Easter Test!
Father Sean loves to teach the Greek word for the day, so I thought it would be fun for (me) to see how well you are doing at retaining your Greek lessons from Father Sean! Are you ready?
Christos Anesti / Alithos (Aleythos) Anesti
Christ is Risen / Indeed He is Risen!
This is the greeting of the early Church to the reality of the resurrection - to the reality that God brings good out of evil - which is what we as a Church will spend the next 7 weeks living out in our faith lives what that actually means.
The first encounter in the Upper Room
St. John recounts for us what happened that very first day of the week when the disciples encountered the Risen Christ - He greets them with words of peace and forgiveness - Peace be with you! Then He shows them His hands and his side - the glorified wounds of Christ are fundamental to our witness this Easter.
From Christ’s wounds flow His Mercy
St. Faustina Kowalska had this image of Easter in 1931 - when the Lord showed her his mercy flowing from his heart in two streams - red - symbolizing the eucharist and white - symbolizing the purity we acquire at our baptism. These are the streams of love that God is pouring into our world.
Our world needs a witness of Mercy
Brothers and Sisters, our world is in great need to encounter the divine mercy of God’s love. We live in a world torn by hatred, judgement and the misuse of power.
Golden Nugget: We live in a culture where everything is permitted but nothing is forgiven. Jesus Christ, however, boldly proclaims the opposite: not everything is allowed, but absolutely any sin can be forgiven. Nothing is more powerful than the mercy of God.
Peace Be with You / Mission / Forgiveness / Holy Spirit
The Disciples rejoice when they see the Lord, so He doubles down on his greeting.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
In the upper room, at the end of the day Jesus offers the disciples
Mercy (Peace be with you)
Mission (As the Father has sent me…)
with Support (Receive the Holy Spirit)
to Forgive (Whose sins you forgive)
Today, in this “upper room” Christ does the same.
He invites us to be rooted in His love
He gives us the same mission - As the Father has sent me)
And the same Spirit
To be men and women of forgiveness
Bridge to Acts - How do we live Divine Mercy?
The Acts of the Apostles guides us on how we respond to this mission.
First the Church was a community of believers.
Challenge - If you are sitting next to someone who did not come to church with you - take a moment and introduce yourselves to one another and share one hobby you have with your neighbor. This is a huge parish and we don’t often take time to know one another. If per-chance you find something in common I want to invite you to take time to get to know one another better.
[[PAUSE]]
Excellent. Often we Catholics get the bad rap of being an impersonal church - we all come here to worship God and sometimes neglect one another in the Pews. St. Luke tells us that one of the witnesses of Divine Mercy was the community - that they were of one accord and that they took care of the needs of the community. Sometimes those needs are financial or material. Other times those needs are for community, companionship or caring.
Breaking of the Bread - Check!
The second aspect of the Church was that they gathered for the breaking of the bread. Check! We are here for the celebration of the Eucharist.
Life of Prayer - Double down with Grace
The third aspect of the Church was a life of prayer. I know - we just survived a long Lent but seriously - did you adopt a spiritual discipline that drew you closer to God - especially in prayer? Don’t give up - double down in this season of grace.
Second Reading Bridge (Peter) - Teaching of the Apostles
The fourth aspect of the Church that St. Luke speaks of? The Church listened to the teaching of the Apostles - Which St. Peter shared with us in the second reading.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God…”
Peter reminds the Church to rejoice in a new birth, to a living hope - that God brings life after death - that God brings good out of evil.
We have an inheritance - that is a gift from one who has died that cannot be taken away. That inheritance is a gift - a salvation ready to be revealed - that is after Christ conquered Sin and Death he came back and gave us the mission to be witnesses to God’s forgiveness - by becoming a Church of Forgiveness.
Seeing is Believing - the problem of St. Thomas
There was a problem in the Gospel today - he did not witness the resurrected Christ - and so he made his famous statement - until I can put my fingers in the nail marks and my hand in His side, I will not believe!
We see in this Gospel the first failure of the early Church - the Apostles tried but failed to convince St. Thomas of the reality of the resurrection. The proof that St. Thomas needed was to touch the wounds and understand the suffering and pain that he caused Christ by running away so that he could understand the passion and love that Christ has in his forgiveness of St. Thomas.
It is a powerful thing to witness forgiving wounds
What stands out to me in the Gospel today is the prominence of the wounds of Christ as a testament to his suffering, death and resurrection.
It is those wounds that are the witness to Christ’s forgiveness.
Out of those wounds flow His Divine Mercy.
Through those wounds we receive forgiveness.
From those wounds we receive the mission to be witnesses that God brings good out of evil, life from death.
The Church is to be a witness of God’s mercy
We fulfill that mission by being women and men of forgiveness. By being men and women who give witness to the love of God. We are called as the disciples of Christ to give witness to His resurrection through our forgiveness of sins - through our willingness to bear the wounds that we have suffered and to forgive others.
Show them your hands and side - peace be with you
What does this mean? Culturally we think forgiveness is to say it does not matter, we will forget a slight. This is not forgiveness - this is lying about our wounds - which Christ wants to glorify. Forgiveness is surrendering judgement to God - entrusting in his Mercy and Justice. To ask for forgiveness or to apologize is to recognize that I have done wrong. To offer forgiveness is to recognize that I have been wounded, injured and hurt - and to let it go and learn to love as Christ loves. Brothers and Sisters, when we say that we forgive one another we are imitating Christ in the upper room and showing one another our hands and our side - and then saying “Peace be with you…”
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