keeps us from living a free, productive, joy-filled life in relationship with our God.

Jesus calling us is not enough. He calls us all the time. We have to be willing to answer the call and do something. Think about it. Jesus could have skipped the trip to Bethany and just snapped His fingers and Lazarus would have been raised. However, He went and He called and Lazarus got up and answered the call. That is what Jesus is asking us to do today—answer the call.

The story of Lazarus has so many twists and turns we could spend a week discussing all of them but there is one other element worth mentioning today. With the woman at the well we see the encounter with Jesus (the call) and her response (faith to believe and then to tell others). With the blind man we see the encounter on the roadside and the blind man’s response (having the faith to believe in what Jesus asked and then answering the call to wash his eyes).

Forgetting Lazarus’ response for a moment, when Jesus arrives in Bethany, the sister of Lazarus tells Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” This statement really contains a question: Where were you when Lazarus needed you? We sent for you why did you take so long? Martha asks the question but she also shows her faith; “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” At this Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Jesus exhorts Martha to trust him. And she does. She answers the call and the miracle happens.

Jesus is asking us to trust him, and if we do, if we answer the call, miracles will happen.

Prayer, fasting and works of love.

Prayer is the lifeblood of our relationship with God. We meet Jesus and listen to him speaking in our hearts. We are encouraged to keep our Church as our holy place for prayer and silence, and to meet for prayer more regularly during Lent, and sanctify each day by our prayer at home.

Attendance at Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, reflection on the Scriptures and personal prayer nourish this relationship from which springs our relationship with others.

Fasting sharpens our vision and our readiness in mind and heart to love God and others, rather than ourselves. As a community we fast and abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. On other days, discipline in eating and drinking trains us for our journey with Christ, who spent 40 days in the desert in prayer and penance.

Works of love are the fruit of prayer and penance. Pope Francis reminds us that though Jesus was rich, for our sake he became poor. When Jesus was baptised by John, He did so not because He was in need of repentance or conversion; He did it to be among people who needed forgiveness and to take upon Himself the burden of our sins.

The Pope encourages us to acquire a new awareness of those who are in destitution—poverty without faith or hope. He challenges us to be alert in binding the wounds of those who suffer material destitution—lacking basic rights, food, water and work; moral destitution—maybe a brother or sister is in the thrall of alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, or no longer sees meaning in life; or spiritual destitution—which we experience when we turn away from God and reject his love. 

The Gospel is the antidote to destitution. We are called to proclaim the liberating news that forgiveness for sins is possible, because God freely loves us at all times, and asks us to be joyous heralds of His mercy and hope.

Its not too late.....

Increased Prayer:

• Wake up 20 minutes early and start the day in prayer.
• Daily Mass 1-2 times a week.
• An hr. in Adoration a week.
• Go to Confession.
• Read Scripture daily.
• Go to a Lenten Bible study.
• Read a spiritual book.
• Start to pray a daily Rosary.
• Pray the Liturgy of the hours.
• Pray a Divine Mercy Chaplet.
• Stations of the Cross on Fridays.
• Pray for your enemies.
• Watch The Passion of the Christ and then meditate on Christ’s life.
• Read about the life of a saint.
• Do an extra spiritual activity at Church
• Get involved in your parish if you aren’t already.
• Memorize Scripture verses.
• Check out a book on spirituality from the parish library.