April 25, 2021: Fourth Sunday of Easter/Good Shepherd Sunday

As we near the midpoint of the Easter Season, we rejoice indeed in our Good Shepherd:  Jesus laid down His life in obedience to the Father and in love for us.  But then He took His Life back up again.

We, as part of His flock, share in that Life, for in Him alone is the source of our salvation.  And by His Life, He makes us children of God, a defining mark that gives us a sense of truly belonging to our God Who loves us so greatly.  As His children, we seek the transformation so that we are more closely conformed to His image, following the way of our Shepherd Who knows us intimately and constantly brings us life.  And in being transformed on the way, we bring life to the world, as we lead others to the Good Shepherd.

April 18, 2021: Third Sunday of Easter

As foretold by the Scriptures in ages prior, Christ would suffer, and rise from the dead so that there would be forgiveness and repentance of sins.

Christ truly established a new order of the ages when He rose from the dead.  The first sign of this new order was the Empty Tomb, but the disciples would need more to build on that discovery.  

In fact, when the Risen Christ appeared to them, they were startled at first, not recognizing Him for Who He was.  Christ then showed His wounds, and then He interpreted the Scriptures to them so that the words spoken about Him would come alive in them.

Indeed, St. Peter would speak boldly of those words throughout the book of Acts, like in the first reading.

The Risen Christ continues to be present with His people in a powerful way, closer than ever before.  He dwells within us, transforming us so that His Word becomes alive in us and brings life to the world.  He cleanses us of sin and its effects so we conform ourselves more closely to Him.

And He continues to be present with us in the Eucharist, that we may enter more deeply into His Paschal Mystery and live with His life in us.

April 11, 2021: Second Sunday of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday

Jesus has given us a great victory in His Resurrection, and the Gospel reading shows how much humanity needs it.  After the discovery of the Empty Tomb, the disciples are still filled with fear and doubt.  The victorious Risen Jesus breaks into the locked room to speak peace, which leads the disciples to rejoice.

And He does it again a week later, pressing through the doubts of even Thomas to his heart to summon Him forth to faith.

So this victory continues to persist:  His Love and Mercy, demonstrated as more powerful than death and sin, endure forever, and what a comfort this is we celebrate on this Sunday of Divine Mercy.  And the victory persists in us as we live as an Easter people, because we are truly impacted and are not the same after our encounters with the Risen Christ.  We live obeying God's commandments, which are not a burden, but a joy because Christ is alive and works in us to live as God desires, so that others may be blessed by the new Life that radiates forth from us.

April 4, 2021: Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection

The tomb is empty, and that causes the disciples to sense something has happened, and more was to come that would build upon the sight of that empty tomb.

Indeed, they would encounter the Risen Lord in a way that would transform them, so they could make known to the world God's great victory over sin and death, restoring us to New Life.

That is the hope in which we live day by day, because our Savior lives.

We live New Life in Christ, living in righteousness, fixed above for where we are headed, a destiny that brings joy to our living now, so that we bring hope to our world.

April 3, 2021: Holy Saturday Easter Vigil

God has done a marvelous work, which started with creating the world.

And when humanity went astray, He sought to restore us to Himself, and so brought forth a great Savior Christ, as is sung so magnificently in the Exultet, and is proclaimed so splendidly as all the lights in the Church go on for the Gospel proclamation of the Resurrection story.

We are part of this story, because, through baptism, we join with Christ in death, and rise into His New Life, so that we live, conforming ourselves more closely to the image of the God Who created us and saved us.

April 2, 2021: Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

In obedience to the Father's plan, Christ willingly submitted Himself to His Passion, which involved great suffering up to and upon the Cross.

He commended His life to the Father, and as the account in St. John's Gospel makes clear, He knew full well His purpose for enduring His passion.

Because of His submission, He became the Source of Salvation.

So the ignominious Cross has become an instrument of grace and triumph, because God redeemed us through it, and as the coming part of the Triduum makes clear, death is not the end of the story.

April 1, 2021: Maundy Thursday

In mystical language, the reading from the Gospel of St. John states that He was aware of His hour and how God had given Him everything.

He then enters into the humble gesture of washing His disciples' feet at the Last Supper.

This meal was part of celebrating Passover, when God delivered the Hebrews.

At this supper, Jesus started a New Passover by offering His Body and Blood for our full inward cleansing from sin, which we continue to proclaim when we partake of the loaf and the cup.  And by establishing a New Covenant, He gave us a new commandment to love one another in service as He did by offering Himself as total gift.